understand better what Paul meant, we need to remember the context: patronage. When put together (grace + faith), those signify a patronage relationship. God provides us the gift of salvation, and we respond by trusting in it: “For it is by grace [charis] you have been saved, through faith [pistis],” Paul writes, “and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8–9). The New Testament took everyday ideas that everyone understood to explain the spiritual truths of God. Even though we
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