ὃ ποιηματα 47.
able idea results—the opportune reminder that even their faith, in which at least they might think there was something of their own, has its origin in God’s grace, not in their own effort. But on the other hand the salvation is the main idea in the preceding statement, and it seems best to understand the καὶ τοῦτο as referring to that salvation in its entire com- pass, and not merely to the one element in it, its instrumental cause, appended by way of explanation. Θεοῦ τὸ δῶρον: it is the gift of God. Or, perhaps, ‘‘ God’s gift-it is”. The salvation is not an achievement but a gift, and a gift from none other than God. This declaration of the free, unmerited, conferred nature of the salvation is made the stronger not only by the contrast with the ἐξ ὑμῶν, but by the dropping of any connecting par- ticle.
Ψετ.ο. οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων, ἵνα μή τις Kav- χήσηται: not of works, that no one should glory. The OT protest against glorying in any but the Lord and the prophet’s jealousy for the honour of God (Jer. ix. 23, 24; Is. xlii. 8, 14, etc.) burn with a yet intenser flame in Paul, most of all when he touches the great theme of man’s salvation. That the glory of that salva- tion belongs wholly to God and in no degree to man, and that it has been so planned and so effected as to take from us all ground for boasting, is enforced on Paul’s hearers again and again, in different connections, with anxious concern and ut- most plainness of expression (cf. Rom. Di τὴ} τους, 20, iv. 73 Gali το. Phil. iii. 3, etc.).
Ver. το, αὐτοῦ γάρ ἐσμεν ποίημα: for we are His workmanship (or, handi- work), The αὐτοῦ is emphatic—“ His handiwork are we”. The word ποίηµσ occurs only once again in the NT (Rom. i. 20, with reference to the works ot
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