Zechariah 4:7

Oracle of Response

4:7 “What are you, you great mountain? ¹  Because of Zerubbabel you will become a level plain! And he will bring forth the temple ²  capstone with shoutings of ‘Grace! Grace!’ ³  because of this.”

Matthew 13:12

13:12 For whoever has will be given more, and will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ⁴ 

Romans 5:2

5:2 through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice ⁵  in the hope of God’s glory.

Romans 5:17

5:17 For if, by the transgression of the one man, ⁶  death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

Romans 5:20

5:20 Now the law came in ⁷  so that the transgression ⁸  may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,

Ephesians 1:6-8

1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace ⁹  that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. ¹⁰  1:7 In him ¹¹  we have redemption through his blood, ¹²  the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 1:8 that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.

Ephesians 2:5-10

2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! ¹³  – 2:6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 2:7 to demonstrate in the coming ages ¹⁴  the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward ¹⁵  us in Christ Jesus. 2:8 For by grace you are saved ¹⁶  through faith, ¹⁷  and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2:9 it is not from ¹⁸  works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁹  2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. ²⁰ 

Ephesians 4:7

4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

Ephesians 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ²¹  urge you to live ²²  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ²³ 

Ephesians 1:2

1:2 Grace and peace to you ²⁴  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

[4:7]  ¹ sn In context, the great mountain here must be viewed as a metaphor for the enormous task of rebuilding the temple and establishing the messianic kingdom (cf. TEV “Obstacles as great as mountains”).

[4:7]  ² tn The word “temple” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent (cf. NLT “final stone of the Temple”).

[4:7]  ³ sn Grace is a fitting response to the idea that it was “not by strength and not by power” but by God’s gracious Spirit that the work could be done (cf. v. 6).

[13:12]  ⁴ sn What he has will be taken from him. The meaning is that the one who accepts Jesus’ teaching concerning his person and the kingdom will receive a share in the kingdom now and even more in the future, but for the one who rejects Jesus’ words, the opportunity that that person presently possesses with respect to the kingdom will someday be taken away forever.

[5:2]  ⁵ tn Or “exult, boast.”

[5:17]  ⁶ sn Here the one man refers to Adam (cf. 5:14).

[5:20]  ⁷ tn Grk “slipped in.”

[5:20]  ⁸ tn Or “trespass.”

[1:6]  ⁹ tn Or “to the praise of his glorious grace.” Many translations translate δόξης τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ (doxh" th" carito" autou, literally “of the glory of his grace”) with τῆς χάριτος as an attributed genitive (cf., e.g., NIV, NRSV, ESV). The translation above has retained a literal rendering in order to make clear the relationship of this phrase to the other two similar phrases in v. 12 and 14, which affect the way one divides the material in the passage.

[1:6]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the beloved.” The term ἠγαπημένῳ (hgaphmenw) means “beloved,” but often bears connotations of “only beloved” in an exclusive sense. “His dearly loved Son” picks up this connotation.

[1:7]  ¹¹ tn Grk “in whom” (the relative clause of v. 7 is subordinate to v. 6). The “him” refers to Christ.

[1:7]  ¹² sn In this context his blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, refers to the price paid for believers’ redemption, which is the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross.

[2:5]  ¹³ tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).

[2:7]  ¹⁴ tn Or possibly “to the Aeons who are about to come.”

[2:7]  ¹⁵ tn Or “upon.”

[2:8]  ¹⁶ tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.

[2:8]  ¹⁷ tc The feminine article is found before πίστεως (pistews, “faith”) in the Byzantine text as well as in A Ψ 1881 pc. Perhaps for some scribes the article was intended to imply creedal fidelity as a necessary condition of salvation (“you are saved through the faith”), although elsewhere in the corpus Paulinum the phrase διὰ τῆς πίστεως (dia th" pistew") is used for the act of believing rather than the content of faith (cf. Rom 3:30, 31; Gal 3:14; Eph 3:17; Col 2:12). On the other side, strong representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts (א B D* F G P 0278 6 33 1739 al bo) lack the article. Hence, both text-critically and exegetically, the meaning of the text here is most likely “saved through faith” as opposed to “saved through the faith.” Regarding the textual problem, the lack of the article is the preferred reading.

[2:9]  ¹⁸ tn Or “not as a result of.”

[2:9]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “lest anyone should boast.”

[2:10]  ²⁰ tn Grk “so that we might walk in them” (or “by them”).

[4:1]  ²¹ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ²² tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ²³ sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

[1:2]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”