Faith - The Sovereign Gift of God

Faith - The Sovereign Gift of God
by Colin Maxwell

But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. (Acts 15:11)

I heard Rev. John Greer (Ballymena FPC) preach on this text recently. During the course of the message, he pointed out that the literal Greek rendering of this verse puts it that even the faith that saves is the product of grace. I notice that Robert Young, of Concordance fame, renders it as follows in his Literal translation:

But, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe to be saved, even as also they.' (YLT)

This leaves us wondering then do all men, without exception, receive this faith to believe (and obviously do not exercise it) thus rendering it null and void or do only the elect (and none other) receive it. I run with the latter interpretation and here's a few reasons why:

1) The faith that saves is a specific gift from God is stated elsewhere:For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; (Philippians 1:29)

We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; (2 Corinthians 4:13)

And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace: (Acts 18:27)

I might have mentioned Ephesians 2:8 where there is a strong argument that the gift of God refers to the faith, as well as the salvation, even though the Greek word for that is neuter and the Greek word for faith is feminine. Handley Moule points out that the Greek construction is used to introduce an addition of thought or a heightening of what goes before (examples: 1 Corinthians 6:8/Philippians 1:28) and that there is no new force if it but refers to gratuitous salvation. Therefore (argues Moule) it refers to the introducing of the idea that even the faith that saves is as much the gift of God as the salvation itself.
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2) The Bible specifically says that all men have not faith
And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith. (2 Thessalonians 3:2)This is evidently referring to saving faith, in that men do have faith in false gods, false philosophies etc., But it would be a very strange way of wording it, if all men did have saving faith, but had failed to exercise it.

3) Saving faith is much more than the opportunity to believe or the ability to believe but the actual and effectual belief itself. Evidently, we must protect ourselves against the erroneous thought that God believes for us, yet it can still be said that God works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13) which must go further (again) than merely meaning that He has merely given us the invitation to believe. If He has actually given us and enabled us to effectually believe to the saving of our soul, then it is obvious that He has not done so to every man without exception i.e. not every man actually believes. Therefore He gives such faith only to those who actually exercise it and these are the elect of God. (No matter how we believe that men arrive at the stage of being elect.)

Have I left any good arguments out? Are some of my arguments less than watertight? Is there a silver bullet for the opposing side that God has given all men saving faith even though all men are not and will not be saved? The above is of the top of my head (except where I reread Moule on Ephesians 2:8 so that I could state it accurately). What are your thoughts?