Americans believe that the PERFECT gift is both spontaneous AND something given with no strings attached (and no obligation of reciprocity). And so when we read that salvation is God's GIFT to us, that's HOW we tend to see it. But throughout the ancient world (the Hebrew world, the Persian world, the Babylonian world, the Roman world, the Jewish world), gifts were nearly always given with the expectation of reciprocity...because a gift was often given to initiate a relationship. In this message, Max Vanderpool teaches from Ephesians 2:8-9 and explains what's behind Paul's understanding of this gift of God.
