Introduction
On my website, I mention seven occurrences of some form of pistis christou (faithfulness of Jesus). There I argued that these refer to Jesus' obedience and not our faith in Jesus. I want to argue the same thing for Ephesians 3:12 and then 2:8. This is huge because 2:8 is part of the evangelical mantra of 2:8-9 (while 2:10 is largely ignored).
Ephesians 3:12
We are told that the mystery of Christ is in accordance with the eternal purpose that was carried out in Jesus (3:11), "in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through the pistis [faith/faithfulness] of/in him" (3:12). I have deliberately left the translation vague in order to not prejudge the situation but my purpose is to argue for the following: "in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through [dia] the faithfulness [= obedience] of him [Jesus]."
Two arguments can be given for my translation. The first concerns the context (3:1-12). As mentioned above, the mystery of Christ, which involves the Gentiles as fellow heirs (3:6), was made/carried out in Jesus (3:11). This mentions the action of Jesus, which I take to be his obedience unto death and resurrection. Likewise, in the very next verse we also have a reference to Jesus' action, "through the faithfulness of him". Also, Jesus' obedience no doubt is included in the phrase "the boundless wealth of Christ" (3:8).
The other argument involves a parallel to 2:18. There, we are told that "through him" we have access in one Spirit to the Father. So, both 3:12 and 2:18 refer to access. Now, the access of 2:18 is the result of Jesus' death: "But now in Christ Jesus you who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (2:13). I take the blood of Christ to refer to his obedient death. 2:16 also refers to Jesus' death: we have been reconciled "through the cross". So we have the following parallels:
2:16 "through the cross"
2:18 "through him"
Which argues that the access we have is due to Jesus' obedient death. And we have this parallel:
2:18 access to the Father in Jesus' death
3:12 access to the Father through the faithfulness of him
Which argues that the faith in 3:12 is Jesus' faithfulness and not our belief.
Ephesian 2:8
This now brings us to 2:8-9: We are saved by grace through [Jesus'] faith[fulness] and this is not of yourselves it is God's gift. Not of works [of law] lest anyone should boast.
The context itself argues that the faith in question pertains to Jesus' obedient death and resurrection because the "Christ event" throughout the New Testament is considered a grace/gift of God (see my last post). It would be odd to mention our belief in the middle of claiming that our salvation does not depend on us (!) which is what the standard evangelical reading has us do.
Answer to Objection
One might counter my reading of 3:12 with 3:17 and claim that "the faith" there is our faith. First of all, even if 3:17 refers to our faith this just shows that our obedience is in view and is to mimic Jesus' obedience. See my interpretation of Romans 1:17 on my website and Ephesians 2:10 which is almost always unquoted by evangelicals! But, one could argue even here that it is Jesus' work that made possible the gift of the Spirit that is poured out in our hearts (see 3:16 which immediately preceeds 3:17).
Food For Thought
How different would evangelical Christianity be if Ephesians 2:8 was interpreted as refering to Jesus' faithfulness and not our belief?
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