Stanley M. Horton, What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit (p. 208)
People have a tendency to forget that the gifts of the Spirit must be received on the same basis as the gift of the Spirit and the gift of salvation. It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not of works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
That the gifts of the Spirit are by grace through faith is implied also by the most common Greek word used to describe these gifts. They are charismata, “freely and graciously given gifts,” a word derived from charis, “grace, the unmerited favor of God.” Charismata are gifts given us in spite of the fact that we do not deserve them. They bear witness to the goodness of God, not the goodness of those who receive them.
