Under the Old Covenant, the people of Israel brought sacrifices to God. We find this, for example, in Lev. 1:2, 27:9 and 11, and Num. 9:7. The Hebrew word translated in these texts as offering or sacrifice is korban (H7133). The literal meaning is: approaching gift or gift offering.
Although korban is a Hebrew word, we also find it in the (Greek) original text of the New Testament, along with an explanation of what the equivalent Greek word is.
Mark 7 Dutch NBG
11 But you say: If a man says to his father or mother: It is korban, that is, offering (…)
Korban is therefore the same as offering, says the text. More literally: approaching gift. The Greek word translated as offering is dõron (G1435). In all instances where it occurs in the New Testament, it is used for offering sacrifices or presenting gifts to God (and occasionally to Jesus). Except for two texts, one of which concerns people giving gifts to one another (Rev. 11:10).
faith is a gift of approach
The other instance is the only time that there is talk of God giving a gift to man. We find this in one of Paul’s letters: the Epistle to the Ephesians. Paul was the one who revealed mysteries (e.g., Ephesians 3) and completed the word of God (Col. 1:25). In one of Paul’s letters, in which he sets forth the most sublime spiritual truths, he makes known that faith is the gift of approach from God to man!
Ephesians 2
8 For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of approach from God.
Whereas under the old covenant it was people who approached God by offering gifts, in this “household of grace” (Eph. 3:8) God reverses the roles and approaches man with a gift: faith.
All glory to God
Why does God do that? Paul explains this in the following verse:
Ephesians 2
9 not by works, lest anyone should boast.
Everything is God’s work. Whether it concerns salvation, reconciliation, or faith. It is all His work. So that God might receive all glory from everything.
1 Corinthians 1
31 so that it may be, as it is written: Whoever boasts, let him boast in the Lord.