Grace enablements include but are not limited to God’s salvific love for all (John 3:16), God’s manifestation of his power so that all may know he is the Sovereign (Isa 45:21–22), and Creator (Rom 1:18–20), which assures that everyone has an opportunity to know about him. Christ paying for all sins (Luke 22:20;[1] John 1:29), Christ satisfying the just demands of God against all sinners (1 John 2:2[2]), God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor 5:19), Christ tasting death for everyone (Heb 2:9), Christ praying for the salvation of all of lost humanity (John 17:20–21), conviction of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7–11), working of the Holy Spirit (Heb 6:1–6), enlightening of the Son (John 1:9), God’s teaching (John 6:45), God opening eyes, minds, and hearts (Luke 24:45; Acts 16:14; 26:17–18;), and the power of the gospel (Rom 1:16), without such redemptive grace, no one seeks or can come to God (Rom 3:11).
Because of God’s gracious provisions and workings, man can choose to seek and find God (Ps 50:3; Isa 55:6–8; Jer 29:13; Acts 17:11–12). Moreover, no one can come to God without God calling (Acts 2:39) and drawing (John 6:44), and God is drawing all individuals (John 12:32). The same Greek word for draw, helkuō, is used in both verses. “About 115 passages condition salvation on believing alone, and about 35 simply on faith.”[3] Other grace enablements may include providential workings in and through people, such as prayers, situations, and timing or circumstances that are a part of grace to provide an opportunity for every individual to choose to follow Christ.[4]
By these, God overcomes the barriers due to man’s sinfulness, Satan’s blinders, the dark shadow cast by this fallen world, and the demons of hell so that, while lost man is still in the bowels of sin, he is empowered to understand his sin, God’s righteousness, his judgment that awaits him, who Jesus is and what he did for him and the forgiveness that God offers in Christ by believing; this every person can do (John 12:35-36). Thereby demonstrating God’s power over every force that controls and condemns mankind, depending not one whit on man’s natural fallen ability but God’s power alone, which overpowers all opposition so that man can walk out of the darkness into the light of the Light of the world, and the light of the gospel or reject Christ and return to the darkness (John 1:7-9; 3:20; 8:12; 9:12; 12:35-36; 12:46; Acts 26:18; 1 Pet 2:9). This moment is the gospel encounter,
These are grace enablements in at least three ways: first, they are provided by God’s grace rather than deserved by mankind; second, God provides or restores the necessary components for each and every individual to have a genuine opportunity to believe unto salvation; third, they are provided by God without respect to whether the individual will believe or reject, which response God knew in eternity past.
The offer of the gospel is unconditional, but God sovereignly determined to condition the reception of the offer upon grace-enabled faith; therefore, faith is not reflective of a work or virtue of man but of God’s sovereign plan of salvation by grace through faith (Eph 2:8). This indicates faith is the means to being regenerated and saved, not the reason for being saved. This truth of Scripture does not imply God is held captive to man’s choice, but rather it demonstrates God in eternity coextensively determined to create man with otherwise choice and provide a genuine offer of salvation, which can be accepted by grace-enabled faith or rejected. Additionally, to fulfill this plan, God is not obligated to disseminate the gospel to those he knows have rejected the light he has given them (Rom 1:18–23) and will also reject the gospel, although he may still send the gospel to them.
Updated 7/3/2024
© Ronnie W. Rogers
[1] Many believe Judas was at the table when Jesus said these words.
[2] This verse divides the world into the saved and the lost, both of which Christ’s death propitiated (satisfied) the holy demands of God. The lost have not had that satisfaction applied to them individually because God conditions such on the exercise of faith by the individual. The only other verse we find this exact phrase “the whole world” is in 1 John 5:19, which again confirms that salvationally, there are two groups, saved and lost, and the just demands of God against all sinners are satisfied by Christ’s death so that anyone and everyone may be saved by faith. See David Allen regarding the phrase “the whole world” only appearing again in 1 John 5:19. https://drdavidlallen.com/yes-jesus-did-die-for-the-sins-of-everyone/#.XXeWaF45H74.facebook, accessed 11/7/22.
[3] Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. 7, 273–74.
[4] In Matthew 13:18–23, Jesus explains the parable of the sower. He compares the four types of soils to the four kinds of responses to the gospel. In the parable, the seed is the word of God (gospel). Also, in the explanation of the true meaning of the parable, it is important to note the sower and the seed are always the same (there is no indication that he gives one hearer seed that will not germinate and another the real thing), and the only thing that changes is the response to the seed. Nothing is deficient in the sowing or the seed sown, but the problem is always in the recipient. Also, notice the response of the good soil precedes regeneration. There is no indication in the passage that some men are predetermined by God to reject the message. Rather, it seems all four had different responses to the message, and the soil is descriptive of the heart; neither the ones that accept nor the ones that reject the seed indicate being predetermined. The soil indicates different responses and outcomes to the same seed, which is the word about the kingdom. Just as God created Adam with good soil, so He must grace enable everyone to be able to respond. Therefore, salvation is not a human work, nor is the good soil something innate to some, but rather, it is characteristic of everyone who receives the Word of God and, by faith, is born again.
