Does Grace Enable?

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

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the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Should be quiet, guys, guys, guys,

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be quiet, Be quiet. All right.

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I'm sneaking out of chapel service. I'm sneaking out of

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chapel service. I know chapel service is still going on,

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but I got to talk to you, right So I'm

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sneaking out.

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All right.

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I'm at Ambassador Baptist College right now, and chapel service

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is going on, and I just snuck out of chapel service.

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We got to talk about what I just heard. We

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have to talk about it. We have to talk about it.

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All right.

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Are you ready to do that? So here's the question.

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Here's the question.

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Does Grace and Abel? Does Grace in able? Now?

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Yes, I'm out here in the hallway of the chapel service,

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but I'm just gonna go ahead and do our proper introduction.

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Good morning everyone.

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Okay, sh I gotta keep it down, Keep it down.

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Good morning everyone. It is Tuesday, February eighteenth, twenty twenty five.

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It is currently ten oh nine am Central time, and

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I'm coming to you live well from Ambassador Baptist College,

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from the hallway. Okay, okay, Actually I'm coming to you

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live from the Theology Central Studio located here in Abilene, Texas.

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But virtually I was attending chapel service at Ambassador Baptist College,

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and yeah, I did sneak out.

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I had had.

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To end it before before they were finished, because.

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We've got to talk.

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We have to talk about something I heard in chapel.

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And I was going to wait until they upload the

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sermon and we'll try to review it, but we've got

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to talk about it right now.

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I couldn't wait. I couldn't wait to get back. I

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couldn't wait to get back to the studio. I had

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to just go to the hallway and talk about it. Now.

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They're gonna all get med at me when they come

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out hearing me talking about them, But don't tell anyone, right. Wait,

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So first I'm gonna read a scripture Ephesians chapter two,

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Ephesians chapter two. Let's start in verse eight. Ephesians chapter two,

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verse eight. Everyone knows this verse, all right, you can

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quote it from memory. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight.

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Four.

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By grace, for by grace are ye saved through faith?

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And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.

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Now there's a lot here. We could take a part

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in this verse. Of course, the very next verse, verse nine,

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not of works lest any man should boast. But for

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by grace are ye saved? We are say, by grace

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through faith. Now, what is your understanding of that grace

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that saves you? Do you understand it's God's unmerited favor?

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Do you understand it's something you cannot earn it's God's

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grace towards you?

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Or do you see grace.

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Is somehow of an enabling or empowering force. You're say,

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by grace, and that grace that saves you now empowers you.

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It gives you some ability to do something.

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If you look up the word and able.

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If you look up the word and able in fact,

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to have the definition right here. This is from an

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Oxford Language dictionary. Right and able give someone or something

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the authority or here's the key or means to do something.

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Do you believe the grace that saves you now enables

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you to do something in a practical way? Does God

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grace now does it come along enables you? It does

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something inside of you. It now gives you the ability

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to obey God. It gives you the ability to obey

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the law of God. Now, if you go back into

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philological history, that fits in perfectly with the Catholic understanding

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of a salvation by an infused righteousness. But what you

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may not realize this is, even though the Reformation occurred,

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and even though we may be like, I'm on team Reformation,

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I'm not for those stinking Catholics. The bottom line is

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in most churches you go to, they are far more

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in line with that infused righteous idea. They almost see

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grace as an enabling force and enabling power. And what

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I just heard in chapel service at Ambassador Baptist College

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was the exact words grace enables. Now exactly what he

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meant by that, We'll have to take a part, and

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we can. We'll try to review the entire message at

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some point. There was some interesting things there. There were

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maybe some even good points. But when I heard grace

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and ables.

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I'm like, okay, I gotta get up. I got Everyone

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was looking at me. I'm like, I just got to

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walk out. What do you do? I gotta go do

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a podcast.

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It's chapel service, I know, but I have to do

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a podcast, right, I have to do one right now, right.

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So I'm here in the hallway and now I almost

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want to wait, I almost want to sit here, and

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as the students walk out, say hey, come here, come here, Grace.

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When when do you understand grace is enabling? What do

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you think it enables you to do? It would be

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interesting to know what the students would say. It would

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be interesting to go to your church, stand outside when

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everyone walks out, going hey, Grace does it enable us,

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and start asking some questions. I have a feeling that

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most people in your church. I don't think anyone in

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my church would answer it this way. If they did, well,

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I'm just you know, I'm just gonna retire. But I

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think in most churches people like grace enables, it empowers,

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it strengthens. But if you go with that, are you

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not walking yourself inevitably right back into an infused righteous concept.

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So as soon as I snuck out from chapel, I

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immediately contacted artificial intelligence, because you know it's right there

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on my iPad. So I asked AI, this, should God's

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grace be defined as an enabling force or an enabling power?

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Or it enables? Right? This is what AI said. Ai says, it.

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Depends on how they are defining God's grace as enabling,

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because God's grace is if you define it or say

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that God's grace is enabling, this aligns more.

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This is what AI says. This aligns more with.

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An infused righteousness framework rather than an imputed one.

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And I was like, thank.

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You, Ai, thank you, That's what I think. Right, we're

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on the same theological page. So as like now, it

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all depends on how they're defining it. But typically if

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you say God's grace is enabling, then that aligns more

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with an infused righteousness framework rather than an imputed one.

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So just make sure we understand the two systems. Imputed

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righteousness means I put my faith in Jesus Christ.

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His obedience, his.

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Perfection is imputed to me. And why does God do

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this because of grace. I don't deserve it, I can't

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earn it, but by grace He saves me. By faith

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in Christ and in Christ, righteousness, Christ obedience is accredited

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to my account. It's not enabling me. It's declaring. It's

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a declaration. It's not an enabling it's a declaration. It's

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saying you are positionally this, which you are not practically

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in an infused righteous system. I put my faith and

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then I am infused with righteousness. I'm infused. Now I'm

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enabled internally to do something. So now I try to

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cooperate with this grace, with this righteousness. I need the

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Church to help feed it with sacraments and to strengthen it.

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And then it's me trying to live out the Christian life,

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trying to cooperate with what has been placed.

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Inside of me that is a Catholic system.

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And yet you hear pastors, Bible colleges, chapel services that

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talk more like their Roman Catholic and if you say this,

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everyone's just like, no, you just don't understand.

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They always will accuse me.

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Of not understanding, like, well, I went to school to

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get a degree in Catholic theology so that I could understand.

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In fact, it was pursuing a degree in Catholic theology

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that made me realize Protestants are far more Catholics than

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they want to pretend. They said, well, we don't pray

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to marry and we don't do this, and yeah, you

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look at some of these things to distinguish you, but

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when it gets down to the real philological heart of

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the matter, we almost abandon imputed righteousness was is what

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the entire Reformation was about. So AI goes on to

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say this, If grace is understood as something that enables

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a person to obey, to love, or to live righteously,

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then it does sound like grace is being treated as

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a substance or power infused into the believer, which is

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more in line with Catholic theology.

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Did you hear that?

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Now You've got to really think about this because I'm

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gonna put you at odds with your own church. And

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I'm not trying to put you at odds with your

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own church, I really am not. But you're gonna find

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yourself in conflict with the majority of Christianity, which is

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bizarre to me. Which you know what that tells me, Luther,

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your entire reformation failed to all the early reformers.

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You failed Catholicism one.

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Now I say that, people get so mad at me, like,

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absolutely not.

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Yes, it does. Listen to this again.

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If grace is understood as something that enables a person

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to obey, to love, or to live righteously, then it

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does sound like grace is being treated as a substance

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or power infused into the believer, which is more in

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line with Catholic theology, where grace is seen as something

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that helps believers cooperate with God and attaining righteousness.

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Wait, we are supposedly we don't think that way. We

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are saved by faith.

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We are safe through by grace, through faith in Christ. Right,

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And so what happens by faith? I put my faith

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in Christ. His obedience is imputed to me. And why

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does all of this happen because of God's unmerited favor.

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He does this not because we can earn it, but

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in fact because we cannot. There's nothing enabling. It's simply

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declaring me to be something.

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AI goes.

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In contrast, if we hold to imputed righteousness, So now

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AI is gonna like an Now if you want to go,

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if you want to stay consistent with an imputed righteousness framework,

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well then it's going to sound like this all right.

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If we hold to imputed righteousness, grace is not primarily

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an enabling but rather a declaring. So it's not enabling,

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it's declaring. And what is this declaring? It's declaring. God

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is reckgning the righteousness of Christ to the believer's account.

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And this view grace is fundamentally forensic, meaning it justifies

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ciners apart from any inherent transformation within them. We are

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declared to be something. It's a forensic justification. It's a

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we are legally declared to be something we are not.

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There is no inherent transformation, that is the imputed righteous system.

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And I say that, and Christians will be like, no,

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that's easy believism. That, no, you want to go back

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to Roman Catholicism, because within Christianity it's always got to.

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Be oooh ooh, change change, change, obedience, morality, morality, morality.

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Ai goes on to say, many Protestant traditions, especially those

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influenced by Reformation theology, emphasizes grace as unmerited favor rather.

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Than infused power.

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Okay, good, Now, if you ask Christians to define grace,

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they will say the unmerited favor of God. They almost

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always will say that, right, God's riches at Christ's expense.

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They'll go something along those lines, some kind of a

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statement like that, and it sounds so good. But when

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you start listening and you frame the question the right way,

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then all of a sudden, the curtain is pulled back

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and they will say grace enables. Grace gives us this ability,

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gives us some kind of power. So now see it's

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not I can't live the Christian life, but by grace

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I can't. God's grace enables me to do so. And

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this raises all kinds.

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Of theological problems.

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Ai goes on to say, if grace is framed as

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an enabling force at risks conflating justification with sanctification and

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making grace something that must produce righteousness within a person

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rather than a declaration of righteousness based on christ finished work.

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So then Ai asked me a question, would you say

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that the way grace is often described today leans towards

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more towards the idea of enabling And I'm like, well, yeah,

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yes I do. So then I had to tell Ai

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what was going on. I'm like, I'm listening to chapel

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service at Ambassador Baptist College. The speaker said grace enables us.

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He seems to be saying grace enables us to basically

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live the Christian life, with the clear implication that we

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can now basically obey. So then Ai was like, oh, interesting,

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I wish.

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I was there with you.

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Okay, Now, Ai basically it's like, hey, when you can

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give me the transcript, And I'm like, ok, well, I

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can't give you the transcript right now.

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They're still talking. Okay, sh be quiet, Ai, They're talking.

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I'm in chapel service. No, okay, now I'm outside right

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here we go. So AI says this, This description of

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grace as enabling seems to unlign more with infused righteousness framework,

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even if the speaker doesn't intend it that way. If

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grace is what enables Christians to obey, then the implication

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is that we now have some capacity within us to

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keep the law or live righteously, perhaps not perfectly, but

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at least to some significant degree. This idea then begins

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to blur the line between justification and sanctification.

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Right, And I'm like, okay, I got you. Now to

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me the minute.

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Even if someone says, well, it enables us, but it

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doesn't enable us perfectly.

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Well, then this raises to me a million questions.

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So God's grace is enabling, but it can't enable me

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to get to perfection. So is it because God's grace

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is weak or God's grace was never designed to enable

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me to get to perfection? And if God's grace was

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never designed to enable me to get to perfection, Then

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how can you say anything negative about my imperfection because

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it's God's grace that will not enable me to get

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to perfection, So that its God doesn't want me to

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be perfect. And if God doesn't want me to be perfect,

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then back off. You take up the issue with my

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sin with God since he doesn't enable me to get

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to perfection.

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So does he enable me or does he not enable? Now?

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AI picks up this very concept without me offering any prompt.

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AI just continued and said, if grace enables obedience, the.

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Question is to what extent.

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If grace enables, then does that mean failure to obey

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is due to a lack of grace. Oh wait, if

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grace is doing the enabling and I disobey, well then

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the disobedience would be the fault of the enabling because

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the enabling did not enable me enough to get to

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full obedience.

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Right.

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I know, Church, you're not supposed to ask these questions

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and you're not supposed to do it, And I know

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in chopel service you're just supposed to sit there and

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take notes and say amen. But see, I'm a bad

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student because I left Chapel to go.

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We got problems here.

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Ai goes on to say, if grace truly enables, then

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why do Christians continue to sin? That's the question AI asked.

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If grace enables, then why do Christian sin. This kind

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of language risk making grace a thing that is infused

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into believers to strengthen them to live righteously, which moves

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towards the Catholic view rather than the forensic, declarative nature

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of grace and Reform theology. What drives me crazy is

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when I start trying to explain this, it's typically people

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on the reform side who will get mad at me.

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I want to accuse me of being an anti Nomian

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or accuse me of being easy believism.

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It's like you don't even know what you're talking about.

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What I'm trying to do is say you need to

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be consistent with a very reform theology that came from

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the Reformation and not return back to Roman Catholicism. Ai

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goes on to say, the Reformation understanding of grace is

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that it declares sinners righteous before God on the basis

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of Christ, righteousness alone, imputed.

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Not infused.

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Right. Ai goes on to say, sanctification may follow, but

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it's never perfected. Christians will continue to sin, and even

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their best works are tainted by sin. Grace does not

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enable obedience and the sense of making it achievable. Rather,

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grace saves those who fail to obey. Let me say

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that again, Grace does not enable obedience and the sense

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of making it achievable. Rather, grace saves those who fail

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to obey and who cannot obey because none of us

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can obey perfectly. So AI continues. It seems the speaker

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is assuming that because grace saves, it also must function

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as a power source that makes obedience possible. But does

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that view hold up when we examine the reality of

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the Christian life Christians continue to send daily. If grace

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truly enabled obedience, then wouldn't Christians at least at least

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some of them reach a point where they live in

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consistent victory over sin. But it never happens Aias it

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never happens, no one achieves it. So if no one

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achieves it, then then where the problem is either in

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the enabling or the enabling is limited, God comes along.

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My grace enables you, but it will only enable you

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to get to forty percent or fifty percent obedience? But

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how do you even measure that? Because if I'm guilty

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of one point of the law, I'm guilty of all.

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I'm always guilty at least of one point of the

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law because the law is summarized. And love God with

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all your heart, mind, body, and so I love your

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neighbor as yourself. You're never even going to achieve that.

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So I mean you're in a perpetual state of guilt

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of all the commandments.

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So how do you measure any success?

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Eh Ai goes on to say, it sounds like you're

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detecting a subtle but significant shift in how grace is

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being defined. Does the speaker's message seem to imply that

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Christians should be able to obey consistently if they just

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access grace properly? And the answer is a definitive yes.

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If we will just rely on this, then we can.

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That seems to be the implication. Now we'll have to

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review the entire sermon. So I don't want to let

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me say this. I won't be too dogmatic. That's how

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it felt to me. But let's be fair. I snuck out.

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I left in the middle of chapel right, So don't don't,

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don't tell anyone ssh right now. Some of you are,

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you're going to the dean's office. Hey, hey, hey, that

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guy who you know, that guy, that student you have

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that does that podcast. He's on the air right now.

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He's snuck out a chapel. I think we need to

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get I think you need.

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To expel him. Right now.

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I'm going to be I'm gonna be kicked out of

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college right right now, I'm gonna be kicked out. I'm

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not really there, people, It's an illustration.

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I'm joking. Okay.

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Some of you are like, hey, hey, he's gonna get

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kicked out. Okay, No, No, it's an illustration.

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So I will.

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Argue grace does not inable. I am saved by grace

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through faith.

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By faith.

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I put my faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

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His obedience, passive, passive, and active, is imputed to my account.

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I am declared in my position to be perfect, holy, righteous,

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a new creature.

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Old is gone, all is new.

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But in life I am the same sinner, with the

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same sinful nature, and I will live and a perpetual

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state of sin until glorification. Any teaching that does not

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accept that or acknowledge that is living a lie. You

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try to convince everyone everyone will. Everyone can play dress up,

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everyone can grab their robes of self righteousness. They can

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all pretend. But the end of the they are sinners.

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I'm a sinner, and we all sin. You may not

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sin in the same way I sin. I may not

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sin in the way you sin. But I can tell

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you this, we all sin because the scripture say be

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holy as God is holy.

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You've never done it. I never do it.

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We will never do it, not even for one second

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of one minute, of one hour of one day.

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We never will. So we're all in a perpetual state

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of sin. So grace does not enable me.

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It is by God's grace that I am declared to

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be that which I am not. I'm declared to be

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righteous because of what Christ I say forensic salvation. It's

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it's a I am being declared to be something. I'm

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not being enabled to become something. I'm declared to be

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something that I will never be in practice. So I

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don't see grace as enabling. Now. I know there's some

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scriptures that people say, well, well what about this, and

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we will have to dig into it in greater detail.

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But I just snuck out of chapel. I didn't have

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time to, you know, do more work on this. Well,

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I wanted to bring it to your attention. So here's

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what I would challenge you to do today right now.

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I don't know. Call whoever you know.

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Call if you have Christian parents, call them, If you've

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got Christian friends, call them, Talk to them on social

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media and say, hey, guys, do you believe grace enables us,

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gives us the ability and the power to obey God?

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And if they say yes, then you can say, okay, Well,

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on Sunday, I'll see you at the local Catholic church

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and they'll be like, what are you talking about?

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That's a Catholic answer. They'll be like, oh, I am

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not Catholic. Come, how dare you say that?

404
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Well, do you know the difference between imputed and infused?

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Most likely they will not, which is sad. It just

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shows that the Reformation was an abysmal failure. But I

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do not believe grace enables. We are declared to be

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by grace, which we are not, because it's God's grace,

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unmerited favor, God's riches at christ expense.

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However you want to describe it it is.

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I'm being declared righteous because I'm receiving it by grace.

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I cannot earn it, I cannot work for it. But

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that grace does not enable that. Grace just declares me

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to be something I cannot be. And if grace enables me,

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then why can't it enable me to get to perfection.

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It's the same thing when Christians.

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Say you're free, you're free from the power of saying, well,

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I mean you're not free to be perfect. Well, if

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something is holding me back from perfection, then whatever.

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Is holding me back, I'm not free from him.

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Christians say some of the most ridiculous things sometimes, So

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does grace enable I'm going to be on team No. Now,

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if you're on team yes, you got to figure out

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a lot of things. There, yeah, all right, allsop there Now.

425
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I gotta get back. Wait.

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I think we gotta sneak back in the chapel. I

427
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think we have to sneak back into chapel. Are they

428
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gonna know that? I'm gone, Oh no, oh, no, oh.

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No, guys, chapel service ended. Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna

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get I'm gonna I'm gonna.

431
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Get in my car real quick. I'm gonna drive to

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South Carolina. I'm gonna drive to South Carolina really quick.

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I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna sneak in the chapel

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up Bob Jones.

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Okay, here we go. Emphasize everyone be quiet. God bless

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you Jesus