Enabling Grace

Lately I've been thinking about enabling grace. I Googled the phrase and found a few interesting things. The best was from John Piper (here). It's an expository sermon on Romans 1:1-5. Here's a sample:

Grace is not just forgiveness of our sin and mercy on our misery, it is also a divine power that comes to us through Jesus absolutely freely for the sake of ministry. Paul says in Romans 5:21, "As sin reigned in death, even so grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (my translation). Grace is the power of a king: it "reigns" and leads mightily to eternal life through Christ....

The decisive, enabling power for all ministry and all service is God's grace.

I intend to dwell on this matter for a while. Piper emphasizes that all our work, all our obedience and service, all our power to overcome, even to love, is by grace through faith in Christ Jesus:

I linger over this because if you get it early, the book of Romans will open to you like a flower. And if you don't get it, the book will not make sense. And I linger over it because this is the essence of how God means for you to live your life. God wants you to read verse 5 and in the end put your calling in the place of the word "apostleship." "Apostleship" is Paul's, not mine and not yours. You might put, "Through Christ I have received grace and the teaching role." Or: grace and singing. Or: grace and studentship. Or: grace and singleness. Or: grace and widowhood. Or: grace and motherhood. And what you should mean is: God has freely given me forgiveness and the power to do a calling, and fulfill a role which I accept by faith.

Oh, the riches of His grace! You cannot drain this well, my friend. You can only hold out your cup in yearning for more. Praise be to the Father, this stream is neverending. He freely gives enabling grace to his thirsting children.