Empowering grace is God enabling us to do the good works that He has appointed for us to do with great power and humility.
Speaking of the effects of empowering grace in his life, Paul says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”65
Empowering grace is nothing less than the power of God the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of grace,” enabling the Christian to live a life patterned after Jesus’ life by the same power that empowered Him.66 Empowering grace enables Christians to live lives that are more fruitful and productive than they would have ever dreamed possible. The Christian can live not only on the mountaintop of blessing and victory, but also in the valley of pain and sorrow. In 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 Paul speaks of weakness, pain, and hardship in his own life and reveals how God spoke to him about empowering grace:
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Empowering grace means that, as promised, Jesus has not left or forsaken us, and we are not saved by grace but then expected to live by our own power until we see Him face-to-face. No, God works in and through us by the empowering grace of the Holy Spirit so that we are able to live as more than conquerors, even in defeat, and to echo Isaiah 26:12: “You have indeed done for us all our works.”
When have you seen God’s empowering grace most at work in your life?
65 1 Cor. 15:10.
66 Heb. 10:29.