Wednesday, November 22, 2006
How common is Grace?
In the Christian faith there exist some big questions, questions like:
# How can a God of love allow floods, tsunamis and earthquakes?
# How is it possible for unbelievers to do good things?
# Shouldn't Christians devote all their energy to Christian things and not be involved in art, science or politics?
It is, therefore, a big claim that they are, in part at least, answered by a single Christian doctrine called, "Common Grace".
So how does "common grace" apply to these three big questions? Common Grace has two purposes - to restrain and to promote. There are three basic areas in which it is normally helpful to consider its application.
Judgment
When Adam and Eve sinned, the penalty was death. But the penalty was not carried out immediately. They were banished from the garden, there were other curses upon them (and us) and they had a life after, different from the one before (Genesis 3). But they did not die immediately. They had time to reflect and repent.
If we were all "zapped" the moment we first committed a sin, there would not be a human race. This restraining of God's wrath is an act of grace - God's common grace. We get a life we don't deserve before we get the judgment and wrath, which we do deserve.
Part of the curse as a result of the fall was a curse on the earth. As a consequence, there would be floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis (Luke 21:11). The fact that these don't occur more frequently and more universally is a result of God's grace. We deserve to live in a world surrounded by these things but by God's grace we don't experience them as much as we might. He gives us what we don't deserve - God's common grace.
When we hear of "natural disasters" like these we should;
# recognise that we all deserve to experience such things
# praise God for his grace
# pray for those involved
# pray that we might learn humility that leads to repentance.
Common grace restrains the wrath of God we all deserve until a future judgment and promotes a life where there is opportunity to repent and give God the glory he deserves.
Sin
The Bible is very clear when it describes the state of men and women's hearts. The heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9) and full of sin, from birth (even conceived in sin). Yet when we look at the world, there are a couple of concerns that we might have with the Bible's assessment of man. Although we see a world in which there is clearly sin, it isn't as bad as it might be. In other words the extremes of the sinful nature don't appear that often, they are so rare that society in general is outraged when they do.
There are not that many Hitlers, Jack the Rippers, Attila the Huns etc, yes there are people whose sin becomes famously obvious in its extreme but not that many live down your street. Yes, we are most definitely all sinners, however, if sin was to have complete free reign in the world, the world would be pretty unbearable for all of us, some people might say it would be Hell (although technically that's something else even worse). Just like God, in his grace, holds back his wrath at our sin, so also God restrains sin in the world. Again we don't get the really sinful world we deserve; God in his grace restrains sin - God's common grace.
The Bible clearly indicates that God is long suffering with men (2 Peter 3:9) before he hands them over to their sins (Romans 1:24).When we hear of the extremes of sin in our society we should:
# recognise that we are all sinners before a Holy God, even though some sins are more socially acceptable in man's eyes
# praise God for his grace in restraining sin
# pray that the outrage that people feel when confronted with the extremes of sin would lead to repentance.
Good in the world
Not only does God, to a certain extent, restrain sin, He also promotes good in the world. Society, even a sinful one, can only function because of good in the world. Many things that we take for granted, even a mother's love, is as a result of man's continuing knowledge of the good part of "the knowledge of good and evil" that Adam and Eve knew.
The fact that a sinful human judge can dispense anything like justice (Luke 18:6), that men and women can show compassion, mercy and love or any good thing, is because of God's grace - God's common grace. These good things that men do are in no way "good works" sufficient to achieve any redeeming of our fallen character before a Holy God.Any society that has any kind of functional stability, and all human societies are corrupted by sin, can only exist because of man's ability to carry out what some theologians call "civil righteousness". Were it not for God's common grace contending with men to restrain sin and prompting good, the world in which we live would be even worse.
The Bible clearly demonstrates that there are some blessings that God pours out on all people, the righteous and the unrighteous. He causes the sun and the rain to nurture and feed the crops of all nations. He also gives gifts generally within the world, he stimulates different men and women with interest and ability in worthy tasks of cultivating the arts and sciences. These are things that can occupy people's time and energies and yet benefit society and the civilisation of the human race as a whole.
God therefore prompts good and gives good things generally to mankind. He doesn't give us the full force of living in a world of our own desires. Once again we don't get the world we deserve - God's common grace.
It would be easy to get this doctrine out of proportion and I have only picked on three of the more obvious aspects of its outworking in the world. It is important that we reflect on the goodness of God, not just in his salvation of his people but also in his continuing care and provision for mankind in general. This grace is not incompatible with the idea that, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Romans 1:18).
Theologians have always distinguished between "saving grace" or "special grace" and "common grace". Saving grace is that act of God by which we are saved, something unique to God's church - his "called out" people. Common grace doesn't save but it does exist in creation and the people of the world in general.
We have to be careful here and typically in theology we need to take care not to be confused by the words. Many of us have been taught that grace means, "God's Riches At Christ's Expense" – and this is true when we talk about saving grace. The definition that works for both common grace and saving grace is, "when God freely gives us what we don't deserve".
Also the word "common" doesn't mean that it is found in equal measure in all cases. (Just like "common sense" at times appears an incredibly rare thing.)
So, by God's common grace the judgment of God is delayed, giving repentance a chance. The effects of sin in the world are moderated, and good things provided and promoted to give society some semblance of order.
Many people will not recognise God's grace in granting time for repentance, in holding back our sinful extremes and in promoting good things in the world.
Do we?- Tim Fisher
