Common Grace: The Universal Benefits of Christ's Death

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Well tonight, we come back to our study in the great doctrines of the Bible. We're studying specifically the doctrine of salvation. As you know there have always been, and there remains today, great disagreement over certain aspects of the death of Christ. Most obvious, of course, is the extent of the atonement, a sort of sticky issue that we'll look at in a few weeks. But no one who is orthodox or evangelical believes that every human being actually receives the benefit of substitution from Christ's death. Otherwise, you would have to be a universalist. That is, you'd have to believe that every single person will eventually be saved. You can't read the Bible and come to that conclusion, so no one embraces that. At the same time on the other end of the spectrum, there is agreement among biblical scholars and theologians of many different stripes that there are universal benefits to Christ's death, not the benefit of substitution, but universal benefits that come to every man because of what Christ accomplished on the cross. Every human being enjoys certain blessings that find their source in the death of Christ. Now, what are those benefits? Well tonight that's what I want us to examine together. Theologians group all those universal benefits of Christ's death under the title common grace, but as you will see as we go along, common grace is anything but common.

Let's begin as we always like to do with some definitions. When we use the word common, we mean common to all creatures or common to all men. No one is excluded, and the word grace is actually technically a blend of several of God's attributes, His patience, His goodness, and His grace. There's a lot of disagreement, and you can read lots of theological articles on whether common grace flows from God's goodness only or from His grace. Some say it flows from His grace because it requires doing good to those who have forfeited all rights to any goodness, but nowhere that I know of does scripture use the Greek or Hebrew words for grace to refer to God's blessing on creation generally or onto unbelievers who never come to faith in Christ. So when you hear the phrase common grace it’s probably best to think in terms of God's goodness or God's love shown to all men.

Now how is common grace different from saving grace? There are not two kinds of grace in God. This is one attribute that manifests itself in different ways. When you think of common grace, the recipients are both believers and unbelievers, and you'll see that as we go through tonight and the results or the result, I should say is only temporal benefits, benefits limited to this life, limited to life here in the world. Whereas saving grace, the recipients are believers only, and the result is eternal salvation.

Now let's look at some definitions of common grace as we start. First of all Bruce Demarest he says, “It's the undeserved beneficence of the creator God, expressed by His general care of creation and of all persons everywhere without discrimination.” Louis Berkhof writes a little more detailed explanation. He says, “In general, it may be said that when we speak of common grace, we have in mind either, a: those general operations of the Holy Spirit whereby He without renewing the heart, (in other words, there's not true salvation) exercises a moral influence on a man through his general or special revelation that sin is restrained, order is maintained in social life, and civil righteousness is promoted.” In other words, there's a good life here in this world, that's a work of God in common grace or b: “those general blessings such as rain, sunshine, food and drink, clothing and shelter, which God imparts to all men indiscriminately, where and in what measure it seems good to Him.” This is common grace.

Wayne Grudem, a simpler definition, says “It's simply the grace of God, by which He gives people innumerable blessings that are not part of salvation.” And finally, John Murray, his definition I like, “Every favor of whatever kind or degree falling short of salvation, which this undeserving and sin cursed world enjoys at the hand of God.” That's common grace, every favor of every kind, whatever degree that stopped short of salvation that God gives in His generosity to His creatures.

Scripture, just a couple of general references that make the point, Psalm 145 verse 9, “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.” No one's excluded from the goodness of God. Luke 6, ‘Jesus says love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High for God himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your father is merciful.’ Now, specifically, when we talk about common grace, how does it express itself? What are the benefits of this expression of goodness to all of his creatures to all of humanity? Let's go through them one at a time.

First of all, the first benefit of common grace is that God restrains his wrath. He restrains his wrath. He does so, by the way, let me just remind you, we've talked about this often before, that the wrath of God must find expression in the life of every sinner and because of every sin. But God, in His common grace restrains that wrath, and He does it in several ways. First of all, He restrains it by sustaining the life of His creatures. He continues is to say this life that we have. You remember in Genesis 2:17, God told Adam and Eve, this is just an example of this, God told Adam and Eve, “and the day that you eat from this tree you're going to die.” But Genesis 5:5 says, “that Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years and he died.” Roman 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.” You see once people sin even the first moment they sin they deserve to die. Every time you and I sin we deserve death at God's hand. We deserve His wrath and the very first time that sin found an expression in our lives we deserved at that very moment for our lives to be snuffed out here and to begin to endure the eternal wrath of God. That's what the scriptures teach.

While it's true that there were immediate and disastrous effects from the fall, Adam and Eve as you can see continued to live for hundreds of years thereafter. How? Because God exercised common grace, He restrained the wrath that they so much deserve just as He does with us. Psalm 36 says, “You Lord preserve man and beast.” Isaiah 42 says, “The God who created is the God who gives breath to the people in the earth and spirit to those who walk in it.” And of course, Paul says to the Athenians, “for in Him we live and move and exist.” Listen God, in His common grace, allows wicked sinners, some of whom blasphemed His name to continue to live. He sustains their lives by His common grace. Their hearts continue beating moment by moment, and they continue to use His heir. It's an expression of His common grace.

He also restrains his wrath by restricting the effects of the curse by limiting the effects of the curse. It would have been just of God to have unleashed on the world and on humanity everything that the curse deserved, but God limits those effects look. Look at Genesis 3 verse 17, he says they are going to be thorns and thistles, which are going to make Adam and Eve job of cultivating the ground more difficult, but they could still do it “in toil you will be able to eat of it all the days of your life.” Of wild animals, imagine if God had not created ostensibly in animals a fear of man. Imagine the havoc that a sin cursed animal creation could have wrought on humanity; and yet God says to Noah in Genesis 9, “the fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky, everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea.” God protected man from the radical effects of the curse, even in the animal creation.

I was reminded of how violent the animal creation and the whole nonhuman creation of God is just a few months ago. I walked outside of my garage and there on a fence adjacent to my house, there were two small lizards, and I watched carefully as these two small lizards engaged in violent to the death combat. Sounds humorous, but there was nothing humorous about it. They locked their jaws and one of them began to bleed and to bleed more, and they continued to battle and to hold each other and to refuse to give their ground to refuse to move. And you know I find myself thinking imagine if the larger animals as well as the smaller ones, were given to express that violence on humanity? But for the most part, they stay in their territory afraid of man. When they see us coming, they go another way. This is an expression of God's common grace. He restrains the wrath even by restricting the effects of the curse.

He also restrains his wrath by delaying or withholding deserved judgment. In Genesis chapter 8 verse 21, when Noah made sacrifice to the Lord, it says, “The Lord smelled that soothing aroma and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; but I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done.” He said, listen man deserves it, you think our world doesn't deserve what happened to Noah's world? Of course it does. But God, in His common grace, restrains the wrath that our world deserves. If you don't believe it deserves it, read your newspaper watch a little television. That God, in His common grace restrains that wrath and delays or withholds deserved judgment. Romans 2:4, Paul says, “Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience?” God is extremely patient with a rebellious world. Acts 17:30, “therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent.” God withholds deserved judgment or delays it. First Peter 3:20 reminds us in the days of Noah, God allowed the people of Noah's Day 120 years to hear the preaching of Noah and to respond. He withheld, delayed deserved judgment, so God restrains His wrath that is the first benefit of common grace. Don't take that for granted you know it's hard for us to even think in these terms. It's hard for us to imagine that if God acted as His character, His holiness demands the very first time a sinner ever sins that person would drop to the earth dead, be carried out like Ananias and Sapphira were, and spend eternity suffering the wrath of God. But God restrains that wrath.

The next part of God's, the second expression or benefit of God's common grace is God upholds His creation. That is, He upholds the laws and processes of this creation. Genesis 8 verse 22, the verse after the one I read earlier, says not only will I never destroy it, but “while the earth remains seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” You understand that when you wake up in the morning and the sun has risen again in the eastern sky, it's because of God's common grace. Again, if God acted as the sinful earth deserved, He would have simply wiped the universe clean. The sun will come up tomorrow. The fall is coming, thank the Lord. And it's all because of common grace. Job 37:13, Elihu, speaking of the storms that come, says God is in those storms “whether for correction or for His world, (that is for their benefit) or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen.” Psalm 65 verse 9, “You visit the Earth and cause it to overflow; You greatly enrich it; the stream of God is full of water; You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare the earth.” God continues in spite of what this world deserves to uphold the laws and processes of His creation. Jesus reminds the people who are listening in Matthew 5, that God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous God continues to sustain the creation. Paul reminds those pagans in Acts 14, that God did not leave Himself without a witness and that He did good, and He gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons. To sinners, to those who deserve His wrath, He gives rains from heaven and fruitful seasons. He continues to sustain His creation.

A third benefit of God's common grace is God restrains sin. God prevents sinful man from fully manifesting his sinfulness. The fact that no one is as sinful as he could be is a direct result of the restraining goodness of God. There has never been a single individual in the history of the world who has been as bad as he could be. God restrains sin, first of all through direct intervention. Sometimes God just intervenes to prevent sin. There are a number of biblical examples, you remember the tower of Babel. God says they're one people. They all have the same language, and they're going to continue to do this, which will be to their detriment unless I step in and prevent it by giving them different languages, confusing them and sending them to different parts of the world. God actively prevented sin. He did the same with Abimelech, you remember, in Genesis 20 Abram lied about Sarah being his wife. Then God said to Abimelech in the dream yes I know that in the integrity of your heart, you have done this going to take Sarah to be his wife, and I also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her. This is God's common grace preventing sin from occurring.

Genesis 31:7, “Yet your father” Jacob says, “has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to hurt me.” This is an expression of God restraining sin from having its full expression. Listen remember, however wicked our world may be, it is only the restraining grace of God that keeps it from plunging into the very depths of hell. You want to know what happens when God stops restraining. Turn to Romans 1 verse 24, When they begin to slip into idolatry, when men begin to profess to be wise but become fools, denying God not giving him thanks; verse 24, “Therefore, God gave them over” God stops the restraint of their sinful heart and what happens? They then pursue “the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies will be dishonored among them.” Verse 26, “For this reason God gave them over” God's held back His restraints, and when He did, “they pursued degrading passions; women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way the men abandoned the natural function of a woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.” When God begins to withdraw that restraint, sin begins to spiral downward. Verse 28, “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper.” Listen God's restraining grace, God's restraining common grace keeps sinners from fully expressing the sinfulness that's in their hearts.

God also restrains Sin not only directly through His own intervention, but of course through the Holy Spirit. Genesis 6:3, He talks about His spirit striving with men, and that that wouldn't always continue of course in the days before the flood. In Second Thessalonians chapter 2, He speaks of a restrainer, and He changes pronouns from what to He, the implication is we're talking here about the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit restrains sin.

He also restrains sin through the human conscience. Romans 2:15 says that the conscience accuses men and therefore prevents certain acts. Their conscience accuses them, and we all have experienced this haven't we? The conscience God gave us keeps us from taking that next step into sin. He restrains it through the prophets and the word of God. I'm not going to take time to turn to Isaiah because this is obviously the most familiar of the ways God restrains sin. It's through His own word. It's through the message of the prophets, and you see that in Isaiah 1, as the prophet says, listen, you're sinning turn to God, leave your sin.

He also, and this is an interesting one God restrains sin through various human institutions. Maybe you've never thought about this, but why is it that there's no anarchy in our nation? We've seen just a tiny taste of anarchy in the streets of New Orleans after the hurricane, but why is it there's no anarchy? Why are not men expressing their sin without restraint? It's because God has placed in our world various institutions that restrain that sin; starting with government. Turn to Romans 13, a lot of believers don't understand this concept. I was just talking to a gentleman who called in from another place in the country this week, looking for some counsel, used to be a part of our church and having to make some difficult decisions. And I was reminding him of this passage. Romans 13 verse 1, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.” He's talking about government here. “Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.” In other words, God gave government and governmental rulers to cause evil doers to fear, to limit, to restrain the sinful expression of their hearts.

Verse 4, “For government is a minister of God to you for good.” That is, if you do good, you'll have praise from them. “But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for government is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.” This is government's job. This is its primary task. To serve as a restraint on human depravity. To punish those who express their sinfulness beyond the bounds of law to preserve order. God restrains human sin through government, and we saw in the streets of New Orleans when there was no government what happened. Anarchy broke loose, but when the governmental order was restored, evildoers feared. This is God's plan. This is God's purpose. Be thankful you have a government that there is a government in place that insists on a certain measure of order and a certain measure of punishing evil doers, or the same thing that happened there would happen here in the streets of Dallas, the streets of Southlake.

He also does this same restraining work through another institution, the family. Fathers are told to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If we had time, I would take you back to the Old Testament, and I would show you how when in Israel a child was rebellious against the authority of his parents, essentially, God said that child is going to be rebellious against every other authority, take him to the gates and stone him. That was God's way of limiting the expression of human depravity, of keeping order in the world of restraining sin. Same thing with marriage, marriage I believe, and while there's no specific reference that makes the point that marriage restrains sin, I believe it's another one of those institutions that does and you, and I have seen that if you're married, you've seen that in your own life, the accountability of your mate keeps you from making decisions that you shouldn't make. This is God's goodness. God's common grace has given us these institutions that preserve a certain measure of order in our society and that restrain the expression of sinfulness. I thank God that we live in a place where there is government and family and marriage because we see the benefits of that in our lives every day.

Another benefit of God's common grace, not only does He restrain sin, but God gives temporal blessings to all. This is the one we're most familiar with Genesis 27:28. Isaac says to his son Jacob, “May God give you the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine;” He says this comes from God; the temporal blessings that we enjoy here come to us from the hand of God. Genesis 39:5, even on unbelievers. “It came about” we're told “that from that time” or from the time that to Potiphar made Joseph overseer in his house and over all that he owned, “the Lord Blessed the Egyptian's house on account of Joseph; thus the Lord's blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field.” The blessings that unbelievers enjoy are an expression of God's common grace. Psalm 104, God waters the mountains from his upper chambers, the earth is satisfied with the fruit of His works, He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, vegetation for the labor of man so that he may bring forth food from the earth. Psalm 136, He gives food to all flesh. Psalm 145, the Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works, the eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due time. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Luke 16:25, you remember the interchange there, “Child, remember that during your life” talking to the rich man, “you received your good things and likewise, Lazarus, bad things.” In other words, you received that's the key word. He received the good things he enjoyed, and obviously the implication from Abraham is from the hand of God. This man, who now finds himself in hell, enjoyed the common grace of God during this life, enjoying the good things that he had. We're told he lived sumptuously, and had feasting every day. Acts 14 back to Paul's sermon, there he said that “God did not leave himself without a witness. He gave you rains from heaven fruitful seasons,” then he finishes the verse with this expression, “satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” He tells these pagan idolaters that it's the god of Heaven, who has satisfied their hearts with food and gladness. Listen, every legitimate joy in life, every legitimate joy in life is ours because of God's common grace. Unbelievers enjoy those temporal joys, and they enjoy it as an expression, it's God's goodness, His common grace.

Another benefit of God's common grace is that He directs human advancement. Let me put it differently. God directs the development or invention of whatever is good and true in the arts, in the sciences, and in technology. Maybe you've never thought you know a lot of Christians kind of put God in a box. He just it's almost like He lives in this building, and we come and meet Him here every week. Listen God doesn't live in a box. He doesn't live in this building. He transcends space and time and anything beneficial in our world, any advance that benefits human creatures, that benefits our earth is from the hand of God. It's an expression of His common grace. Turn to you see just a glimpse of this in Exodus, turn to Exodus 31. Our world is filled with talented people. It just amazes me sometimes to think of the ingenuity that goes into some of the things you and I enjoy, something as simple as a dishwasher. I'm so grateful there are dishwashers because I don't have to feel guilty about helping Sheila, not helping Sheila, I should say, wash the dishes. All of those things in life those are an expression of God's goodness. Do that they're the benefits that come from still inventive people, and where do you think that skill and invention comes from? Here's a glimpse of it. Exodus 31 verse 2, “The Lord speaks to Moses, and He says, “See I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the spirit of God and wisdom, in understanding, and knowledge and all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship, and I have appointed him with, Oholiab, and in the hearts of all who are skillful, I have put skill, that they may make all that I have commanded you.” This just gives us a little glimpse of the reality that no man has anything that he hasn't received from God, any skill that exists any invented power, any collective brain resources came from God. And the ability to use those in a way that helps our world is an expression of God's common grace.

Turn over to Exodus 35, you see the same expression, Exodus 35 verse 30, “Moses said to the sons of Israel, “See, the Lord is called by name,” and he goes through rehearses what God has said verse 31, “He has filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding and knowledge and all craftsmanship; to make designs for working in gold and in silver and bronze, the cutting of stones and settings and the carving of wood, so as to perform in every inventive work.” He's also put his heart to teach verse 35. “He is filled these two men with skill to perform every work of an engraver and of a designer of an embroiderer, in blue and in purple and scarlet, and fine linen, of a weaver, as performers of every work and makers of designs.” Here's what I want you to see - there is no such thing as a technological, scientific, artistic advance in our world that is good and true and right that doesn't come as an expression of God's common grace. He has given that skill He has given that capacity, and He's given the results of it as a gift to His humanity.

Think about medicine, you know every time I walk in a hospital and someone's just had laparoscopic surgery, I am fascinated with the fact that God, as an expression of his common grace, allowed that procedure to be discovered. He gave somebody somewhere the skill to think that they could make a small incision, insert a little tube, and do comprehensive surgery. That’s God. Technology of every kind, discoveries, inventions that developed the earth's resources into material goods, inventions that distribute those resources, every righteous skill that men have and use for the good of others. You know, maybe you've never seen your work this way. Some of you think you just work for a living, but in reality God has given you a skill, and if you're involved in any sort of a righteous skill that is a skill that isn't inherently sinful in and of itself, then you are an instrument of God to minister His common grace to others.

If you fly an airplane, you're taking people to various places, many of whom are doing good and right things. They're visiting relatives; perhaps, they're doing work that benefits others. If you're involved in the service industry, you're serving people in a way. You are an expression of God's common grace to others. Whatever it is you do, God has given you that skill and that capacity as a way to do good to all those lives that you touch. Every time you go to a grocery store, I want you to think about this with me. Every time you go to a grocery store and there's fresh fruit and vegetables, and there are packaged foods of all kinds and incredible variety. Every time you drive a car and without thinking you transcend the entire city in thirty minutes. When you make a cell phone call, you pick up that little cell phone (or you receive calls here in service) and you pick up that cell phone and you call across the entire United States and you talk with someone else in the space of a fraction of a second. When you fly at an airplane, traveling at 500 miles an hour, arriving at your destination so quickly. When you get an X ray, when you have a cat scan, when you walk into your house and turn on a light take a hot shower use an ice cube in your drink use a paper clip in your office. Enjoy your favorite music from your iPod. Remember that all of those good things while yes they can all be misused by man. All of those things that are in and of themselves, beneficial and helpful are an expression of God's common grace to His creatures. They're all ours because of God's common grace. I hope you're beginning to understand that there's nothing common about common grace.

One more benefit that comes to us from God's common grace and this one's pretty shocking actually. God provides limited, and that's the key word, spiritual benefits even to the unsaved. What are these benefits? Well first of all, they can do temporal or civil good. In other words, they can do good on a horizontal level. Other people look at what they do and say that's good. There's a sense of course in which no one can do a single good thing apart from the grace of God in salvation, we studied that a few weeks ago. Romans 3:10 and following, “no one does good not even one” that’s specifically in reference to God, nobody can do anything that in the sight of God is good; in terms of pleasing Him or earning His reward. But scriptures explicitly teach that unregenerate people can do good in some lesser sense. Somebody asked me about this this morning. There are all kinds of unbelievers doing good in our world right now trying to raise money for the flood victims, trying to help widows and orphans. When I was in India a number of years ago, I'll never forget going to Mother Teresa's home for the dying destitute, really a terrible place with these series of steps going up with the sickest next to the center aisle so that the staff could minister to them and the further up the sort of bleachers you went, the more that the patients had to care for each other because the help couldn't get there, very synchronistic religion. They were accepting of Buddhism and Hinduism and everything else, but I remember meeting a German man there a young German man who had given up his lucrative financial practice to go serve in Mother Theresa's home for the dying destitute. How is it that a sinner can conclude that he wants to do something that is going to benefit others? How can that happen? Well, it's because of God's common grace, enabling man to do something that is temporally or civilly here good.

There are several examples of this. Ahab is an interesting one, Ahab, of course, was a wretched wretched man absolutely condemned by the prophets by Elijah and by the word of God. But when Ahab heard that he was going to die that he was going to be judged, he tore his clothes we're told in First Kings 21, put on sackcloth and fasted lay in sackcloth and went about despondently. The word of Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me because he has humbled himself, I will not bring evil in his days.

God saw this non salvific expression of humility as good, and He rewarded it. You see also Jehu in Second Kings 10, God said what he did was good. He carried out my word, even though Jehu was an idolater. But in Luke 6:33, Jesus puts it this way. “If you do good to those who are good to you, (who do good to you) what credit is that? For even sinners do the same.” Sinners do good, Jesus says to others. What enables them to do that? It's God's common grace. Here's the expression of it I like best, it comes from the Westminster Confession. How is it that unbelievers can do things that appear to be good? The Westminster divines put it this way, “Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands and of good use both to themselves and others, yet because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith, nor are done in a right manner according to the word, nor to a right end the glory of God. They are therefore sinful and cannot please God or make a man mean to receive grace from God, and yet their neglect is more sinful and more displeasing to God.” In other words, it can be good. It can be helpful to themselves and others, but it's not ultimately good in the ultimate sense to God.

I've used the illustration and I use it again, just to remind you of monopoly money. Prisoners locked away in a prison in a prison camp, decide to set up their own monetary system with monopoly money, and one of them thrives and ends up amassing a fortune in monopoly money. They're released from prison, and he goes to the nearest Bank of America to cash in his monopoly money. It was worth something in the prison. It's not going to be worth much for the teller, and if he persists, she's going to hit that little button and call for help. Why? It's a totally different economy. The same thing is true when it comes to our good works. Yes men do good works here assisted by God's common grace, but the good works here don't work in heaven. They have no value in Heaven's economy. Unregenerate people do a lot of good things and every time they do that is not an expression of their innate goodness, please understand this. It's not an expression of their goodness. It is instead the effects of God's common grace. So God provides limited spiritual benefits even to the unsaved they can do good in some senses.

Secondly, they retain a basic knowledge of certain spiritual truths. For example, Paul tells us in Romans 1 they understand to some degree the natural revelation about God's nature. They understand there's a God, a powerful God who created the world they see. They also have a natural revelation about God's law. Romans 2:14 says that the law of God in its substance is written on their hearts. How can they understand anything about God? It's simply God's common grace, enabling them. They also can have an intellectual grasp of the truth. These references are interesting if you were to look at Numbers 22 for example, you would hear about Balaam experiencing inspiration, telling the people of God about God's promises. Balaam was a false prophet. First Samuel 10, Saul, but, and here's the key, they can have an intellectual grasp of the truth, but not in a saving deeply spiritual way. First Corinthians 2:14 says, “A natural man can't fully comprehend the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him.”

And then finally they have this basic knowledge, even in intellectual understanding and assent to the gospel, you remember the parable of the soils? Let's turn there I want you to see this. Matthew 13, Jesus told the parable of the sower. And in verses 4 and following, He tells about these different soils, and then He explains them down in verse 18 and following, He says, let's just look at one verse 20, “The one on whom the seed was sown in the rocky places, this is the one who hears the word immediately receives it with joy.” Here is an unbeliever who understands the gospel and who appears to respond to it in a genuine way. But as time tells as persecution comes, he withers away, he's not the real thing, so what happens here? By God's common grace, you have an unbeliever having an intellectual understanding and assenting to the gospel, but not truly coming to true saving faith.

Demarest summarizes the benefits of God's common grace this way, “In some, God's common grace facilitates everything that sustains and enhances life on this fallen planet.” The reason this world is as good a place to live as it is, the reason there is as many joys as there are, and you know what the reason a disaster like the storm strikes us, is because most of the time this is an enjoyable place to live. Yes there are troubles, there are trials, there are difficulties, but our lives are also satisfied with food and gladness, as Paul said in Acts 14. All of those things are an expression of God's common grace.

Now let me just finish with this. Where does it come from? How is it that God can show this kind of goodness to unregenerate man? First Timothy 4:10 says, “We have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.” What does that mean? MacArthur in his commentary writes this, “Paul's point is that while God graciously delivers believers from sin's condemnation and penalty because He was their substitute, all men experience some earthly benefits from the goodness of God. The chief of those benefits is common grace.” But nowhere is the source of common grace identified more than Romans 3, and I'm really out of time, but I want you to turn to Romans 3. Romans chapter 3, I want you to really appreciate what you enjoy in God's goodness and common grace. Romans chapter 3, this passage in verse 25 connects God's common grace with the death of Christ. Notice verse 25 of Romans 3, speaking of Christ, he says “God displayed Him publicly, put Him on display as a propitiation” that is a satisfaction of his wrath. Now why did He do this public display? This was to demonstrate His righteousness. Now in this context, the word righteousness in the context of a judge rendering a verdict can be translated justice, and that's probably the best way to translate it here God's justice. So God publicly displayed Christ to vindicate His justice. What does that mean? Why is it necessary for God to vindicate or prove His justice? Well, He goes on, “Because” here's why it was important “because in the forbearance of God He passed over sins.” Passing over here refers to letting go unpunished. It's not forgiving. It's merely not punishing at that time. He passed over sins previously committed. This could refer to sins committed by people before Christ came, or it may refer, as Luther believes, to the sins that we did in the past before we were saved, it doesn't matter either way the point's the same. Here's what He's saying, God has every right to destroy sinners the moment they sin. Justice demands our death in the day that you eat, you shall die, God said. Exodus 34:7, God describes Himself as one who, by no means leave the guilty unpunished in His forbearance. He allows guilty sinners to live, and in addition, He even provides all these temporal blessings for His enemies.

Here's Paul's point, don't miss this, here's Paul's point. Even the grace that God shows sinners in sparing their lives and providing them with temporal blessings could undermine His justice. So at Calvary, God vindicated His character. Christ's death made it possible for God to show unbelieving sinners common grace without staining His reputation as being righteous. This isn't the primary purpose of the death of Christ, but it is an important one. How lightly we take our sin just think about this for a moment? If God had not poured out His wrath on His Son on the cross, His very character would be sullied by letting us live one second after we sin the first time.

Every blessing we enjoy flows to us through the cross, think about the simplest of human joys. Think about recently, when you enjoyed a good meal, when you stop to take in the beauty of a sunset, when you savored a rich moment with your family, when you laughed with a friend. You and I don't deserve any of that. The only thing we deserve is God's eternal wrath. It was the cross of Jesus Christ that bought those temporal moments and every right, earthly joy as well as our eternity in God's common grace. Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for Your great goodness shown in what we call Your common grace. Lord, we acknowledge there's nothing common about it. It's overwhelming to think that You are good to Your enemies. That You let us live even though it could have sullied your character, but You instead vindicated your justice by killing Christ. So You could do good to us, so You could do good even to Your enemies to those who will breathe their last breath hating You. What a gracious and good God you are. Help us to worship you to love you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.