What Is Common Grace, and What Can Unbelievers Perceive Through It?

Question 02085.

Common grace is the name theologians give to the goodness God shows to every human being, whether or not they know him. The phrase is not in the Bible, but the reality is everywhere in it. The sun rises on the wicked as well as the good. Unbelievers fall in love, raise children, discover cures, write music and give their lives for strangers. Where does all that goodness come from? And how much can a person who has never trusted Jesus actually understand about God?

These are not idle questions. How we answer them shapes the way we regard our neighbours, the way we value art and science, and the way we share the gospel. Let me take them in turn.

What common grace is

Jesus gave the clearest statement of it in the Sermon on the Mount. God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Paul told the crowd at Lystra that God had not left himself without witness, “for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness,” as Acts 14:17 records. The psalmist says that the Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made.

So common grace is undeserved kindness extended to the whole human race. The Greek word for grace is charis, and grace by definition is favour that has not been earned. Every breath an unbeliever takes is a gift. Every harvest, every family meal and every friendship is a gift. Every moment in which God withholds the judgement our sin deserves is a gift as well. Common grace is God’s patience and generosity towards a world in rebellion.

How it differs from saving grace

Common grace must be distinguished from saving grace, and the difference matters. Common grace sustains life, and saving grace gives new life. The one restrains sin, whereas the other forgives it. The one is shared by all people simply because they are God’s creatures. The other is received by those who turn to Jesus in faith. I have set out the contrast in common grace and saving grace.

I would add that the line between them is not quite as tidy as some systems make it. Scripture also speaks of God’s Spirit convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgement, and of Jesus drawing all people to himself when he was lifted up. That work goes out to everyone. It is a gracious invitation that people can and do resist. So I would not say that common grace is only physical blessing while saving grace is a private gift to a chosen few. God is at work in every heart, calling it to himself.

Common grace in the Old Testament

The theme runs right back to the beginning. After the flood God promised Noah in Genesis 8:22 that while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. That covenant was made with every living creature, believer or not, and the rainbow still hangs over a world that largely ignores its Maker. Cain, a murderer, received a mark of protection. Ishmael, outside the line of promise, was blessed and made a great nation. Nineveh, a cruel pagan city, was spared when it repented at Jonah’s preaching, and God asked his angry prophet whether he should not pity a city with so many people who did not know their right hand from their left, “and also much cattle”.

I love that last phrase. God cares even for the animals of a city that had no claim on him. This is the same God who sends rain on the fields of the atheist and the saint alike. The Old Testament is not the story of a tribal deity who looks after his own and ignores the rest. It is the story of the Creator of all, who chose one nation in order to bless every nation, and who never stopped being kind to those outside it.

What unbelievers can perceive

This is the most interesting part of the question. Paul says in Romans 1 that God’s invisible attributes, “his eternal power and divine nature”, have been clearly perceived in the things he has made, so that people are without excuse. In Romans 2 he says that Gentiles who have never read the law of Moses show that its work is written on their hearts, while their consciences accuse or excuse them. I discuss both passages in general and special revelation.

So an unbeliever can perceive that there is a Creator, that he is powerful and that he is not part of the world he made. He can know that some things are truly right and others truly wrong. He can feel guilt that is real guilt and admire goodness that is real goodness. This explains why an atheist doctor may be a far kinder man than a professing Christian, and why a pagan poet can see deeply into the human heart. People are not as bad as they could be, because God has not let them become so. Without that restraint, every society would sink into the kind of violence the world saw before the flood, when the earth was filled with it.

The limits of what common grace gives

Yet there are clear limits. Romans 1 goes on to say that people suppress the truth they know. They exchange the glory of God for images. Knowing God’s power, they do not honour him or give thanks. It gives light enough to make a person accountable. It does not, by itself, bring anyone to the knowledge of the Saviour.

Nature can tell you that God exists. It cannot tell you that he became a man, died for your sins and rose again. Conscience can tell you that you are guilty. It cannot tell you how you may be forgiven. That knowledge comes only through the gospel, which is why Paul asks how people can believe in one of whom they have never heard. Common grace prepares the ground, and only the message of the cross can bring a soul to life.

Moral goodness without saving faith

What, then, of the good that unbelievers do? I believe it is truly good in its own sphere. Scripture does not ask us to pretend that every act of an unbeliever is wicked. A father who works overtime to feed his children is doing a good thing. So is the firefighter who runs into a burning house. The Bible commends Cyrus, a pagan king, as God’s servant for allowing the Jews to go home. That is God’s kindness at work.

Such goodness cannot earn salvation, because it does not deal with the problem of sin. Every person, however kind, has also sinned and fallen short. Our good deeds do not cancel our guilt any more than a man who has robbed a bank can buy his way out of the charge by giving to charity. The good works of an unbeliever are real, and they are not enough. The gospel is not for people who are hopelessly bad at everything. It is for people who cannot make themselves right with God however good they are at many things.

Why common grace matters for Christians

The doctrine guards us against two mistakes. One is to despise the world. Christians sometimes speak as though nothing outside the church has any value. Common grace teaches us to be grateful for good government, medicine, science, music and literature wherever they come from, since all of them are gifts of God. Paul quoted pagan poets at Athens without embarrassment, and we may learn from people with whom we disagree about the most important things.

The other mistake is to think that because people seem decent, they do not need the gospel. God’s kindness makes our neighbours pleasant, honest and kind, and it can lull us into assuming they are fine. They are not fine. They need Jesus as much as the worst sinner. And the very things common grace has given them, a conscience, a sense of beauty and a longing for justice, are bridges we can use to speak about the God who gave them. I have written more about the inner witness in what is the conscience.

So, now what?

Look around you this week and notice God’s kindness. Thank God for the doctor who helped you, the farmer who grew your food and the neighbour who took in your parcel. Every one of them is a sign of a generous God who has not given up on his world. None of them earned the sunshine or the rain either, and neither did we.

Then remember that the goodness you see in others is not the same as salvation. Is there someone you have assumed is all right simply because they are a good person? What would it take for you to tell them about the grace that saves?

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Matthew 5:45 (ESV)