Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

What is “Common Grace”?  The Three Points of “Common Grace” were adopted by the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church in 1924.  The following link quotes the three points exactly and literally – http://www.prca.org/articles/article_7.html .  A brief answer, point by point, to these three points is provided by the Protestant Reformed Churches in the following link – http://www.prca.org/articles/article_5.html 

                                                                

For purposes of this short blog, a short and partial summary of “Common Grace” and a short and partial summary of its denial by the Protestant Reformed Churches, although in a different point format, is provided in the following two paragraphs and are close to a quote from The Summary of Declaration of Principles of the Protestant Reformed Churches.  You can read more at the web site of Covenant of Grace Protestant Reformed Fellowship located at http://www.reformedspokane.org/  and click on the link “Reformed” under “Doctrine”. 

                                                                     

First, “Common Grace” holds that there is a grace of God to all men, including the reprobate, manifest in the common gifts to all men.  Second, “Common Grace” holds that the preaching of the gospel is a gracious offer of salvation on the part of God to all that externally hear the gospel.  Third, “Common Grace” holds that the natural man through the influence of common grace can do good in this world.

                                                             

Why is “Common Grace” denied?  The Protestant Reformed Churches deny “Common Grace”.  First, they maintain that the grace of God is always particular, i.e., only for the elect, never for the reprobate.  Second, they maintain that the preaching of the gospel is not a gracious offer of salvation on the part of God to all men, nor a conditional offer to all that are born in the historical dispensation of the covenant, that is, to all that are baptized, but an oath of God that He will infallibly lead all the elect unto salvation and eternal glory through faith.  Third, they maintain that the unregenerate man is totally incapable of doing any good, wholly depraved, and therefore can only sin.                          

                                                            

It is very important to note that the Protestant Reformed Churches admit that, as part of God’s providence, God does give good gifts, like sunshine and rain, to all men, but He never gives these good gifts as part of GRACE to all men. 

“When I pondered to understand this,  It (the prosperity of the wicked) was troublesome in my sight 
Until I came into the sanctuary of God;  Then I perceived their end. 
Surely You set them in slippery places;
You cast them down to destruction.”  Psalm 73:16-18 

Moreover, the suffering and deprivation of the righteous is not a sign of God’s disfavor on them.  “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.  And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.”  Hebrews 11:37-40. 

Why is the denial of “Common Grace” important?  We, the Bride of Christ, must trust our Husband, Christ, that He only loves us, the Elect.  What husband would want his wife to believe that he loved everybody?

                                                         

Ephesians 5:25-28 states:  “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.  So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies.”

                                      

This is a peculiar love, a special love just for His Church, the Elect.  Just as a husband should not love and give himself up for all women, but only his own wife, Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for the church, not for all the world.  

                                                       

If the world claims, “God loves everybody and shows common grace everybody!”  We, the Church, as Christ’s loyal and faithful and believing Bride, should defend our Husband, Christ, and exclaim:  “NO!  Christ (God) only loves us, the Elect!  God only shows grace to us, the Elect!  God only loves His Elect who were given to Christ, and thankfully I know that I am numbered among those people and thankfully you may also know that you too are numbered among those people!”