FAQ – What is grace?
Q. 1. “What is grace?”
Grace signifies three things in Scripture. If we
understand what grace is, we will see that God’s grace could not possibly be
bestowed on the reprobate, that is, it could not be common. Let us turn to what
the Scriptures teach.
First, God’s grace is an attribute of God, one of
His glorious perfections. I Peter 5:10 calls Him “the God of all grace.”
Similarly, we read that there are treasured up in the Triune God “exceeding
riches of his grace” (Eph. 2:7). About Jesus, we read that, as the only
begotten of the Father, He is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). This means
that the source of all grace is God Himself and that all grace mediated to the
creature comes through Christ alone. Is “common grace,” then, also mediated
through Christ? How could that be, since the reprobate are not “in Christ”?
Grace has the root idea of beauty, charm or pleasantness. When we speak of
God’s grace, therefore, we mean that He is—utterly independent of the creature,
to whom He may or may not show grace according to His good pleasure—the sum of
all perfections, the God of beauty, charm and pleasantness. The believer
delights in this, desiring to “dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of
[his] life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire
in his temple” (Ps. 27:4). God’s beauty is His grace.
Second, grace is favour. Although it comes to us
as undeserved favour, grace itself is simply favour.
We know this because God favoured Jesus Christ, about whom we cannot say that
He received God’s undeserved favour. “Jesus increased in
wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52). Moreover, we
must not confuse the word “favour” with the word “favourite,” as if God could
only favour some, because having “favourites” supposedly means that He must
exclude others from His favour. A teacher might favour everyone in the class,
without showing favouritism or having favourites. The teacher’s favour on some
or all of the students is his attitude toward them. God’s favour is free.
Therefore, He may favour all, many, some, few or even none, according to His
good pleasure. If God had favour on none, but cast all sinners into hell, He
would still be the gracious God of all grace. However, in that case, He would
not have made His grace known. That grace of God has “appeared”
(Titus 2:11). God’s grace or favour, then, is the beautiful, pleasant attitude
of favour that God has for His people who are creatures and sinners. When the
Psalmist prays, “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us” (Ps.
90:17), he has God’s grace in mind. Let God’s favour rest upon us! Does God’s
favour rest on the reprobate? Certainly not, for the Bible teaches that
God’s wrath abides on them (John 3:36).
Third, grace is a power by which God works in His
people to conform them to the image of Jesus Christ. This third aspect is not
the focus in the “common grace” debate, so we can be more brief. Grace is the
power by which we live as Christians. Paul writes, “But by the grace of God I
am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I
laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God
which was with me” (I Cor. 15:10). God’s grace laboured in Paul—it was a
power active in him. That same grace works in us, enabling us to live as
Christians, to fulfil the calling God has given to us and to endure the trials
that He has placed upon us. Elsewhere, Paul writes that God’s grace teaches us
and enables us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, that we should live
soberly, righteously and godly in this present world (Titus 2:12). Does common
grace do that? Do the reprobate live in a godly manner by the power of God’s
(common) grace? Only a fool would suggest it! Without God’s grace we can do
nothing. That is why we pray for grace, for “God will give His grace and Holy
Spirit to those only who with sincere desires continually ask them of Him, and
are thankful for them” (Heidelberg Catechism, A. 116). When God assures
Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee” (II Cor. 12:9), He does not mean, “It
is enough for thee that I am the sum of all perfections or it is enough for
thee that I am favourable to thee” but “the power of My grace, which works in
thee, is sufficient for thee to serve Me, even if I do not remove the thorn
from thy flesh.”
God’s grace is particular, that is, not all men are
recipients of it. Common grace, which [some say] is “extended to everyone,”
does not exist.
In addition, God’s grace is one … [and it is]
rooted in election and the cross, the source of grace according to sacred
Scripture.
The first time the word “grace” is used in
Scripture is Genesis 6:8, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” While
God’s wrath was directed against the whole of mankind and while He determined
to destroy them, God favoured Noah and his family. There is in Genesis 6 no
hint of common grace. The “but” of verse 8 contrasts sharply God’s attitude
toward Noah with His attitude toward the wicked antediluvians. When God caused
His sun to rise upon the antediluvian world and when those wicked people “were
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” (Matt. 24:38), they did
so without God’s favour upon them. God’s elect eat, drink and
enjoy His sunshine and rain with His blessing upon them; but the reprobate
wicked eat, drink and use God’s creation under His wrath and with His curse
upon them. Proverbs 3:33 teaches, “The curse of the Lord is in
the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just.” God does
not curse those upon whom He is gracious; and God does not bless those whom He
curses. Blessing and cursing are mutually exclusive: “For such as be blessed of
him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off”
(Ps. 37:22). On the Last Day, Christ will declare that His elect sheep are
blessed (both in time and into eternity), while the reprobate goats are cursed
(both in time and into eternity) (Matt. 25:34, 41, 46).
Something that all advocates of common grace miss is
that God’s grace is not in things but in His disposition behind the things that
He gives (Ecc. 9:1-2). God’s providence is universal, not
particular. God upholds and governs even the wicked by His hand. God supplies
even the wicked with the good gifts of this creation. Often, the reprobate
wicked enjoy more of God’s creation and for a longer time than do His often
beleaguered children. But those good things are not in themselves grace. God
can give rain, sunshine, food and clothing graciously or in His wrath (Num.
11:33). If God has a benevolent disposition of good will toward a creature, in
which He desires to bless that creature, we call that good will “grace.” But
God might also have a disposition of wrath against a creature, in which He
desires to curse that creature. Never can we call such a disposition “grace.”
(Rev. Martyn
McGeown, “An Answer to Phil Johnson’s ‘Primer on Hyper-Calvinism’”)
For more on Scriptures’ definition of ‘grace,’ see
the following:
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