Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the Lord GOD of
Israel. For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy
borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the
year (Exod. 34:23-24).
COMMON GRACE ARGUMENT:
Q. “In Exodus 34:23, God commanded the men of Israel to leave their plot
of land to go and appear before Him three times a year. To ensure the
protection of God’s people from invasion during these times, even though
the pagan nations surrounding them desired their land year-round, He
promised that ‘neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go
up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year’ (24). How is
God’s protection of the land of Israel from being invaded by the pagan
nations on their border by His restraining their wicked hearts explained
apart from a gracious influence of the Spirit upon them?”
(I)
Rev. Ronald Hanko
[Source: Covenant Reformed News, vol. 18, no. 16 (Aug. 2021)]
God does this by His Holy Spirit, just as He does all things by the Spirit, first restraining their sin and then removing His restraints through the sovereign operations of the Spirit. He does this for the sake of His beloved church and to bring to pass all that He has decreed, but this restraint is not grace to the reprobate. Its purpose in the salvation of His redeemed people is gracious but there is no grace of God in the restraint itself, no grace shown to those whose wickedness He restrains. His restraint is like putting a muzzle on a rabid dog. The dog is restrained from biting and others are protected from it, but its nature is not changed nor its disease cured. God even restrains Satan (Job 1:12; 2:6; Rev. 20:1-3) and that most certainly is not a gracious restraint. Indeed, it is proof that God is able to restrain wickedness by His almighty power without showing grace to those whose sin is restrained.
God uses many different means to restrain man’s wickedness: the fear of punishment; the desire for the praise of others; the social shame and disgrace that wickedness brings at times, even among the ungodly; the fear of revenge; the evil consequences of sin to one’s health, family or career. Even then, these restraints only just keep sin in check. When they are removed, it becomes evident that man’s heart was not changed by these restraints, for he is still just as depraved and prone to all evil as before.
God, in His justice, uses these wicked men themselves to remove those restraints. He uses their courts to legalize homosexuality, abortion and drug abuse. He puts the medical, financial and legal means in their hands to descend into lawlessness and gross wickedness. He gives them the knowledge to invent and create, and then turn it all to the service of sin and Satan. What a testimony to His justice and righteousness that is!
Our denial of common grace, therefore, is not a denial of God’s restraint of sin, nor of the fact that this restraint is the work of His Spirit, nor of His gracious purpose in restraining sin. It is simply that there is no grace except in the cross and shed blood of our Saviour, and no grace for those who are without Christ. Proverbs 3:33 reminds us that “the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked,” not His grace. It would be strange grace, anyway, that first restrained their wickedness and then withdrew.
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(II)
More to come! (DV)
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