Some Thoughts on Common Grace

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First Thought

Romans 8:28 makes impossible the distinction between common grace and particular or saving grace. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

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Common Grace, as defined in 1924 by the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), is God's general favor to all creatures. The essence of the position is contained in the following three points:
1. In addition to the saving grace of God, shown only to those who are elected to eternal life, there is also a certain favor, or grace, of God shown to his creatures in general.
2. Since the fall, human life in society remains possible because God, through his Spirit, restrains the power of sin.
3. God, without renewing the heart, so influences human beings that, though incapable of doing any saving good, they are able to do civil good.
Source:
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There is no denial to point 2 and 3 that God restrains the power of sin in society and causes the wicked reprobate to do civil good without saving them. Definitely, there is no denial that God provides rain, food, water and raiment to everyone including the wicked reprobate. However all this providential act of God is not for the purpose of God’s general favour to all humanity without exception, but rather it is the providential work of God for the good of ONLY God’s people or the elect which brings glory to God. Therefore, the divine general favour of point 1 is a wrong starting point of points 2 and 3. The logical implication of Romans 8:28 is that God works all things NOT for the good of the wicked reprobate (they do not love God and are not called of God). Psalm 92:7 supports this logical implication: “When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever.” Romans 9:13,17 also confirms the purpose of God in raising up the wicked reprobate in the world not for any divine general favour to humanity without exception: “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated….. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” The growth and flourishing of the wicked reprobates in this world is a means to harden their hearts which leads unto their eternal destruction.

There is only one grace. The grace that saves. That grace is common only to the elect.


Second Thought
In the doctrine of God's longsuffering, there is: 1) General longsuffering of God i.e. God delaying to justly send the wicked reprobates to hell. 2) Particular longsuffering of God i.e. love (not a stretched-out wrath) that postpones the final deliverance of its objects because the time of final deliverance and justification of the elect has not yet come (Herman Hoeksema).

Is General Longsuffering of God a common grace? God forbid!
God delaying to send the wicked reprobates to hell is not common grace nor divine general favour to all men without exception. God's general longsuffering is always subservient to the particular longsuffering of God for the elect alone. God delays the death of the wicked reprobates because He purposes to use them as instruments for the good and sanctification of the elect. One example is revealed in Romans 9 where God kept Pharaoh alive for so long so that He can use him to persecute Israel and to show them His power in the parting of the Red Sea which swallowed Pharaoh and his army. God keeps many reprobates alive and flourishing (Psalm 92:7) around His people because God has decreed to use them as means for the good of His people in countless of ways which our mind cannot fathom. As Romans 8:28 says, all things without exception works together for good for the elect which includes the existence and all actions of the wicked reprobates (whom only God can identify) around the elect.

Herman Hoeksema: "When God does not immediately destroy the vessels of wrath and forbears them, that is, He is long of wrath and represses His anger until the judgment day, the result is that the children of God must suffer and be persecuted. For this reason, God's forbearance toward the vessels of wrath is always accompanied by long-suffering toward His people."

Romans 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

I want to emphasize that the wicked reprobates are still alive not because God loves them, nor because God still desires to give them a chance of salvation. But rather it is because God still has a purpose in using them as instruments for the good and sanctification of His people in this world, be it through persecution or other means.

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