What's Common Grace?

"The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made" (Psalm 145:9). Many theologians refer to this as common grace. That's not because grace is common, but it is common to all mankind. The line is drawn between common grace and saving grace. God is good to restrain evil, give people time to repent, provide fruitful seasons and food, and many other benefits that are common to all mankind.

Bruce Demarest wrote, "In sum, God's common grace facilitates that sustains and enhances life on a fallen planet." This planet is morally fallen with the sin of all mankind. While judgment is coming, until then God's common grace sustains the world in which we live.

Abraham Kuyper recognized common grace as primarily restraining sin. He wrote, "By His common grace God bridles the evil of fallen human nature, restrains the ruin which sin has produced and spread, and enables even the unregenerated men to do good in the broad non-redemptive sense." God shows common grace even to those who reject God's goodness and compassion. They falsely believe there is no God who will judge them. 

God is temporally the Savior of all mankind in common grace. "God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe" (1 Timothy 4:10). However, the time of God's common grace will end for those who reject his saving grace in Christ. It will happen in the day when this present earth and sky will be aflame in God's justice and judgment on sin. To the contrary, saving grace in Christ Jesus our Lord is everlasting.

The Kingdom Stone

Daniel the prophet declared that "the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44). It is a kingdom that shall stand forever. Messiah, our Lord Jesus, is the kingdom stone who will establish the kingdom. He shall reign forever. His kingdom shall fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:35).

Messiah, the kingdom stone, was "cut out of the mountain without hands" (Daniel 2:45). That is a way of speaking about the supernatural work of God. Jesus the Messiah had a supernatural birth. He was raised from the dead through the supernatural power of God. His second coming will be in supernatural power and great glory.

At his first coming, Jesus declared the kingdom of God is at hand. His miracles of healing, delivering people from demons, and raising the dead, were all signs of the kingdom. He came preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He taught that all who are born again enter the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

The kingdom stone is at work in our world. After his glorious resurrection, Jesus declared, "All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18). As the chief cornerstone, he is building his church. He said, "I will build my church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). The kingdom works through "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).

What Is Apostasy?

John MacArthur explained, "Apostasy isn’t an unintentional departure or personal struggle with doubt. It is deliberately abandoning the truth for erroneous teaching. 'The faith' refers specifically to the body of Christian doctrine, not the act of believing. Some will depart from 'the faith which was once delivered unto the saints' (Jude 3). People who understand and outwardly affirm Christian doctrine but don’t have a heart for God are prime candidates for being seduced by demons away from the faith."

John MacArthur warned of apostasy. He was not talking about Christians who struggle with doubt. To the contrary, apostasy is when a person deliberately rejects the truth of Holy Scripture for false teaching. MacArthur defines apostasy as "seduced by demons away from the faith."

Apostasy happens to people who "outwardly affirm Christian doctrine but don’t have a heart for God." In others words, they have made a public profession of faith, without their hearts being changed by the grace of God. Scripture says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us" (1 John 2:19).

MacArthur warned that apostates are "seduced by demons away from the faith." Scripture teaches that demonic spirits motivate false doctrine (1 Timothy 4:1). That leads to "deliberately abandoning the truth for erroneous teaching." Therefore, according to the Scripture, they are "made manifest, that none of them were of us" (1 John 2:19).

Do You Know the Lord?

Do you know the Lord? It's more than academic knowledge. Knowing the Lord is through a personal faith relationship (Hebrews 11:1-6). Faith is confidence and trust in the Lord. Faith knows God in a personal relationship through the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers come to God the Father through faith in God the Son (John 14:6).

God proves his love for us at the cross of Jesus (Romans 5:8). Knowing the Lord is knowing God's love (1 John 4:8). Faith receives God's love in Christ (John 3:16). Believers know the Lord by knowing real love in our hearts, through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

Knowing the Lord is through a covenant relationship. The Lord Jesus Christ is the surety of the covenant. God promises with a covenant oath that cannot be broken. Such covenant promises are everlasting. Believers take God at the word of his promise. All the promises of God are Yes and Amen for believers in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Know the Lord, for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them (Hebrews 8:11). Believers know the Lord today through the everlasting covenant in Christ (Hebrews 13:20-21). Lord is God's personal covenant name. Believers know the Lord in a personal covenant relationship through Christ.

How Is God Trinity?

God is Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. While the Bible never uses the word Trinity, it clearly reveals one God in three Persons. The triune God works in perfect harmony from the beginning to the completion of our eternal salvation. There is election by God the Father, redemption by God the Son, and regeneration by God the Holy Spirit. 

Consider this illustration of God as Trinity. You may draw a triangle on paper to illustrate the Trinity. It is one triangle with three distinct points. So, there is one God in three distinct persons as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Believers encounter God as Trinity through prayer. We pray to God our Father, in the name of God the Son, through the presence and power of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus teaches us to ask the Father in His name (John 14:13). Scripture teaches us to pray in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18; Jude 20).

The testimony of God as Trinity is baptism. It's a public testimony to God as Trinity. Jesus commanded us to baptize believers in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Notice that baptism is not in the names plural, but the name singular. It's in the name of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Is Grace Resisted?

God's grace is resisted by all who reject Christ. They thereby have "insulted the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:29). The Bible teaches that people can and do insult God's Spirit. Their hearts are not changed by the grace of God. Condemnation is for all who reject Christ (John 3:18). 

"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you" (Acts 7:51). Only the Spirit of God can change our hearts, which means our mind, will, and emotions. By resisting the Holy Spirit, people are insulting the only one who can apply the gospel of Christ to their lives.

The Holy Spirit, who changes our corrupt hearts, is the same Holy Spirit who convicts our hearts. Conviction is grace that precedes new birth (John 16:7-11). When conviction is resisted, grace is resisted. This is condemnation for refusing to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.

All who reject Christ are condemned. Jesus said, "And this is condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). Therefore, all who reject Christ have no one to blame but themselves.

What Is the Church?

The New Testament teaches the divine romance, that the church is the bride of Christ. The church is not a denomination nor a sectarian group. The church includes all who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ. The church is a mystery not revealed in the Old Testament. The church is revealed in the New Testament (Ephesians 3:1-6). All believers compose the body of Christ. He is the head of the body (Ephesians 5:23).

Wedding customs in New Testament days illustrated the relationship with Christ and the church. The father chose the bride for his son. God the Father chose the church as the bride for His Son. Believers are the bride-elect of Christ. Marriage was a covenant relationship. Christ is the Shepherd of the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20-21). A dowry price was paid for a bride. Jesus paid it all for his bride at the cross (Ephesians 5:25). 

In the book of Revelation, we read about the divine romance. It is the marriage of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7). The Bible has been described as the divine romance. God loves us and pursues a personal relationship with us. Believers receive the love of God in Christ (John 3:16).

The Lamb is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist introduced Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). He is every believer's Passover Lamb at the cross (1 Corinthians 5:7). The divine romance is God's love for sinners at the cross of Jesus (Romans 5:8).