Common Grace
The Thesis What is ‘common grace’? (167) North states that,
“The thesis of this book is that the best way to explain common grace is by comparing it to the crumbs that fall to sinners who sit under the table of the Lord. The key question with respect to the timing of God’s judgment against sinners is this: When do they attempt to destroy the table of the Lord? In other words, when do they do their ethically best to kill, remove, or persecute God’s church?”
The picture of the front cover shows one end of this table covered with fairly large plates with chunks of fairly dry, white bread. Some crumbs have fallen off, and a little naked girl seems to reach out to the largest of these crumbs.
Apparently, North sees the crumb-crawlers as the reprobates, that is: those who are hated by God and therefore destined for their well-deserved damnation. Nevertheless, they are still recipients of a ‘trickle-down effect’ from the blessings for God’s only loved ones even though they will never be thankful and repentant. To the contrary, they will use God’s lesser gifts in order to rebel against the gracious Giver. And when they finally attack, trying to grab the better blessings, the table will fall on them in judgment.
Gary North apparently suggests that ‘common grace’ is only for ‘sinners’ under the table. Supposedly, those truly loved by God are seated at the banquet table, while all others are mere crumb-crawlers. I assume he defines ‘sinners’ here as those whose minds and lives are dominated by sin,1 but can we equate this with the reprobates? Apparently, this is implied in Gary’s exposition.
Nevertheless, Paul reasons with the Romans that ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ In other words, those Christians in Rome used to be sinners, but -by God’s grace- they have now been saved and invited at the Master’s table. Once a sinner does not imply: always a sinner! The Good News is that there is hope for sinners. And, what about those, seated at the banquet table (yet, missing in the picture)? Are they not included in the recipients of ‘common grace’? We will discuss this in a later paragraph.
The Canaanite Woman
North’s metaphor seems to relate to the Bible story of Jesus, when he meets a Canaanite woman. We read this in Matthew 15: 21-28. In preceding and following stories Jesus feeds thousands of people, who apparently came to seek healing. And right in the middle there is just one pagan woman, who seeks the blessing of healing for her daughter, who is demon-possessed.
That the picture shows a naked girl seems to confirm that this is the demon-possessed girl. Jesus appears to dismiss her (and her mother) as they do not belong to the covenant people of Israel, being of Canaanite background. But is that really his intent, or does the Teacher pursue the popular rhetoric in order to create an opportunity for her ‘great faith’ to be revealed? For, when the mother continues her pleas in spite of Jesus’ (apparent) dismissal, he then praises her for her great faith. Concerning the thousands that were healed and fed before and afterwards, we find no such commendation from the Lord. Yet, for this one Canaanite woman, who loved her daughter and trusted in the power and mercy of the rabbi Jesus, we find surprising faith, which brings out God’s amazing grace. Perhaps the story of the Canaanite woman fits in Jesus’ story line when he ‘preached’ in his home town:
I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” 2
So, the Canaanite woman and her daughter may well be another sign and evidence of the coming Kingdom restoration. Many last ones, like a demon-possessed pagan girl, will end up as the first! In the end, she gets offered much more than crumbs!
How can North be sure that she and her mother are reprobates, who cannot come to saving faith? I think we should not see those who live in sin as reprobates but as not-yet-believers, with the understanding that they, too, are invited to come to the Table by true faith. Even though the Good News turns out bad news for those who reject it, is therefore not a good message for all who hear it?
As we read in Genesis 9:1-17, God made a covenant with all the earth, all its creatures,3 and especially all people.4 All people -yes, all earthly creatures- are included in the post-flood covenant. God reveals himself as their Creator (like sons, they were created in his image), Savior (through the Flood) Provider (of rain and sunshine),5 and Sustainer. This refers to all humankind, for all are recipients of this ‘common grace’; therefore, the Noahic covenant can be seen as the first dimension in God’s covenant of grace.6
This is how Paul addresses the atheist and pantheist philosophers in Athens.7 As Paul insists, these gracious gifts imply obligations. The recipients are warned to seek this God and to live in thankfulness and expectation with this Father-God. Just because Israel received greater blessings (as well as obligations), this does not mean that they no longer receive this common grace. Later, with Jesus’ coming, and particularly after Pentecost (his return by his Spirit), all nations are reminded of their relationship with and obligation to their creator-provider God. That’s why Paul, when the Spirit brings him to the Areopagus, argues that the God he proclaims is not a foreign God for them; he has provided and guided them all along, and now they are called to seek their Creator-God and Father-Provider to be reconciled to him. And, indeed, if they refuse to do so, there will be judgment in the end.
From this perspective then, common grace refers to God’s gifts to all humanity. The greater gifts of the covenant with Abraham-Israel are not more of the same; they are much richer. If ‘common grace’ is bread, then the grace in God’s Word and the communion of God’s people, which experiences the mighty acts of their God is perhaps butter and cheese. Do not despise the bread of the basic blessings. God cares for all of creation, and he sent his Son to restore it fully as his Kingdom.
1 Occasionally, the term ‘sinner’ is used in the Bible to refer to people who regularly fall into sin, even if their lives are no longer under the rule of sin but under the rule of the Spirit. So, their genuine desire is to love God and to hate sin.
2 Luke 4:25-27.
3 It makes no sense to apply the Covenant of Grace to Satan. He is no eartly creature and there is no biblical indication that Satan could be reconciled.
4 in other words: Noah and his offspring, i.e. all humanity since the Flood
5 as in Psalm 104:27.
6 See 'The Covenant of Grace revisited 1 in Praying for Rain, blogger
7 Acts 17: 22-31.
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