Doctrine  /

Common Grace & Saving Grace

God is good to all. But His goodness to all is not the same as His saving love for the elect. Understanding the distinction preserves both God's universal benevolence and the particularity of redemption.

Position

I affirm the doctrine of common grace as it has been articulated in the Reformed tradition, particularly as developed by Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck, and defended against hyper-Calvinist denial by B.B. Warfield and others.

Common grace refers to God's general, non-saving favor extended to all of humanity and indeed to all creation. It is "common" because it is shared by all without distinction, elect and non-elect alike. It includes:

  • The providential maintenance of creation (rain and sun on the just and unjust alike, Matt. 5:45)
  • The restraint of sin in human society, so that the full effects of depravity are not universally manifested at once
  • The capacity for unregenerate people to do civil good, to reason, to create beauty, to construct just societies, however imperfectly
  • Natural revelation and the conscience (Rom. 1:19–20; 2:14–15)

Common grace does not save. It does not bring anyone into right standing with God. It does not produce the spiritual good that requires regeneration. A brilliant atheist philosopher, a just unbelieving statesman, a compassionate non-Christian doctor: their goodness is real, it is God-given, and it is not saving. They remain under condemnation apart from Christ.

Saving grace (special grace, efficacious grace) is God's particular, electing, regenerating love toward the elect, those He has chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Saving grace differs from common grace not merely in degree but in kind. It effectually changes the heart, brings the dead to life, produces genuine faith and repentance, and unites the believer to Christ. It is given to the elect alone.

The distinction matters practically. Without it, we are left either denying that unregenerate people produce anything genuinely good (a position that strains credibility and misrepresents Scripture), or collapsing the distinction between the regenerate and unregenerate (a position that undermines the gospel). Common grace explains why fallen humanity is not as bad as it could be; saving grace explains why any sinner is as good as the new creation.

I should note that some in the Reformed tradition (following Herman Hoeksema) deny the doctrine of common grace, viewing it as inconsistent with God's particular love for the elect. I find this position unpersuasive exegetically and theologically; it cannot account for the plain language of passages like Matthew 5:44–45 and Psalm 145:9.

Key Scripture

“so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Matthew 5:45

The paradigmatic common grace text. God's providential provision is genuinely universal, a real expression of His goodness.

“Yahweh is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.”

Psalm 145:9

“because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

Romans 1:19–20

General revelation is itself an expression of common grace; God has not left any person without knowledge of Himself.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”

Ephesians 2:4–5

Saving grace is discriminating: it is God's "great love" directed toward specific people ("us") who were dead, making them alive.

Confession Reference

The 1689 LBC does not use the term "common grace" explicitly, but affirms its substance in several places:

  • Chapter 4: Of Creation, God's providential care for all creation
  • Chapter 5: Of Divine Providence, God's governance of all things, maintaining the natural order
  • Chapter 21: Of Christian Liberty, the light of nature and its limits

Resources

  • Common Grace by Abraham Kuyper (3 vols.)

    The magisterial treatment. Kuyper builds the full theological and cultural implications of the doctrine.
  • Common Grace in Teaching and Practice by Herman Bavinck
  • Grace and Common Grace by B.B. Warfield, in Works, Vol. 5