The Piety And Morality
Of The Natural Man

The Doctrine Of Common Grace

1 John 4:8  "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

1 John 4:16  "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

In our society we confuse Love with all sorts of things. We confuse Love with strong emotion (I really LOVE that woman), with cravings (I LOVE Ice Cream), and with improper mental attitudes (I'd LOVE to bash his head in). We throw the word around so much that we have somehow forgotten what true Love is, the Love that is of God.

The Greeks were more circumspect when dealing with Love. As a matter of fact, they used several different words to describe different types of Love. PHILEOS, or love between friends, is a love that is somewhat selfish. You see, we become friends with people when we see something in them we like. We become friends with people that we identify with. PHILEOS, therefore is a somewhat selfish sort of Love. EROS, or sensual love, was also somewhat selfish. It was a love expressed through sexual expression, and only properly (Biblically) between man and wife. STAUROS, or familial Love, was the love expressed between parents and children, or between siblings within the same family. STAUROS could be expressed cross-family, such as to Aunts, Uncles, Nieces, Nephews (etc.) if all members were within the same family line.

Yet when the Bible uses the phrase "God is Love", the Author does not use any of these Greek words. Instead, he uses AGAPE, a totally different type of Love to describe this attribute in God. AGAPE is the Divine standard of Love. The person who uses AGAPE never considers "How will I benefit in this exchange?" prior to it's expression. AGAPE, rather, always seeks to do the highest good for the other party. For instance, if I see another Christian in sin, then I am compelled (if I am functioning under AGAPE) to point this out Scripturally to him. Does this make the other person like me? Absolutely not! As a matter of fact, the other person may reciprocate by attacking me. Regardless, I am compelled by AGAPE and God's Word to point this out so that he might repent and return to a relationship with the Father. If I see another Christian following false doctrine, that which is not supported by God's Word, I am compelled by AGAPE to point out the error. Many may hate the believer functioning under AGAPE, but this is the standard we are called to. So often, in the modern Church, we feel compelled to "make others like us", so we avoid AGAPE in favor of PHILEOS. We must be careful in this, my brethren. God calls us to do the highest good toward others, regardless as to the return.

I'm sure by now you're asking yourself, "Well, what does this have to do with Grace?". It has everything to do with Grace. Since God is AGAPE, His plan for dealing with man is driven by AGAPE. His plan is called "Grace".

When man fell into sin in the Garden our Father was presented with several problems. First, since man had broken his relationship with the Creator, God wanted to establish a means to bring fallen man back into this relationship. The means of securing this repaired fellowship was the Cross of Christ, and it was offered under the plan of Saving or Efficacious Grace.

1 Peter 2:2-3 "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

Every person who accepts Jesus Christ as Savior tastes the Grace of God. That is, they enjoy the benefits of His Plan of Grace in that their sins are forgiven and they become heirs of God's Kingdom. Grace is all that God is free to do for the believer because the Son paid the penalty for our sins. We do not earn nor even deserve God's Saving Grace. We deserve, quite frankly, eternal death in hell. Yet, as I said before, AGAPE doesn't look at what's deserved nor does it examine how it will benefit the Giver. Agape only looks at offering the highest good for the other person. In our case, God decided that the highest good for fallen man was that we come back into a saving relationship with Him.

Ephesians 2:8-10 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

Romans 3:23-26 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

Romans 4:3-8 "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."

Romans 5:20-21 "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."

Psalms 103:8-12 "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."

Praise God for His Saving Grace. More than that, Praise Him that, because He is AGAPE, He is willing to offer us salvation under the Plan of Grace. Yet Saving Grace is not the only type of Grace that proceeds from God.

As I said before, God decided, in AGAPE, that our highest good would be to bring us back into a right relationship with Him. Yet we are mortal and fragile creatures, easily starved or destroyed. So God also offered a type of undeserved Grace to all of mankind that would keep us alive long enough to accept or reject the Gospel of Christ/ Saving Grace. Theologians call this type of universal AGAPE Common Grace.

Acts 14:15-17 "And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:  Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."

Under Common Grace God provides mankind with food and water. Yes, we may plant the seed, yet it is God who gives the increase. His provision is His witness that He exists, and that He Loves us all. It is a true saying that Atheists are made, not born. It doesn't matter where you go, or what culture you enter into, people have a knowledge that there IS a God because of the rain and fruitful seasons. They may not believe in the One True God, yet they know there is a God. Even the Atheist who has so twisted his mind so as to disbelieve in God, this person still let's slip his belief in God. When in trouble the Atheist mutters, "Oh God". When in anger the Atheists curses the very God he claims to disavow. Mankind certainly doesn't deserve it, but God is constantly, behind the scenes, providing nourishment and water so that we can have the opportunity to accept His Saving Grace tomorrow.

Romans 2:3-4 "And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?"

Were it not for God's goodness none of us would ever know about the Cross, for we wouldn't be alive. When we think of the things of this world we cannot ignore droughts, hurricanes and severe weather, floods and famine which seems to indiscriminately take the lives of people. In fact, we often seem to dwell on these things as opposed to the good. Yet, if you stop and think for but a moment, you can literally think of thousands of good and beautiful things that come to each and every one of us as we live our lives. For every drought there are hundreds of instances of bountiful rain and high yield crops. If you but look God provides you with a mate to love and live with, children to cherish and carry on your heritage, food on the table and a means to shelter yourself from the storm. When we stop long enough to observe the beauty of nature (stop and smell the roses, as the old song states), the majesty of the heavens, the deep blue of the oceans, we eventually come to the place in our lives when we admit "He is there". Once we admit that "He is there", perhaps each one of us will be led to seek an answer to the question "How can I know Him?". And in seeking, we are led to repentance.

Romans 2:14-15 "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)"

God knew that when mankind fell into sin that there needed to be some type of control on our actions. You see, if we were left to fully satisfy our sinful nature, there would be no limit to the trouble we could get into. It is theoretically possible that man unrestrained could have eventually wiped himself off of the face of the earth. To protect us from ourselves God gave each and every one of us, saved or unsaved, a conscience to impose limits on our behavior. This conscience is like a built in ruler in our souls. It provides for a universal basic morality that helps restrain our desire to hurt ourselves or others. The conscience actually contains the basic law of God. Though God gave man a written standard of good and evil through Moses (The Ten Commandments - Exodus 20.1-17), this basic standard was written in the hearts of all men long before these stone tablets. God gave the Law to Moses specifically for the Children of Israel, yet the Gentiles had this same Law written in their hearts from the time of Adam. Praise Him that this was so, or else we would have long killed ourselves off.

Imagine a world without a God given conscience. Imagine a world where we sought self gratification without any threat of remorse. In such a world the bigger would take from the smaller, killing another person would be of no consequence, rape and mayhem would be the rule rather than the exception. Under Common Grace God foresaw such a chain of events and gave us conscience and morality. His Love protected us from ourselves.

Yet, even the conscience can be ignored and warped within man. Cannibalism, sexual sins, child molestation, and random gang violence within our society shows that man can so ignore and twist his conscience so as to prevent it's function. When God spoke of those who promote the "alternate lifestyle" He said:

Romans 1:25-28 "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;"

They so twisted their consciences in order to follow their unnatural lust patterns that God gave them up. You see, we are still free agents. Though we have a God given conscience to guide us away from self annihilation, we can twist our conscience to do our bidding. There are many in our society who have a reprobate mind. They obey their own desires rather than their conscience. Some are in sexual sin, others in materiel sin, others just follow the demons of mayhem. Because it is possible to twist the conscience, God provided another protection under Common Grace, the protection of formed Government.

Romans 13:1-7 "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour."

You may despise the government. You may even, in fact, believe that our country would operate better under some form of anarchy. The truth is, you'd be wrong!

Our government (in fact, any government), though riddled with problems and petty people, provides for our protection of several levels. Within our own neighborhoods the local government provides police, sanitation, and fire protection. Without these ministers of God we would be easy picking for those who have destroyed their conscience. Local governments establish laws of morality that we must adhere to, or else we'll be punished. Your conscience tells you that it's wrong to commit murder. If you decide to go against your conscience and follow your impulses God's government will catch and punish you. When the conscience fails, fear of the punishment of the Law often keeps evil at bay. Farther afield, national governments establish laws that protect us equally no matter where we are. It is unlawful to discriminate against any person in the workplace because of their race, color, creed, or religious orientation. It is unlawful to molest a child anywhere in our nation, whether your local laws prohibit such actions or not. It is unlawful to kidnap someone and hold them against their will, no matter where you go in the United States. Our Constitution, designed under God's Common Grace, provides certain inalienable rights to all of our citizens. Our national laws provide for military and other task forces that serve to protect us from enemies outside of our borders.

You might be saying, "Well, this is fine for the United States. But what about the regime in Cuba, or the fallen regimes of Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia?". Bear in mind that when Paul wrote the powers that be are ordained of God he was imprisoned by Rome for preaching the Gospel of salvation. Yes, Rome did persecute Christians. Yes, the government often tortured and murdered many early Church believers. Paul still wrote rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. You see, even though governments often make mistakes, even though they often do evil, the government still functions to protect it's citizens under Common Grace. When a government becomes twisted from it's original ideal to protect it's citizenry God often removes His protecting hand from it, causing it's collapse. This was true of Babylon and Canaan, nations totally committed to idolatry. God destroyed these national entities because they forsake their primary mission (protect the people) for evil (child sacrifice). In more recent times consider both Germany and the Soviet Union. Germany moved so far away from God's standard that it began killing it's citizens rather than protecting them. This nation was destroyed by God during World War 2. Split in half by the Berlin Wall for nearly five decades, only recently has Germany reunited to again become a nation. The Soviet Union, though several nations banded together under the mediocrity of communism, fell apart like a banana in a blender just a few years ago. Under Marxism and Stalinism the Soviet Union systematically raped it's own people under numerous "cultural cleansing". Eventually the entire system fragmented. As Jesus said, "A House divided against itself cannot stand". Or, as Paul put it: there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. If the nation will not fulfill it's role to protect it's citizenry under Common Grace, God will disband the nation. Take heed, America!

Acts 7:51 "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye."

John 16:7  "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged."

Finally, under Common Grace God calls mankind to Jesus through His Holy Spirit. No man in sin recognizes that he is in sin. You see, the very thing we are enslaved to, we cannot see that servitude unless the Spirit "opens our eyes". The Holy Spirit not only indwells the believing Christian, but He also convinces or reprove(s) the world of sin. You see, the natural or unsaved man is completely ignorant of the fact that his actions are worthy of eternal punishment.

1 Corinthians 2:14  "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

When the natural man is confronted with his sinful state his natural response is, "What sinful state?". I have talked with numerous people from all walks of life who feel that I'm trying to lay a guilt trip on them when I talk about their relationship with Christ. That's a natural reaction. A man blind from birth certainly has no true grasp of color, though he may be very aware of the concept. Unsaved people are in a state of separation from God, and have been in this state since birth. They really don't understand the reality of the Cross unless the Spirit opens their eyes to that reality. Once the Spirit (under Common Grace) opens the unbeliever's eyes that person is then able to make a rational choice: accept Jesus Christ as Savior, or reject Him and stay in your life of sin. God always leaves that final most important decision in our hands, the decision to believe or reject Jesus.
 

Are you saved? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, understanding that you were lost in sin, totally unable to please God? Or are you a good person, living a highly moral life under Common Grace? One state leads to salvation, the other to eternal punishment. Which state are you in? If you have not admitted your helplessness and accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, don't you think now would be a good time to do this? The Bible says:

2 Corinthians 6:1-2 "We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)"

If you don't know Jesus you've still been enjoying the benefits of Common Grace. Don't use that Common Grace in vain. Remember, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. God Bless you all!