Saiph
Puritan Board Junior
Is there such a thing ? ?
My take:
Everything this side of hell is grace. There are different degrees of it though. The traditional definition being, "God's unmerited favor", does not work for my understanding of scripture. There are many people who find favor in the eyes of the Lord, to be sure, but what is the goodness God providentially grants to those who openly and actively hate Him and oppose His laws ? ?
Common grace then is the rain that falls on the unjust. Since man is totally depraved, grace that is common, would be anything God grants that man does not deserve. Since fallen man, without Christ, deserves only hell, even the breath in his lungs and the heart pumping in his chest, is a measure of God's kindness.
Also, the heathen are blessed even by association with Christians. Look how Sodom was spared atfirst because of Lot.
My take:
Everything this side of hell is grace. There are different degrees of it though. The traditional definition being, "God's unmerited favor", does not work for my understanding of scripture. There are many people who find favor in the eyes of the Lord, to be sure, but what is the goodness God providentially grants to those who openly and actively hate Him and oppose His laws ? ?
Common grace then is the rain that falls on the unjust. Since man is totally depraved, grace that is common, would be anything God grants that man does not deserve. Since fallen man, without Christ, deserves only hell, even the breath in his lungs and the heart pumping in his chest, is a measure of God's kindness.
Also, the heathen are blessed even by association with Christians. Look how Sodom was spared atfirst because of Lot.