Common vs. Particular Grace (2)

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Dear Forum members:
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With this installment, we begin our discussion of common versus particular grace.
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We ought, before entering into a discussion of the subject itself, deal with a couple of preliminary matters. The first is the meaning of the term “grace in Scripture.” In this connection it is well to note that the term “grace” itself is never used in Scripture in any way that suggests that grace is common, but is always used in connection with salvation. The concept “common grace” is a deduction from other passages that actually do not use the term.
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The word “grace” in Scripture has several connotations. Herman Hoeksema in his Reformed Dogmatics[i] speaks of five uses of the word “grace” in Scripture. 1) It is used as an attribute of God and has the fundamental meaning of lovely or beautiful. As applied to God it refers especially to the beauty of His perfect holiness and goodness. 2) “Grace” can also mean God’s attitude of favor towards His creatures. 3) In connection with the second meaning, “grace” refers to God’s undeserved attitude of favor, undeserved because it is shown to sinners. 4) The term is used also as God’s power by which He saves those upon whom He looks with favor. 5) And, finally, it is used in the sense of giving thanks. This later use is found in I Corinthians 15:57: “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Greek has “grace” instead of “thanks”: “Grace be to God . . . .”
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All, whether they hold to or oppose common grace, are agreed, however, that grace implies other attributes of God such as goodness, love, mercy, longsuffering, kindness, etc. If God shows grace towards all, He shows love, mercy, kindness, etc., to all. If God shows grace only to His people, He shows mercy, love compassion, etc., to His people only. There is, so far as I know, no disagreement on this point. In speaking of God’s grace all are agreed that we speak of all God’s ethical attributes.
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The relationship between these various attributes of God and their fundamental unity is found in the fact that all God’s perfections are one in Him. Our distinctions only help us in understanding God’s infinitely perfect being. Hoeksema is correct, therefore, when he makes all God’s communicable attributes facets of His own infinite holiness[ii] God is called in Scripture The Holy One; and in this name are included all his ethical perfections, including His grace.
In the various meanings of grace mentioned above, we are concerned in this forum with definitions under 2 through 4: Grace as an attitude of favor and grace as the power of God that brings salvation. We must be careful, however, that we make proper distinctions. Scripture clearly teaches, for example, that God has an attitude of favor towards the creation itself. Psalm 145:9 speaks of the fact that “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” God loves His own creation and it always favorably inclined towards the things that He has made. Although Satan, in alliance with wicked men, attempts to subvert the creation from its original purpose and use it for their own evil purposes, God will never allow man to steal His creation from Him. Even though, temporarily, it is under the curse because of man’s sin, God has mercy on it and is determined to save it. This salvation of the entire creation was explained to Noah early in the history of the world in Genesis 9:8-17, and it is further described in such passages as Romans 8:19-22 and Colossians 1:20.
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But the additional question is: Does God have an attitude of favor towards all men? That must be determined, and the determination must be grounded on Scripture. It is that question that we will examine.
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The word “grace” can also mean “the power to save.” Even when grace means the power to save God’s people, it also applies to the creation. Christ died for the world; not for every man, but for the whole of the creation as well as for those whose sins are paid for by His perfect sacrifice. Grace refers to the power to save in Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” It is also used in the sense of the power to save in Romans 11:6: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”
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Because grace is an attribute of God, it already ought to strike our attention that the two main ideas of grace, that it is an attitude of favor, and that it is the power to save, cannot be separated. It is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine how God can be gracious in the sense of being favorably inclined to someone while he is not also gracious towards someone in saving him. A common grace considered as an attitude of favor towards all men is powerless and some different kind of grace; it lacks the power of grace that saves.
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But we intend, God willing, to examine the question more in detail some later time.
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Almost throughout the entire history of the development of the error of common grace, common grace has come to mean two separate works of God, though both are related to each other. On the one hand, God’s attitude of favor towards the creation and all men is a key element in the whole idea of common grace; but on the other hand, the so-called well-meant offer of the gospel is also an element of common grace, which has become the predominant idea in our day.
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The relation between the two is clear. God’s attitude of favor that he shows to all men is expressed in His desire to save all men. Quite obviously, if God loves them, is merciful to them and is filled with lovingkindness in his thoughts of them, it is also God’s desire to save them. This desire to save them comes to expression in the gospel. The gospel then becomes a means of conveying to men God’s desire and intention with respect to them.
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But there is another relation between God’s attitude of favor and the well-meant gospel offer that is included in common grace. God’s attitude of favor is not only expressed in His desire to save all – a desire He also makes known through the gospel, but this attitude of favor actually bestows upon man a very gracious gift: the power of grace, not to save, but rather to enable one to decide himself whether he will accept the gospel offer or reject it. God’s attitude of favor does something to man. It changes him in a significant way deep down in his heart. It does not save him, but it does give him the necessary spiritual strength to take to himself the gift of salvation freely offered.
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It is true, in the view of those holding to common grace that the grace bestowed through the gospel to everyone that hears falls short of actual salvation; but it nevertheless does give man the power to choose for or against salvation. This is quite significant and something, in itself, very powerful. If the totally depraved sinner is totally unable to do anything right, including choose for salvation, he has to undergo some sort of radical change. That change must alter his total depravity to such an extent that he now possesses the spiritual ability to do at least this much good: choose for the salvation freely offered in the gospel.
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Doctor Abraham Kuyper added yet another idea in his development of common grace. He wrote a three-volume treatise on the subject and gave it the title, Gemeene Gratie. He meant by this term to distinguish his version of common grace from the common grace of a gracious well-meant gospel offer, which he repudiated. And so, while the common grace that included an offer of salvation to all was called Algemeene Genade (common grace), Kuyper called his grace Gemeene Gratie (general grace).
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Although Kuyper attempted to appeal to Calvin in support of this notion, he himself admitted that his ideas with respect to common grace were a novelty and consisted of ideas never before taught in the Reformed tradition from Calvin to the latter part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries when Kuyper did his work.
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Kuyper’s ideas of common grace consisted of a grace that prevented man at the time of the fall from becoming a beast, preserved him as a rational and moral creature, and that through the abiding power of common grace, enabled man to do good works that were pleasing to God, able to be of use and benefit for the church, and were of abiding value in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, established at our Savior’s second coming.
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This idea of common grace has captivated the attention of thousands who carry out his views and speak of the calling of the church to conquer the world for Christ. It seems as if no one today remembers the Kuyper of particular grace (powerfully defended in his book, Particular Grace[iii].
But this idea as well we will examine at a later date.

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[i] Herman Hoeksema, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 1, second edition [Grand Rapids: RFPA, 2004] 159. 160, 280, 281
[ii] Hoeksema, Reformed Dogmatics, 94-98, 131-143.
[iii] Kuyper, Abraham, Particular Grace: A Defense of God’s Sovereignty in Salvation, tr. by Marvin Kamps from the Dutch: Dat Gods Genade Particuleer Is [Grand Rapids: RFPA, 2001]). Many hold to Kuyper’s General Grace – even if in most instances they have never read his work on it.