"From one of our live events, Derek Thomas corrects this common misunderstanding about the radical corruption of man." - Ligonier
"I took with me the experience of having stood together with God, of having joined with him to admire the kind of beauty meant to delight the heart of a boy and to delight the heart of God himself." - Challies
"Common grace is 'the term applied to those general blessing which God imparts to all men and women indiscriminately as He pleases, not only to His own people, but to all men and women, according to His own will' (24). God sends rain on the just and the unjust. For example, common grace is when sin is restrained in society for the good of all (even unbelievers)." - Servants of Grace
"To explore that question, the Calvin College Business Department and the Acton Institute co-sponsored the Symposium on Common Grace and Business at Calvin’s campus in Grand Rapids, MI." - IFWE
"We begin our journey through grace with the way God shows his grace – his love and favour – towards all he has made. David explicitly highlights this facet of God’s dealings with all his creatures in Psalm 145, captured in the words, ‘The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all he has made’ (145.9)." - Ref 21
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What biblical reality do we need to add to creation and the fall in order to cultivate a more balanced view of human culture? What part of the biblical picture do the “counter-cultural” only Christians often miss?
The simple answer is “grace.” According to the Bible, God does not completely abandon mankind in his sinful state, but he shows kindness or grace. To be more specific, God bestows two kinds of grace: common grace and saving grace.
I think we’re all pretty familiar with God’s saving grace, which enables us to turn from our sin and trust in Jesus—the grace by which God endows us with every spiritual blessing in Christ and secures for us an eternal inheritance. But sometimes we lose sight of God’s common grace. What is “common grace” from a biblical point of view? Like the word “culture,” the phrase “common grace” doesn’t appear in the Bible. But the concept of common grace does. Common grace refers to God’s blessings on the human race that fall short of salvation from sin. Theologians usually classify these blessings as follows:6
