Nathan E. Lewis

“Grace is Everywhere”
Matthew 5: 43-48 and Acts 17: 24-31

Both our texts this morning present God in control of his creation graciously sustaining life globally throughout history with no regard to human holiness. This is the doctrine of common grace found the Bible. Grace is everywhere. The doctrine of special grace, the result of divine redemption culminating in the atonement of Jesus in his death on the cross and the giving of new and eternal life in his resurrection from the dead, is the crowning glory of history and of the Bible. Yet God’s grace is not reserved solely to this special grace. Divine grace is showered upon the whole earth and in this present world since the dawn of time.
Jesus preached the doctrine of common grace in his sermon on the mount. Our first lesson comes from the words of our Redeemer in (45): “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” God graciously controls his creation. Have you ever wondered if God is actually in control of his creation? We see the widespread and prolonged suffering in this world and we wonder: “Why doesn’t God put an end to it all?” Of course, the answer given to us by the prophets and the apostles is that God will surely put an end to all human suffering and global waste and destruction on the Final Day of Judgment. But, we think, “Were God gracious, he would have put an end to it a long time ago or he would have prevented the suffering in the first place!” As Jesus preaches we discover that God, in his sovereign control of his creation, actually sustains the life of wicked humanity, who uses his generous provisions to fuel their destruction of everything good. What kind of crazy grace is this? It is common grace – God’s care for all his creation regardless of the thoughts and behaviors of humanity. The earth groans awaiting her redemption. The martyrs under the throne of God cry, “How long, O Lord!” The church struggles with the ultimate questions of pain and suffering. The atheist concludes that God, if he ever existed, is dead. The dualist tries to appease the evil force in this world and to please the good force. Much of the educated world concludes: “It’s up to us; it’s up to me to make a difference in this world, to fix the problems.” All of us in all of these categories, think, speak, and live breathing the oxygen of common grace, receiving our sustenance from the controlling, gracious hand of God.
Paul makes the very same point in his sermon delivered in Athens: “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” Our lesson, God graciously controls his creation, is strengthened by Paul as he preaches the independence of God: Independently, God graciously controls his creation. Actually, to say, “Independently, God graciously controls,” is redundant. Paul emphasizes an important aspect of divine grace that is often missed among Christians: God’s grace is an independent act and ongoing expression towards his creation, apart from any human contribution. To say that we work with God to produce any grace is to do violence to the very meaning and quality of grace. God’s grace is not a dormant seed that germinates in the moist soil of our reception and response to it. God’s grace is like sunbeams, which independently find us to bless us. The rain does not fall upon us as we beat a drum and dance in a circle attracting the favor of God. Our life and breath and everything we possess has been given to us by God and so any ability to respond to God has been enabled by God. Any receptive thought we have, and embracing of God and his truth is included in Paul’s word, “everything.” Any human submission to the will of God is certainly a spiritual work within us, planted, watered, and brought to maturity by God alone.
Our second lesson springs from Paul’s sermon in which he says, “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.” Here is the second point: God has created all things and he showers his common grace upon all humanity with the primary purpose of wooing us to his special grace. I have inserted the qualifier, “primary” as the Reformed tradition of the church has suggested that God has more general purpose for his common grace, namely his delight of everything he has made. Susan Shreiner understands John Calvin’s teaching of the sovereign delight of God in his creation as she writes in her book, The Theatre of his Glory: Nature and the Natural Order in the Thought of John Calvin: “Only a great divine power could preserve the grand orderliness that we perceive in the universe. The stability of nature depends on ‘the continual rejoicing of God in his works,’” The final phrase of this quote belongs to Calvin, who developed the doctrine of God rejoicing in his creation. Richard Mouw writes, “ I think that God takes delight in Benjamin Franklin’s wit and in Tiger Woods’s putts….When an unbelieving poet makes use of an apt metaphor, or when a foul-mouthed major league outfielder leaps high into the air to make a stunning catch, we can think of God as enjoying the event without necessarily approving of anything in the agents involved – just as we might give high marks to a rhetorical flourish by a politician whose views on public policy we despise.”
This past spring in the NBA Eastern Playoffs between Cleveland and Orlando’s Magic, I did not give much thought to whether or not Lebron James was a Christian or not. In the second game, with several seconds remaining on the clock, the Magic scored pulling into the lead by two points with one second on the clock. Cleveland took the ball out of bounds while their thousands of fans looked on, their hopes of a victory completely gone. Who can get the ball in bounds and score with one second on the clock? James received the ball at the top of the key outside the three-point line, shot up a prayer and scored a three-point basket! This is basketball at its best! My neighbor and I, more engaged in our conversation than we were in the game, in that moment erupted in high five slaps and cheering. We are not Cleveland fans but rather we are among those who celebrate remarkable human feats, delighting in creation. Whether we know it or not, such a reaction is founded in the doctrine of common grace: Grace is everywhere.
When Erik Liddel, portrayed in the film, “Chariots of Fire,” tells his sister, “God made me fast,” he was not referring to his ability to run as a result of special grace, as some may suppose, since he is a Christian. He was noting the common grace of God showered upon him. His fellow teammate, Harold Abrams, a Jew, was an equally fine runner. Abrams was not a fast runner because he could trace his lineage back to the mighty men of Israel, God’s chosen people of the Old Covenant, but profoundly, his ability to run was a result of common grace.
Let all of us who have received the blessings of common grace, whether it be breath to live one more day, or the skills to survive this present economic crisis, or the talent to play a musical instrument, hearken to the primary purpose of God gracing us. The apostle Paul says to us today, “God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.” Paul language is as colorful as it gets as he describes us humans as the groping blind “feeling” our way towards God’s special grace. General revelation of God in nature points us toward the God who is present and active among us. His common grace sheds even more light upon signs pointing us in the God-ward direction. All of this is done with the primary purpose of our embracing the one, true God who made heaven and earth and who has redeemed us from our sins through Jesus Christ, our Savior. May each one of us put our trust in him today. God has not hidden his grace in a cache buried in a dark, dank cave somewhere in Afghanistan, virtually impossible for the masses to find except for a few heroic adventurers who devote years and fortunes to uncover it. Grace is everywhere.
Thirdly, we note that Jesus presents the doctrine of common grace in the context of his teaching us, his disciples, to love our enemies. Tax collectors, pagans, many individuals who do not follow Jesus actually express love to those whom they find acceptable and worthy of their love. Kindness is a virtue shared among humans regardless of our religious persuasions or rejection of Christ. Jesus calls us to “love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us.” All of us who have received special grace must follow Jesus in this command toward a holy lifestyle. We must love the vile man who drags us into court and pray for his well-being. We must love the wicked uncle who mocks our holy religion. We must love the communist. We must love the atheist. We must love the breaker of marital vows and we must love the one excommunicated from the church, seeking his restoration.
Jesus concludes this section of his sermon with these words: “You therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The perfections of God include his common grace. God’s grace is everywhere – not only in the rain but also in our behavior.
Amen.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 10:25 am and is filed under Sermons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.