Nathan E. Lewis

Sermon #4 = Common Grace: Restraint of Evil
Romans 13: 1-7

We are in the midst of a sermon series on the doctrine of common grace and in the first three sermons I have presented the common ground we share with all humanity. Firstly, all humanity is made in the image of God. Secondly, we have all been born with original sin and thirdly we are totally depraved, unable to do any good toward our salvation. The doctrine of common grace is rooted in this common ground. We must know this territory before we can understand the doctrine of common grace as it is put forth in the Scriptures and born out in our experience.
In this fourth sermon we begin to consider the two-fold purpose of common grace. Remember, common grace describes God’s kindness and mercy toward all members of the human race regardless of their spiritual condition. As Jesus said recorded in Matthew’s Gospel (5: 45): “Your Father in heaven causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Jesus also said recorded in Luke’s Gospel (6:35): “The Most High is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” For what purpose would God shower upon humanity common grace? The grand, overarching purpose is undeniably to display the glory of God through out the whole world. As God lavishes his manifold grace upon all humanity we discover that he stands alone, free from bitterness and malice. We discover that God has created his universe for his own pleasure and that he wills a complexity of situations and actions, controlling the sweeping movements of history right down to microscopic details of living organisms. Common grace enhances God’s glory particularly through its two-fold purpose of restraining evil and promoting good toward the accomplishment of God’s decrees. In this fourth sermon we will consider the restraint of evil as one purpose for common grace.
John Calvin wrote in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, “Amidst the corruptions of nature there is some room for divine grace, not to purify it, but internally to restrain its operations. In His elect the Lord heals these maladies. In others He restrains them, only to prevent their ebullition (boiling over) so far as He sees to be necessary for the preservation of the Universe.” Here Calvin is most conservative regarding the extent of common grace: God shows the smallest amount of kindness and mercy necessary for the preservation of the universe. H.R. Kuiper, in his sermon, “How God Restrains Sinners,” suggests a greater extent of common grace. In his view God’s kind and merciful endowment and equipping of an ungodly person can result in an impressive display of goodness. Kuiper said, “There are religious feelings and convictions which so closely resemble the spiritual experiences of the true believer that only God can tell the difference.”
I do admit that I have two texts this morning. Romans 13 and Genesis 4. To have more than one text offends my sermon crafting sensibilities, but I could not choose between the two and so I have included both. Let us first give our attention to Romans 13. The Apostle Paul’s first point put forth in (1) is that God has appointed all governmental authorities. Paul and his primary audience lived under the rule of Rome the imperial power that spread the Pax Romana but nonetheless was a government built and controlled by ungodly men and systems. Paul does not have in mind that God has only appointed Christian governments, like the well-ordered government of Abraham Kuyper, the Christian Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1901 -1905. Paul also has in mind the non-Christian government of the Roman Empire.
Paul’s second point in (2) is that any of us who resists governing authorities resists God and so will incur judgment. The connection between God and ungodly rulers cannot be made more strongly than Paul presents it here. This is the doctrine of common grace: God relates to members of humanity who have not received his special grace unto salvation and he does so authoritatively, kindly, and purposefully.
Paul’s third point in (3-4) presents the rulers of this world as divine instruments restraining evil. “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.” If you desire to be free from the fear of harsh government, then obey the law. As you abide by the law you will win the favor of the ruler, who is “God’s servant for your good.” (I know all about Samuel Rutherford’s argument for civil disobedience and I agree with it. He argued in his classic, Lex Rex, that if the human ruler flip-flops good and evil, enforcing laws to promote evil and punishing the good, then we have the right to respectfully disobey. These ideas landed Rutherford in prison. I agree with Rutherford but his reasoning, though it does no violence to the text, does not put forth the main point of Paul’s instruction.) Paul’s main point is that God has appointed the rulers of this world as instruments restraining evil. “He is a servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” Paul does not qualify the ruler as “Christian” or “non-Christian.” God has appointed all the rulers of this world for his purposes, including the restraint of evil.
Since humanity’s fall into sin, God has been restraining evil, a display of his common grace to preserve his creation. If there ever was a man in the biblical narrative who was clearly bent upon evil it would be Cain, the son of Adam and Eve. God promised Eve a son who would crush the serpent’s head, putting an end to evil in this world. Upon Cain’s birth, Eve named him, hoping that he would be the promised son. But Cain became an angry man. His pride prevented him from taking divine instruction concerning the proper sacrifice to offer to God. He thought that his offerings should be acceptable to God regardless of what God desired. In other words, he did not understand true worship. It’s not about what we imagine, create, and offer, but about what pleases God. In Genesis 4: 6-7 God kindly reasons with Cain: “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Why is God wasting his time talking with Cain? We live in a world that thinks like Cain: We should be accepted for who we are, for our individual ideas and choices. See the common grace of God as he talks with Cain and with an uncountable number of human beings who think that everyone must affirm whatever they feel like saying and doing regardless of law, truth, morality, and prudence!
We might think, “It makes sense that God, like a patient mother who unconditionally loves her children, would enter into such conversations gently persuading toward the right. But every mother has her limits and so I suppose that God has his limits as well. There are some evil acts God will not tolerate.” Cain murders his brother, Abel. Have you ever tried to understand Cain’s murder of his brother? It is clear in (8) that Cain premeditated murder. Cain was undoubtedly jealous of his brother whose sacrifice was acceptable to God winning divine favor. Cain murdered Abel out of jealousy. But his evil deed was not only a strike against a fellow human being, it was most certainly and blatantly a strike against God. Moses tells the story with the primary characters, Cain and God, interacting with each other. “I will do whatever I choose to do!” is what Cain was saying to God in the murder of Abel. “You have told me that if I do what is right then I will find favor; but I defy your control of me; I will do whatever I choose to do!”
God’s response to Cain’s murderous rebellion is shockingly refreshing, for all of us who hold out hope for wayward children who are still fighting against God’s sovereignty over all the affairs of this world. God’s response to Cain displays his common grace, particularly through the restraining of evil. I have often thought, “Why didn’t God put a swift end to Cain, striking him with a lightning bolt while he was still in the field? For that matter, if God in his common grace restrains evil, why did he not anticipate Cain’s murderous plot and cause him to choke to death on a chicken bone prior to going out into the field? For that matter, why didn’t God immediately upon humanity’s fall into sin, end the history of our race. Why did he not make the forbidden fruit deadly poisonous so that at one bite the mother of all the living would have died instantly never to have given birth to Cain or the rest of us miserably fallen creatures?” God does no violence to the human will yet he accomplishes all his holy will. God is not only just but he also merciful. God’s ways are not like our ways and his thoughts are not like our thoughts. How many of us, were we in God’s place, would respond to Cain, the angry, arrogant murderer as God responded in common grace? How many of us, were we in God’s place, would pour out wrath upon the perfect Son, Jesus Christ, hanging upon the cross, innocent and righteous, receiving punishment he did not deserve? Doesn’t God get it wrong? Why does he show mercy to Cain yet punishes his perfect Son? The answer comes as we distinguish between common and special grace. In his common grace, God shows mercy to Cain to restrain evil. In his special grace, God punishes his righteous Son in our place so that we might be free from the penalty of our sins.
God calls Cain to account and declares that he is under divine curse. His punishment is to be separated from his first love of farming. He will become a restless nomad. This punishment gets Cain’s attention to the degree that he continues his dialogue with God: “This more than I can bear!” He expertly argues that God’s punishment will result in a greater punishment unspoken by God. Not only will Cain be separated from the land to be a restless nomad, but such an existence will make him vulnerable to those who seek to kill him. If he were allowed to stay on his farm, then he could protect himself, but wandering in the wilderness would expose him to anyone who would seek to avenge the death of Abel or any bandit who may be looking for an easy fight. How ironic! The angry, arrogant murderer Cain is now appealing to God to protect him against potential murderers! How many of us think that at this point in the conversation God should say, “Tough, buddy! You should have thought about your welfare before you bludgeoned your brother’s skull. Now you must live with the full extent of the consequences of your sin!” How many of us think that God should say this to Cain? I certainly do, until I come to terms with the doctrine of common grace.
God’s grace flows amazingly strong in (15) as God says to Cain, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Have you ever wondered what kind of a mark God placed upon Cain to protect him? I do not know what the mark was but I can assure you that it is a powerful symbol of God’s common grace.
Rather than cutting Cain’s life short, God in his common grace allows Cain to not only live but to live productively. Cain sires a son and he builds a city. It irks me that Cain’s arrogance is still evident: he names his city after his son as if Cain were the god of the city. He is still defying God who consigned him to be a restless nomad. The line of Seth, Cain’s younger brother, built cities and named them in honor of Yahweh, the one, true God of the Covenant. But Cain and his line built cities in honor of themselves. It is as if Cain was saying to God, “You took away my farm and so I am going to build a city. I will protect myself and I will continue to live as I choose toward my own glory. I will never do anything toward your glory according to your will. I will live for myself! Do you hear me, God? Where are you God? I thought that we were in a conversation?”
H.R. Kuiper concludes his sermon, “How God Restrains Sinners” with this presentation of the gospel: “Suppose you knew that you would be ultimately lost; even then you could not say, ‘God does not care for me.’ The gospel we preach is a gospel for sinners – for all sinners. It is glad tidings also for you. God has no pleasure in your death, but therein that you turn and live. He hates your sins, but he does not hate you. He invites you to come to Him and be saved. That very fact will make your punishment doubly deserved if you should be lost. You will never be able to say: ‘I have not tasted God’s goodness and grace; I have never experienced his love.’ You will have to say: ‘I have spurned his love, rejected his grace; and now there remains for me a righteous judgment, as well-deserved wrath whose flames will burn forever and ever!’
Let me add in closing: God in his common grace conversed with Cain, who had every opportunity to follow God. And so it is with all of us. “Call upon the Lord while he may be found.” As you put your trust in God, you will discover that his common grace is merely the tip of the iceberg of the volume of his grace. You will discover that not only does his common grace provide you a conversation with the Divine, but you will also discover his special grace moving you to agree with the Divine, fulfilling your chief end to glorify and enjoy God forever.