The Roots of the Kingdom# 14: Common Grace

Genesis 8:21-9:17

 A few weeks ago in our study of Genesis, we spoke of the plan of God to bring a flood on the world to wipe out sin and sinners and we illustrated that plan with the attempt the world health organization made to eradicate malaria on a world scale. Malaria was all set to be utterly wiped out from the face of the planet. It looked very much like it would become a disease of the past once the World Health organisation got its campaign to eradicate malaria underway, but after about eight years experts realized the eradication effort was not working. DDT resistant strains started popping up in the early 1960’s. Scientists began to warn that widespread uses of DDT could result in further development of resistance in mosquitoes (Garret 50). In 1963 Americans in Vietnam were reporting strains of malaria resistant to another malaria killer called chloroquine (Garrett) 51). Malaria was rapidly becoming drug resistant. And the eradication attempt had to be abandoned.

Today, as we turn to consider the history of the race immediately after the waters often flood subsided what we discover is that like a drug resistant super-bug, sin turns out to be flood resistant! In 8:21 God declares that just as was the case before the flood, “every inclination of the heart of man is evil from childhood” still,even now after the floodwaters have receded.

The flood could not in the end remove the problem of sin in the heart of man; it could only destroy sin and man together. Another solution was needed and that solution is expressed in scripture under the concept of ‘covenant’.

So this morning I want us to look at this concept of covenant and the specific covenants God made with Noah. And I say covenants (plural) because there are two of them in the whole story of the flood and its aftermath.  One is a covenant of redemption, a covenant of special grace. The other is a covenant of preservation, a covenant of common grace. Now our main focus will be on the common grace covenant God made with Noah and every living thing in chapter 9, but we will also need to look at the other covenant, the covenant of grace and redemption and then see how the two covenants relate to each other.

But before we do, since it is such a pivotal and vital concept for understanding the relationship of God to humanity, let me remind you what a covenant is in scripture.  O Palmer Robertson famously describes a covenant as ‘a bond in blood sovereignty administered’. It is fundamentally a relationship, a bond, sealed with the blood of sacrifice, and it is administered directly by God. It is not a negotiated contract, between two equal partners; it is a sovereignly imposed relationship, with sovereignly imposed obligations.

The Biblical covenants between God and humanity all remind us that we are His creatures. We are the work of his hands. We belong to him and are accountable to him. And he alone has the prerogative to set the terms and define the boundaries of our relationship to himself, and he does so in his covenants.

And in scripture there are fundamentally three types of covenant. There is first a covenant of works, or law. This is the covenant God made with Adam in the garden before the fall. It required perfect obedience to the law. Upon condition of that obedience Adam would fulfill his God given role and fill the earth with the kingdom dominion of the Lord and usher in the age of Sabbath blessing forevermore. Adam sinned and ever since human beings have been guilty as law breakers. That covenant of works or law, still binds all people. We are all still under obligation to fulfill the standards of God. Because we do not and cannot, that covenant condemns us.

Then the second covenant is the covenant of grace. In the covenant of Grace God freely enters into a commitment to obtain salvation for Adam’s race by sending another Adam, Jesus Christ, to fulfill the broken covenant of works for us, to keep the law, satisfy its conditions and suffer its curses. The first manifestation of that covenant was there in Genesis 3:15 when God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpents head. And since then in various other specific covenants with individuals and the nation of Israel God has enlarged and expanded and explained the details of that one over arching covenant of Grace.

Think of the covenant of grace like a folder on the desktop of your computer, inside of which you keep word documents related to the theme of that folder. They all belong in the folder marked ‘covenant of grace’. When you open any one of them you are viewing one specific expression of that great redemptive covenant. So if you clicked on the covenant of grace folder you’d find a file reading covenant with Noah, Abraham, Israel, David, New Covenant in Christ. Each specific covenant develops the theme and enlarges the scope of the one overarching covenant of grace.

Then there is the third kind of covenant. It is not a covenant of works; this is not a law covenant. Nor is it a covenant of saving grace; it is not a redemptive covenant. It is a covenant of common grace. It is gracious. God’s free undeserved goodness and kindness is lavished upon all creatures in this covenant. But it is not a covenant of saving grace. This is a grace that preserves life, sustains society, ensures that the sun continues to shine on the righteous and the unrighteous. But it makes no provision to save sinners. And it is a covenant of this order that we find in Genesis 9; a covenant of preservation and of common grace.

Lets look at chapter 9 for a moment. God speaks in response to Noah’s worship of 8:20 and he promises to preserve the world, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man….never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.” That is the basic promise that underpins the whole of this chapter. This is the fundamental commitment of God that is ratified and sealed and established by the formal covenant of verses 9-16. This is a covenant of preservation.

And then notice that in chapter 9 verses 1-7 all the language of God’s original commands and mandates to Adam in the Garden of Eden in chapter 1:27-30, are repeated and reaffirmed, only now for life in a fallen world.  Now human beings, like Adam are to be fruitful and multiply, and even now, after the flood, once again just like Adam, they too are to rule over the creation. The great difference is that now animal flesh is given to us for food for the first time. Sin has marred the original pattern of creation. Nevertheless mankind remains in the image of God, verse 6, despite his sin, and so there is a principle of justice spelled out as well. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed”.

So the basic terms of the covenant of common grace are four: First God promises the preservation and continuation of the world and its seasons, and its life, until the appointed day when the earth shall endure no longer (8:21-22). Secondly, God calls for the propagation of family life (9: 1, 7). Thirdly, God calls for the stewardship of creation by human beings, (9:2-3). And finally God promises the rule of law and the restraint of sin shall continue (9:4-6).

Now, just pause with me for a moment and think of that. Here are four things we take for granted: The turning of the seasons and the continuance of life: The multiplication of families: The dominion of man over the animal life: The exercise of a principle of justice and law and order in society.

These are things we simply recognize as good things that re facts of life. We don’t realize that they are gifts of grace that God is in no way obligated to provide. We stand on the edge of destruction. Society is held together by nothing more than the gratuitous promise of God’s grace that law and order should continue. The continuance of the seasons, the preservation of life, security from worldwide destruction, all this we have because of nothing other than the sheer unmerited goodness of God’s grace.

Let me put it this way: what is it that stops the wrath of God spilling over once again and destroying the world for its vice and corruption? Surely our sin matches the sin of the age of Noah? Why then are we not destroyed? Grace. Grace keeps a sinful world of rebels living even while they steal their very lives from the God to whom they belong in order to sacrifice them on the altar of self indulgence.  Grace keeps cultures going even when they are debased by the depravity of their immoral imaginations.

The covenant of Common grace is not an abstract doctrinal fact without relevance and potency for our lives. Common grace ensures you were born. It ensures you have sunshine and clothes. It gives you the natural talents to fulfill your callings. It puts money in your bank account, and it gives you children to spend it. Common grace puts criminals in jail and produces medicine for the sick. Without common grace the world would be a void of darkness and sin. It would be a place of unrestrained rebellion, and of a debased humanity that retains nothing of the image of God.

We ought to see how precious and fragile the common place gifts we enjoy without thought every day really are. They ought not to be. Sin desires to strip them from us utterly, leaving us beaten down, bloodied, and derelict of any vestiges of our native beauty, goodness and talents as human beings. But God’s intervention in the covenant of Genesis 9 has guaranteed forever that our simple pleasures and necessities will continue till the world meets its end.

 It is grace that says, “never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.”

Grace you see buys us all time. It is common grace that withholds the day to come when judgment will once more visit the earth, not in a destructive flood, but in a purging fire. Isn’t that what Peter reminds us in 2 Peter 3: 3-13?

Referring to the genesis flood he says, “Long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.  But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord on day is like a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

We regularly hear people say, if God is a God of love how can he condemn anyone? But that is not the best question to ask. A better question is, ‘how can a holy God not destroy a sinful world? How come the world exists? Or better make it personal and ask yourself, how is it that I still exist? Why is it after having committed gross acts of sin and rebellion that I am not instantly obliterated by the perfect justice of God?

Well why is it? It is because of God’s common grace showered upon all flesh, preserving life, maintaining culture, promoting justice, encouraging arts and sciences, beauty and joy, fun and love. God desires that you see your sin, and see your peril before his coming wrath. The Lord in his common grace is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

In Genesis 6:18 we are told that God established a covenant with Noah before he entered the ark. It was a covenant with one single very specific goal. It was a covenant that had as its central promise rescue and salvation, “I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark- you, your sons and your wife and your sons wives.” This is a covenant that has redemption as its sole aim. In other words God entered into a covenant of grace with Noah.

Now, the world before the flood was destroyed by God for its sin. But Noah laid hold of redeeming grace and was saved. Peter tells us that the world we now know is heading for another day of judgment, but that common grace delays that day’s arrival. God exercises common grace in order to hold open the door to life. He exercises the patience of common grace in order that any who look to Christ, like Noah might find the saving grace of God bringing them deliverance from the wrath to come.

In his common grace God restrains his wrath on your sin. It looms large, it presses forward, seeking to destroy all that defiles the world God has made for his own glory, but it is nevertheless withheld by God’s unfathomable mercy and grace. God is not willing that you should perish. Flee to Christ while there is still time.

Let every common grace blessing remind you of God’s gracious preservation of all creation, and use them as signposts to the benevolence and goodness of God towards sinners, that finds its nadir in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Look at every blessing and benefit that common grace gives, your clothes, electricity to warm your home, food to fill your belly, music to move you, literature and television, friends and family, look at every blessing of common grace, and realize that it’s all intended to remind you of the patience and forbearance of God. When we stand together talking later and you drink your tea or coffee, let every sip of hot coffee make you ask, why does God give me good things like this when I am a sinner deserving only his curse? Let it point you to his love and common grace and remind you that a day will come when you will be forever deprived of every simple pleasure and every little comfort if you remain still a stranger to his special and saving grace available to you in Jesus Christ.

Look at every good thing you enjoy, and see the goodness of the giver, and then repent of your sin that has you still living the life of a rebel in the face of such grace. Look at your every good gift and understand that God has given it all because he wants you to turn from your sin to Christ.

And notice in Genesis 9:12-16 God seals his pledge to preserve the world with the sign of a rainbow. What an apt reminder that God has checked the storm clouds of Divine wrath and restrained the deluge of his justice by means of his covenant of common grace. A rainbow set in the sky after the rain clouds that brought the first flood began to disperse would be forever a signal to us all that God holds back his judgment still that there is time yet, that today is still the day of salvation.

The Lord of the rainbow, you see, is the Lord of the Cross. He sets the rainbow in the sky to bid us hasten to the cross of Christ. He puts the rainbow in the sky to remind us that wrath has been restrained so that you might go to Jesus Christ crucified to take your sin and guilt away.

The common grace of God should on the one hand remind us that God is gracious and is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, and on the other hand, it should teach us that however long it is delayed judgment day will come.

And that is of course as sobering for those of us who profess faith in Christ as for those who do not. As Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3:11, in the light of the coming judgment day, “what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heavens and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”

That great day is coming, and every blessing of common grace should remind us as much of its certainty, as of its delay. Brothers and sisters, savour every good gift from God. Rejoice in the riches of common grace.  But learn to make them remind you that the day of temporary pleasures and joys here and now will soon pass, and the judgment of God will soon come. Let every earthly pleasure encourage you to live a holy and godly life. Make them into signposts that constantly point you forward as you look to the day of God and speed its coming.

Rainbows in the sky not only remind us of wrath delayed and restrained, they not only point us to the coming day when that wrath will finally be unleashed, for Christians, they also serve, along with every other blessing of the common grace covenant, as little promises that the day of preservation will soon give way to the day of renovation and renewal, that the day of earthly pleasures will soon give way to bliss at the right hand of God forevermore, dwelling no longer in a world after the flood, but in a new heaven and a new earth, a home of righteousness.

Believer, the sign of the rainbow seeks to point us to the sign of the cross, and both rainbow and cross point us to the day of Christ’s glorious appearing, when all things will be renewed and our trials and fleeting pleasures will be forever gone, and the deeper satisfaction of knowing even as we are known, of seeing Christ face to face, of dwelling forever on the glory of the Lord, will be ours.

Let common grace point you to saving grace, and let them both point you to heaven.

Amen