Grace
More Common Grace
Acts 20:24
But none of these things move me; nor do I count
my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the
ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel
of the grace of God.
NKJV
God’s common grace has blessed the world by providing life and breath and heat and food and clothing and knowledge and everything else to a fallen world.
Acts 14:16-17
16 who in bygone generations allowed all nations
to walk in their own ways. 17 Nevertheless He did not leave Himself
without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful
seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. NKJV
God, of course, has provided common grace as part of the means of His universal offer of salvation. Note that I do not say universal salvation, but universal offer. The ultimate desire of God is that all of mankind come to a saving knowledge. In order to allow all of those sinners Paul discusses in chapter 1 of Romans to find this saving knowledge, God’s grace is displayed in the form of patience and long-suffering.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise,
as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing
that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
NKJV
Why is God so generous? That is His character!
Ephesians 1:5-10
5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by
Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted
in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the
mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed
in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times
He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are
in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. NKJV
