This post is part of a series walking through the second volume of Abraham Kuyper’s Common Grace
Common grace allows history to unfold after the Fall of man. This history, however, is not just existence: it is also progress. In fact, history is guided forward by the “Master Builder” of civilization. The unfolding of human events and development is a part of God’s decree. All of history–past, present, future–is determined. No part of it is ever out of God’s control, for God is the point of unity of all history:
“The tie that binds history with creation binds the individual pieces of history into a single whole, and binds the course of all centuries into one coherent drama, is therefore not our deliberation, nor even our consciousness; it is solely God’s consciousness in his eternal decree.” (694)
This means that the goals of history are God’s goals, not ours. Specifically, the goal of history is never just the salvation of the elect–that is a step towards the final goal of the “self-glorification of the Triune God.” (694) Salvation is always secondary (though a part of!) this central goal. Which is not to say that they are two separate things: the final goal of self-glorification and the goal of human election are both organically connected through God’s decrees. Common grace is likewise tied in with these goals, not least because the Fall was a part of God’s decrees as well.
In this sense, common grace was not an arbitrary stop-gap created on the fly to handle the results of original sin breaking into creation. It rather was required by the “ultimate goal of God’s decrees.” (695-696)
All existence, including both particular grace and common grace, is for God’s self-glorification. This is why human self-glorification is a sin, but also why common grace is necessary for the operation of he world. Particular grace alone would not have done it–not least if the curse hadn’t been immediately restrained, and this restrained continuously since the Fall. Otherwise, if Adam and Eve had been instantly struck dead for their disobedience physically as well as spiritually, they would never have had the opportunity to reproduce and develop the human race. Particular grace alone would not work in this case. Unfortunately, the phrasing of some of our doctrines tends toward a separation of nature and grace “in an inaccurate way.” (697) So we have often overlooked nature’s reception of grace. This is sorted out by our doctrines of “creation” and “re-creation.” (697-698)
Common grace and particular grace relate to each other in the progress of unfolding history. So Christians, in this sense, should embrace progress! This progress comes in part through our suffering and God’s common grace revelation of how to lessen that suffering in the world. Which Kuyper has discussed in earlier chapters. But to what end are we progressing? More on that in the next chapter.
Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast an Amazon Associate (which is linked in this blog), and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO
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