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{"id":7768,"date":"2021-02-16T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T15:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/?p=7768"},"modified":"2021-02-13T13:27:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T20:27:34","slug":"common-grace-2-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/2021\/02\/common-grace-2-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Grace, 2.24"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This post is part of a series walking through the second volume of Abraham Kuyper\u2019s\u00a0Common Grace<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Continuing on the topic of the relationship between common grace, the Incarnation, and Christ\u2019s work of mediation, there are two more general points to make:<\/p>\n

First, Christ came \u201cin the fullness of time.\u201d (205) This means that Christ\u2019s arrival in the flesh was not at an arbitrary moment. In fact it was at a right and prepared moment. Christ could not have come one second earlier or later. [I\u2019ll admit I\u2019m not entirely sure where the second point comes in\u2013I think it\u2019s the next chapter where common grace is related to individual salvation, but don\u2019t hold me to that.]<\/p>\n

This truth tells us that history is predetermined, dynamic, fixed, and organically connected. Christ\u2019s coming was not just an external addition to history. It was also an internal fulfillment. A world without common grace would have just gotten more and more unable to receive Christ as it fell farther and farther from the lost glory of Eden. Common grace ripens the world and prepares it, not least by not letting it sink into sin and devastation.<\/p>\n

We must not \u201cshort-change\u201d Jesus\u2019 full human nature. Historically, it was His Deity that was undermined. But some in our time have over-corrected and begun to ignore His human nature. We have consequently also failed to understand the \u201cfullness of time\u201d and the common grace preparation of history for the Incarnation. We have mostly done this out of a fear of a back-door undermining of Christ\u2019s Deity.<\/p>\n

Yet, the human flesh Christ took on himself was something which He Himself prepared. We see something similar in how crops grow\u2013the former must prepare the soil and plant the crop. Common grace was the preparation of the soil.<\/p>\n

To be clear: the doctrine of common grace undermines Pelagianism in that it is\u00a0all<\/span> the work of God, as we see in the Reformed Confessions.<\/p>\n

But this raises again the question of the relationship between particular grace and common grace in history\u2013even in the life of Israel. Where does Israel fit into world history? Was it separate from or connected to the rest of history? Well, we see that it was clearly connected and interwoven with the history of the surrounding nations. This shows us that those other nations are also governed by common grace.<\/p>\n

Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the\u00a0City of Man Podcast<\/a>\u00a0and an Associate Profess<\/em>or of Political Science at\u00a0Southwest Baptist University<\/a>\u00a0in Bolivar, MO<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"