The Problem Of Good

by Scott Kauffmann

So how do we avoid the dangers of making too big a deal of common grace? We need “guardrails” of solid theology to protect us, many of which we’ve touched on here. ¹⁸ Remember, we need both the Creation and Redemptive Mandates; otherwise, we lose something essential about the goodness of creation, the depth of our fall, the Cross that brings redemption, or the restoration of the kingdom.

If you lose the emphasis on [individual] conversion… you lose the power of the gospel for personal transformation. You will not work sacrificially, joyfully, and non-paternalistically for justice. If you lose the emphasis on the corporate—on the kingdom—you lose the power of the gospel for cultural transformation.¹⁹

To recap what common grace does and doesn’t say:

GOD’S SECOND GREATEST GIFT

In my favorite book on common grace, He Shines in All That’s Fair, Richard Mouw observes that understanding common grace saved his sanity. I feel exactly the same. Theological messiness of any kind may make me jittery; but any other answer to the problem of good makes me implode. And as Mouw goes on to say, messiness “will eventually bring us to a humble acknowledgment of the divine mysteries.” ²⁰

WHAT COMMON GRACE SAYS

Man is originally good, made in the image of God

God loves the world

We cannot withdraw from culture

My enemy is not a person

The world is full of the good

Common grace is a great gift of life

WHAT IT DOESN’T SAY

Man’s goodness can save him

God loves everyone the same

We can withdraw from evangelism

We don’t have to fight the enemies of the world, the flesh, and the devil

It’s all good

Common grace is sufficient for life

Plus, when I look at the lives of people I admire, they appear saturated in common grace – loving the good, the true, and the beautiful wherever it’s to be found. Not an over-intellectual or overspiritualized life, but one that is specific, rooted, effective, and yet still transcendent. Getting common grace into your bloodstream seems to make you love God more and your neighbor as yourself.

And I am learning to see God’s grace everywhere. I love to see His grace in the decision to spike the whole punchbowl with His gospel, His truth, and His beauty. As 1 Timothy 4:4-5 reminds us, “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”

Leaning into common grace is not making me a liberal or a utopian. It’s giving me a higher view of the Gospel, holiness, righteousness, the role of the church, and the task of evangelism. It is simply a full embrace of James’s observation that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” ²¹ In fact, when you start to get common grace, you’ll become less afraid of the non-Christianity outside you and more concerned about the non-Christianity inside you. This is an essential first step towards a Biblical hope for the church’s task of cultural renewal.

Yes, God’s greatest gift to humanity – the Cross, the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate expression of saving grace – answers the number one question of humanity, the problem of cosmic and personal evil. And common grace, God’s second greatest gift to humanity, the answer to the problem of cosmic and personal good, is just as close beside you – as close as the gravity that keeps you from sliding off the earth. May you learn to receive both kinds of God’s love, embrace both kinds of God’s grace, and celebrate both kinds of God’s goodness wherever you find them. May grace begin to replace a fear you couldn’t defend, with a hope you cannot resist.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Do you have a personal story where you have experienced common grace from the life of a non-Christian?

Kauffmann says that common grace probably makes you nervous. Is that true for you? Why do you think that is?

Think over the last week in your life. Where did you see good? In what way could you have pointed to its source?

Have you ever struggled with how to “love” a non-Christian? How does common grace help you with that struggle?

END NOTES

1 Title of a new book by Dave Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, releasing October 2007 from the Fermi Project.
2 Tim Keller essay, Ministry in the New Global Culture of Major City- Centers.
3 N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, (Harper San Francisco, 2006), p. 217.
4 David Dark, Everyday Apocalypse (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2002).
5 Notice that God reaffirms the Creation Mandate in Genesis 9 – after sin, and after the great flood. So it doesn’t apply only to Adam and Eve in the garden. It still holds.
6 Archie Parrish, Improve Your Prayer Life (Atlanta: Serve International, 2002.).
7 I’m indebted for these points to a mentor and friend, Jack Alexander, who has made the Kingdom the centerpiece of his life message.
8 The parable of the wheat and the tares is found in Matthew 13:24-30.
9 Mouw, He Shines in All That’s Fair, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), p. 36.
10 For some examples, check out Leviticus 20:23, Psalm 5:5, Proverbs 6:16-19, Hosea 9:15, Matthew 7:23, Matthew 25:41.
11 For example, see Psalm 145:9.
12 There are only a few times in Scripture where people’s lives were demanded of them immediately upon committing a sin. Otherwise, God restrains His wrath.
13 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.2.15.
14 See Romans 1.
15 These are my terms, but they are certainly inspired by others, particularly Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey, in their great book How Now Shall We Live? (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1999.)
16 Bob Lupton, Urban Perspectives newsletter.
17 I love the way Andy Crouch discusses this idea in his essay “What’s Your Posture?” published in the Catalyst Groupzine: The Culture Issue 2006.
18 Understand that common grace is as much of a “conservative” idea as a liberal one. Though the Reformers coined the phrase “common grace” in the 16th and 17th centuries, it has been the mainstream “conservative” view over the centuries. In fact, its opposition was stronger in the 20th century than at any other time in history.
19 Keller, ibid.
20 Mouw, p. 87.
21 James 1:17

Editor's Note: The artwork by Pierre-August Renoir titled “Madame Monet auf dem Divan” from 1872.

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Comments

David Yamamoto

I'm a Japanese believer. Please excuse me of my awkward English.

My question is not directly connected with this article above. I'm wondering if common grace has anything to do with propitiation by Jesus' death, because some Reformed people teach that common grace was purchased by the propitiation. But I can't find any scripture in the NT which connects C.G. and propitiation.

What about Noaic covenant? Does it have anything to do with Christ's death? Some people say that the burnt offering which Noah sacrificed after the flood symbolizes the cross of Jesus.

Greg Wilkinson

Two men were praying. One was a member of the religious elite, a television evangelist. “Thank you I am not like that despicable Haitian for I have preached the word of God to millions” said the evangelist. The other, a despised Haitian prayed: “Dear God, my house, my wife, my children are gone. Please forgive me for all I have done wrong”.

Which of these two men found God’s favor?

Greg Wilkinson

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up tempting him, and saying, Teacher, having done what, shall I inherit life eternal?

And he said to him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

But he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thine understanding; and thy neighbour as thyself.

And he said to him, Thou hast answered right: this do and thou shalt live.

But he, desirous of justifying himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

And Jesus replying said, A certain man descended from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into [the hands of] robbers, who also, having stripped him and inflicted wounds, went away leaving him in a half-dead state.

And a certain priest happened to go down that way, and seeing him, passed on on the opposite side;

and in like manner also a Levite, being at the spot, came and looked [at him] and passed on on the opposite side.

But a certain (Godless?) Samaritan journeying came to him, and seeing [him], was moved with compassion,

and came up [to him] and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine; and having put him on his own beast, took him to [the] inn and took care of him.

And on the morrow [as he left], taking out two denarii he gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou shalt expend more, *I* will render to thee on my coming back.

Which [now] of these three seems to thee to have been neighbour of him who fell into [the hands of] the robbers?

And he said, He that shewed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, Go, and do *thou* likewise.

JESUS MADE IT SIMPLE. THE TEACHERS OF RELIGION MAKE IT COMPLICATED.

Sheridan Voysey

Great thoughts, Scott.

I came to some similar conclusions after reflecting on the altruism shown to victims of the Brisbane floods in Australia earlier this year ( http://sheridanvoysey.com/god-altruism-queensland-floods ). Goodness has a source!

I'll be keeping this article. Brilliant.

Martha Bergin

He said, "I am the way, the truth and the light. No man cometh to the Father save by me." The Way is prayer, sincere prayer, to God, as honestly as we know the Creator. The Way is giving from the heart, allowing Love to flow through us From God to the world. What is the Truth? No lying, not bearing false witness, not lying to ourselves, but finding the narrow path, choosing beauty, being able to see beauty, treating others well, treating them as we would ourselves want to be treated, helping those who hunger, thirst, and suffer in all ways. What is the Light? It is the Divine Truth that illuminates the true manner of existence for humankind. Light banishes darkness, but nowhere can we invoke a darkness that will extinguish a light. And so... those who are living by the Way, the Truth, and the Light know Him. Some are blessed to know his name, to draw close to Him, and to pray and talk with Him daily. Some will be surprised at a later time, when they realize they have been walking with Him and didn't know it. For surely there is only One Way, Truth, and Light. It's like the story of the person who found only one set of footprints in the sand, and then came to know that they are His sustaining footprints, not their own.

Afshin Nejat

Interestingly put. I had been struggling with the Problem of Evil for a while and myself also coined this idea a number of years ago, the "Problem of Good". I had entirely different reasons and results, but there are some parallels in the intermediate zones of both our reasoning processes. It just goes to show that certain elements of Truth must inevitably find expression in multiple beings in whom a certain access to Truth is distributed.

It seems, without even perusing anything more than the highlights of your essay, that your millieu of thought/faith is Protestant Christianity. In my view any solid break from Catholicism which still holds on to certain fundamentals taught by the Christ is always an improvement. What is unfortunate is that the gargantuan effort of protesting what was a massive fraud perpetrating itself as the vehicle of Jesus' message did not go far enough and did not dig deep enough. That is because Truth is not an exoterical process of rejection of the world or of falsehood, though these are necessary. What else is necessary is the interior realization of the Kingdom of God within, and that is the "Truth" that Jesus refers to when he says of some "It is on in them" and of others "It is in your hearts". That's why he says let those with ears that hear, listen and of the rest he says of their hearts that they resemble soils of varying degrees of receptivity to the message of Truth, because they had varying degrees of Truth in them already.

The problem is that the entire message of Jesus was hijacked and distorted, and when there were still groups and texts in existence which could contest this they were hunted down and destroyed or altered by force and not allowed to flourish in their true form. So again those who could not embrace the Truth, and would not if they could, teamed up to hide the Keys of the KIngdom from others who might have. Unfortunately for modern Christians, they are the spiritual legacy of this pillaging of the original and True followers of the Christs (for there were more than one). Those people are often known by the name of "Gnostics", but their Knowledge and resultant Faith are expressed in every single religion in this world in some form, and each also shows the decay and distortion which are wrought upon the True Religion in each case where Light and Love brought down to this hellish and evil dimension of gross matter is attacked an hidden by those here who have an interest in deception and control.

Beware that you have inherited the haggard remains intended for you by those who wanted to hide the Keys. And with the cruel logic of those Archons who manipulate all these to their own ends, you have also inherited all the same susceptibilities to being targeted for persecution, suffering, and annihilation as did those True Christians of the past, but this with only a fraction of the actual message of Christ Jesus. That's who they dilute the Wine of Truth with the bitter waters of wormwood, just as they ravage all other True Values in this plane by similar mechanisms (money over goods, votes over rights, bodies over consciousness, etc). When you realize just HOW evil this world is then the Problem of Good takes on a whole new level of meaning for you. But you will have to be willing to let go of the dried crusts that that they Archons left for you, and soaked with much poison of deception, before you can begin to receive stimulation into the Truth Within if it is within you at all. It is recommended that you do so now while there is time, and you might start by researching Gnosticism in is true meaning, research the mutilations of its texts and others at the hands of the "Christian" Church every since Jesus himself walked the Earth, through the middle ages till today, and perhaps peer into the Nag Hammadi texts though they are also full of corruptions. That will give you a flavor of the massive deception you are up against.

It is ironic that those who harbor much speech about Jesus have so little of his actual message because it is like you have a ray of light which was captured and altered, then refracted into new angles and energies until it acted as an agent of deception against its own original essence to the point that one is more able to find Jesus' original teachings by looking ANYWHERE ELSE THAN "Christianity". But that is rub, as what this deception was also keen on doing is monopolizing anyone's efforts to awaken the Truth Within by teaching a host of dogmas and doctrines which stifle that search, claiming other religions to be red herrings in some fundamental way that doesn't apply to its own monolithic edifice of deception. It became a giant dragnet of self-perpetuating darkness which stifles not only the Light which it first attacked, Jesus' Message, but then fanned out to do the same to all other religions which were in their ancient past also remnants of a Christ Avatar's Message, now long since distorted. But it really seems as if the Archons made a special, elitist-style move with Jesus' work, and for centuries they wrought hell on earth through that effort.

Now soon they will round up their efforts by a world-wide cleansing of another sort through global bodies and wicked high-technology (high in this dense and dark universe), but they will not have their New World Order as they hoped, and Truthful Beings will escape this dimension totally.

Afshin Nejat

But to make a more constructive comment on the contents of your essay in DETAIL, I would suggest that you modify this section of your writing:

"Some … Christians think of the story of salvation like this: Fall, Redemption, Heaven. In this narrative, only saved people have anything of value (people in the world are simply blind and bad), and the purpose of redemption is escape from this world. But if the story of salvation is Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration, then things look different. Non-Christians, created in the image of God, have much wisdom and greatness within them, even though the image is defaced and fallen. Moreover, the purpose of redemption is not to escape the world but to renew it. "

Reconfigure it according to the Truths that a real Gnostic Understanding would provide, then use it to restructure your essay accordingly. Because here is a major cornerstone of deception right in the midst of a major Truth. There was a Fall, and the Fallen created fallen dimensions in their wake, and the Good attempted redemption upon these works until it was given up realizing that this "evil" being could not be redeemed (part of the essence of evil is this quality of infinite recalcitrance). Yet a portion of its works which were partly of a Good essence COULD be redeemed, and this process has been ongoing. Evil dimensions below that threshold were created which were utterly without the Good Grace and cannot be redeemed, and have sought to claim their own share of semi-redeemable domains, an have had minor "success" even though this has all been contained from spreading. The final separation of those who can be redeemed and will be from those who cannot (some because they would not) is now taking place in this area of this Celestial Error.

Therefore at this time your ideas about the widespread "Common Grace" no longer has any value here, as all such really are red herrings of deception, and this world really is in darkness and is utterly irredeemable. All that can be redeemed is already marked and is being gathered to a final Rescue and those who have shown themselves, in this life and many prior to it, to be unworthy WILL NOT BE REDEEMED no matter what they believe, say, think, or do, for the Truth is not in them.

Know the Truth, for it would set you free.

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