Chapter 10 COMMON GRACE, SPECIAL PEACE Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? (Matt. 5:43-47).
The theocentric focus of this passage is found in the middle of the passage: "for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" (v. 45). God is sovereign over nature. He sends rain and sunshine in due season on all men, good and bad. He offers all men access to nature's means of production. If God shows mercy to His enemies, then His people should show mercy to their enemies.
What this says is that God does not discriminate. His gifts are widely distributed. Such gifts from God are unearned by the recipients. An unearned gift is called grace in the Bible. God showers and shines His grace on all men. In history, this common grace is to the benefit of covenant-breakers. In eternity, it works against them retroactively. "Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head" (Rom. 12:20). "And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more" (Luke 12:47-48).
This passage is important in establishing the truth of the doctrine of common grace.(1) Common grace in history is given freely to all men. For the just, it is a sign of God's favor toward them. For the unjust, it is a sign of God's wrath against them. In both cases, the grace is not earned by the recipient.
Grace is a word for salvation. God grants salvation to all men, but especially to the covenant-keeper. "For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe" (I Tim. 4:10). The covenant-keeper is the recipient of special grace and common grace, but the covenant-breaker is the recipient of only common grace. Does this doctrine imply universal salvation in eternity? No; it implies the opposite: greater wrath for covenant-breakers in eternity. The salvation referred to by Paul in I Timothy 4:10 is God's healing grace in history. It is salvation as salve: healing ointment. It allows the just and the unjust to work out their respective eternal conditions. Paul also wrote: "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12). But as the unjust man works out his salvation in history, he condemns himself eternally. He forgets that God is the source of His life, knowledge, authority, and income. He says in his heart, "My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth" (Deut. 8:17b). This condemns him.
But what about an entire society that says this? Common grace condemns that society. "And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God" (Deut. 8:19-20). The lure of autonomy from the God of the Bible is great; it leads individuals and societies to destruction.
Nature as a Sanctioning Agent Jesus' announcement meant that the New Covenant has broken with the Mosaic Covenant's system of special favor for Israel. In the Old Covenant, God had promised special blessings for national Israel that included nature itself. Nature in Israel had been unnatural. It had been a means used by God to bring His covenantal sanctions. Nature had been a sanctioning agent.(2)
If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit (Lev. 26:3-4).
And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; And then the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you (Deut. 11:13-17).
When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them: Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance (I Ki. 8:35-36).
And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word (I Ki. 17:1).
Jesus announced the end of nature as a sanctioning agent. No longer would nature serve as a means of God's special cursings and special blessing to covenanted nations. God's special presence inside Israel was about to cease. The temple and the sacrifices had only one generation to go, although Jesus did not announce a specific time limit on the Mosaic sacrifices. God would no longer dwell specially in Old Covenant Israel; nature would no longer be the means of God's corporate sanctions on Israel.
Love Your Enemies The New Covenant imposes a new requirement: to love our enemies. This love is judicial: showing mercy and justice. God's common grace toward all men is to be revealed by covenant-keepers' general love for all men. God sends sunshine and rain in due season to all men. This is merciful. Covenant-keepers are to pray for all men. God does good to all men through nature. He proposes to do good to all men through His people. In the same way that nature no longer plays favorites in the New Covenant, so covenant-keepers are not to play favorites. They must do good to all men.
This does not mean that covenant-keepers are required to subsidize evil. They are to visit prisoners; they are not to smuggle in tools for their escape. They are to help specific poor people; they are not to give wealth away indiscriminately to every poor man, irrespective of how he became poor. They are not to give alms to drunkards who will use the money to buy more alcohol. They are to give alms to rescue missions that feed and preach to street people who are alcoholics.
The love shown to our enemies is the same kind of love that God shows to us. God provides everyone with sunshine and rain in due season. The enemy here is not a criminal. He is merely an adversary of the individual Christian. He is not a destroyer who uses his skills to prey upon the weak. He is an opponent. God shows mercy in history to His opponents; His people should do the same for their opponents.
When God's people do this, they extend God's common grace. God uses them in a way analogous to how He uses nature: as a means of revealing God's grace in history. By this grace, God brings some to repentance and others to everlasting destruction. Good works heap coals of fire on some heads and soul-transforming blessings on others. We cannot know in advance which effect our love and good works will have. Even if we did know, we should obey God's law anyway. He knows which people will respond to His common grace by repenting and which will worship other gods, including man. Yet He still sends rain and sunshine in due season.
By showing love to all men, covenant-keepers set themselves apart from other men. Their universal love makes them seem different. Lost men ask: "Why?" Peter wrote: "But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison" (I Pet. 3:14-19).
One of the most effective yet little known ministries in the United States in the final quarter of the twentieth century is the Kairos prison ministry. Twice a year, a team of Christians goes into a prison, usually a maximum security prison, for a three-day weekend. They bring in food baked by Christians. Forty-two prisoners assemble for the weekend to eat cookies, lasagna, hamburgers, fresh salads, and ice cream -- food that is rarely available in prison. The number of cookies consumed in that weekend is staggering: up to 60,000. Cookies are given to the prisoners and the guards. One of the exercises is for prisoners at the end of the second day to take a bag of one dozen cookies to their worst enemy. The prisoners hear very simple applied gospel messages for three days. They are shown love by the outside team. They sing. They pray simple prayers. And by the end of the weekend, as many as half of them make professions of faith. Why does this program work? Because people from the free world with nothing visible to gain treat criminals with friendship. For prisoners, this makes no sense. They keep asking themselves: "Why?" They keep thinking: "What is in it for them? What are they after?" And for a few -- sometimes many -- the answer dawns: "Because Jesus loves me." These prisoners are brought into God's kingdom. Even those who are not brought in speak well of Kairos from then on. Word spreads. Then, when team members come back once a month to visit with the prisoners, word really spreads. For prisoners, Kairos makes no sense. That is its strength.
Program for a Captive People The context of the Sermon on the Mount is important: Roman domination. Covenant-breakers were in control. For most societies, this has been the case throughout history. The ethical principles in the Sermon on the Mount are universal, but they are most appropriate for those in judicial bondage. Loving one's enemies is not a widely shared ethical principle among captive peoples. Conquerors cannot readily understand it; neither can revolutionaries.
What Jesus was telling His listeners was that they were captives of sin. This is the universal form of captivity among men. "Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin" (John 8:34). The Greek word for "servant" can also be translated "slave," and in this passage, it should be. The way out of slavery is grace. It begins with God's common grace to all men. Without this, life would be impossible. Then He shows special grace. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). His people are a means of common grace. They are also a means of special grace. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17).
Common grace is shown to all men by God through nature. Covenant-breakers take God's common grace for granted. They see it as only what they deserve. But common grace shown by enemies, they do not take for granted. They are moved to ask: "Why?" This question can serve as a first step to a correct answer. There are two possible correct answers: 1) "God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life"; 2) "God hates me and has a horrible plan for my life." Nebuchadnezzar discovered the first answer (Dan. 4). Judas discovered the second answer. "And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined: but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed!" (Luke 22:22).
Justice and the Free Market Legal predictability is a foundation of the free market social order. So is equality before the law. Every person's property is protected by law from thieves and predators and government officials. The expectation of justice allows men to reduce their expenditures on defending their property or hiding it. Social cooperation becomes less expensive.
The Bible requires the rule of law: one law for all. "One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you" (Ex. 12:49). This was not Roman jurisprudence. Jesus told His followers to treat all men justly, irrespective of the prevailing civil law. If obeyed, this law makes it more likely that Christians will gain cooperation from other people. Because of their law-abiding practices, Christians should gain access to a larger market than their competitors: production markets and retail markets. By lowering the risks of doing business with them, Christians are can lower their own costs of production.
Enemies can still do business with each other. This is a benefit. Doing business leads to greater peace. Becoming dependent on another's production raises the cost of breaking off the business relationship. By treating all men justly, Christians should gain the reputation as being low-risk associates. This will increase the number of opportunities offered to them.
In contrast is the practice of not performing as promised on the basis of a demand for mercy that is supposedly owed to the Christian on account of his unique legal position before God. The Christian who expects others to grant him mercy for poor performance is a man who is violating the rule of law. He is demanding a subsidy for his substandard performance. He is pressuring others to treat him as outside the rule of law. Word will get out that this man is a high-risk associate. His opportunities to extend the kingdom of God will therefore shrink.
Conclusion The top priority in this passage is for God's people to pray for and treat justly all men, including their enemies. This is what sets God's people apart from other people. "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?" God extends mercy and grace to all men in history; so should God's people. This mercy and grace brings some to repentance and others to destruction. It is up to God to determine which outcome results from His common grace. It is not up to men.
Footnotes:
1. Gary North, Dominion and Common Grace: The Biblical Basis of Progress (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1987).
2. Gary North, Leviticus: An Economic Commentary (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1994), ch. 33.
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