Common Grace Series on Matthew 5:44-45

Examples of Common Grace

Matthew 5:44-45

Paul J. Bucknell

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The Rain | Explain Causality | Common Grace | Kinds of Grace | The Shock | Goodness & Doubt | Misinterpetations of Love | Effects of Grace | Examples of Grace | Call to Com
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Purpose

Examples of Common Grace, an expository message from Matthew 5:44-45, elaborates on many other ways God has extended His common grace into our lives.

Jesus' Examples of Common Grace

The daily rising of the sun and the falling of the rain are two examples of God’s common grace, but they are not by any means the end of them. They are just two outstanding reminders of God’s love among millions.

We simply cannot conceive of the great number of God’s kind treatment of us. Let me explain a few categories where this common grace can be found.

Other Examples of Common Grace

Consistency in physical properties of earth

We love our cell phones and televisions, but do you realize that it is only by God’s common grace that we can use these devices to communicate with each other. Of course, in the more basic fundamentals of life, if there was no sun, there would be no light and no people. We would perish. We can be even more specific, however.

God’s kind treatment comes in all sorts of unrecognized ways. The only reason that we can use electricity, which we still do not understand, is that it is consistent. God allows the transmission of waves through the air. All the principles of physics that help us with these hi-tech equipment are based on their consistency.

The way they operate is always the same just as the way the sun rises and the rain falls in different parts of the world. Next time you watch a film or talk on the phone, first pause and thank the Lord for making our lives so special.

Digging Deep into the Earth

Common grace is seen in the way that God has provided for our needs through special supplies stored in the earth. We might not be so sure how the various metals came to be stored in the earth, but their presence allows us to greatly enrich our lives.

Think about the black gold called oil or natural gas. Most likely these were carefully placed there during the judgment of the earth by the flood. The trees were thrown under the mud that sank and were quickly compressed.

God did punish mankind but at the same time, the Lord provided for the new environment that would occur after the flood. With the four seasons God provided extra resources for large populations to live better lives even in cold climates (i.e. Fossil fuels).

Learn from example

There is no doubt that man’s greatest inventions have come from observation. Observation of what? Observation of what God has made and used.

The Eiffel Tower was ridiculed, thinking all the heavy iron would fall upon itself. But Mr. Eiffel knew about the hip bone and designed the Eiffel Tower after the hip.

Man has simply replicated (never as good as God) what God has made. We can think about tractors with their powerful arms or velcro that makes things stick together from the way burrs are made. God has supplied us with the means through which we can imitate His creative ways to better our lives.

Nutrition anyone?

Rain and sun is connected with foods. If man had his way, we would die. I was just reading a report on a report from Harvard about how brown rice is better because it protects a person from diabetes. (We knew this before this study).

Brown rice is how God made it. Man because of the prestige of white rice and possibly profit made from white rice. God for thousands of years has made it the right way, with the outer brown coat. This is common grace.

Before the last century no one could fathom the nutritional difference between brown rice on the outside (with the outer coats of fiber) with white rice (the same as brown rice but with the outer coat taken off). This is true with whole bread and white bread too.

God made it so that all the starch which forms into sugar in our bodies is in a balanced way introduced into our bodies by the fiber, that is, the outer coating. If you want more insight, study all the enzymes in a simple food that somehow blend to provide the body with the nutrition that we need.

Needed Protection

If we talk about grains, we can keep talking about God’s common grace. Did you know that the Lord has made the outside shell of grains so that the grains can keep a long time without spoiling?

There are parts of wheat, for example, that once the outer core is taken off, the inner part, the wheat germ, will spoil and rot. But with the grain intact it can last a long time without spoiling. If not, we would greatly suffer and not live.

Speaking about protection

Protection of our food sources is one matter, but the way God has made us is an example of first class protection. There are a multitude of devices within the human body that supplies that protection.

From advanced studies we can observe that God has made people with an immune system that can fight off germs. This is so specialized. Healing is from within.

But what about our skin? Our skin is fantastic. The skin is always self-repairing by creating new skin cells. It is made just right so that it can help fight off all the germs trying to invade the body, but it also has a host of pleasure cells so that we can feel pleasure as others touch us.

Fathers, mothers, family

God embedded this care from our family into our lives. Where would we be without our family’s love, protection and care?

Societies in which the family and marriage begin to disintegrate are the same where pain and abuse increase. If family members do not care for the children, then they are preyed upon. If husbands do not watch over their wives, then the women become vulnerable to many problems.

Some want us to treat children just like animals. We can just fence in the little kiddies and feed them as sheep. In this way the parents can work more! Philosophies of the world come up with such solutions because they reject God’s principles of love.

God instituted marriage immediately after creation and embedded this set of knowledge, liking, desires, physical capacity and design into our lives so to protect us.

Summary

Each day we step into a world of exploration. God has provided so many reminders of His glorious kindness, to both the good and wicked, so that we might end up with the best life possible. God has provided us with all sorts of gifts so that so that we would rightly respond to Him.

Next => God’s Common Grace Calls us to Come

Biblical Foundations for Freedom ( BFF )

Rev. Paul J. Bucknell