The Covenant of Common Grace

This morning, we're continuing a series that we started last week, working through what is called the covenants of the Bible. These are the great promises of God that God makes with humanity and at certain points with certain individuals throughout the story of the Bible. And we actually progress the story of the Bible largely based off these covenants. They're sort of the hangers, you know, the clothes hangers on which the whole Bible rests and hangs.

And so we've seen God moving right from the beginning of humanity, right at the beginning with Adam and Eve, and we understand the covenants moving right through until where we are today. It's not something that's stuck in the Bible and only in those times. It is having an effect on us even today. Today we move on to the covenant of works, or the Adamic covenant, the covenant with Adam and Eve. And then we move to the Noahic covenant, or the covenant of common grace.

And like I say, we'll be working through these as we go through. One of the most iconic images of the Iraqi war in the mid two thousands was of a giant statue of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein being torn down. Do you remember that image? 2003, 2004. The image is etched in our minds as we think back on a particular moment in time where a crowd of disgruntled, angry citizens and soldiers toppled this image of a broken and beaten leader.

Hussein, who at this time had already fled and gone into hiding, could do nothing but look on as his image and the image of his power was destroyed in this humiliating way. This scene depicts in some way something similar that happened in our story last week with Adam and Eve and the fall of humanity from God's presence. God had created man and woman, the Bible says, in His image and told Adam and Eve, man and woman, to fill the earth with this image. Just like the kings and the queens of all ages have erected statues and images of themselves, we still have the Queen's head on our coins. So God would place His image over all the earth through Adam and Eve.

But like the rebel leader he is, Satan attacked this image. And this was an indirect attack on God, who is Satan's ultimate enemy. Satan doesn't have the power to kill God. He couldn't even give God a bloody nose, but he could attack the image bearers of God and tear down the statue. And Satan uses mankind, we saw last week.

He uses mankind's greatest power against itself, the power to choose disobedience. And before the fall, humanity had the power to choose God or not God. Humanity had free will in that sense. They could choose God or reject Him, and we saw they chose foolishly. Eve took the fruit with Adam right beside her, and they allied with the serpent, who was the vehicle for Satan.

And what a costly decision that was, because they had everything. They had the presence of God. They had a perfect relationship with one another, and they had a paradise in which to live and flourish. And these three blessings became curses. God finds out about this heartbreaking treason and He says to them, Genesis 3:13, "What have you done?"

What have you done? And the covenant made with Adam and Eve, that they are to be image bearers and they are to flourish and subdue and cover the earth, is shattered into a thousand pieces, and the blessings of God's presence, of perfect people, and of paradise is shattered. Genesis 3 now shows that mankind must leave the presence of God lest they dwell in their sin before a holy God and be consumed. Even the relationship between people has now been affected and cursed. God says that Eve, or woman, will desire her husband.

And that word desire is not longing for. It is an envy. It is a friction. It is an overwhelming over desire. We also see that giving birth, the wonderful blessing that God wanted for His people—

the filling and the multiplying and the fruitfulness of His people—is now going to be hard. It is painful to give birth. Marriage is corrupted by darkened motives and power plays. And then finally, paradise is cursed. The earth is infiltrated by disaster and pests.

Work is now a heavy burden, not a peaceful joy. Producing food and improving the earth is now a case of blood, sweat and tears. The covenant which held out so much is now going to result in so much suffering. Yet Genesis 3 doesn't finish on the heartbreak, but on hope. There is a glimmer of it, also in the same breath.

A promise, and enough hope, in fact, amazingly that Adam gives a name to his wife in that moment. He calls her Eve, which means the mother of all living things. Why does Adam have this hope? Because of these words in Genesis 3:15. Another promise, as well as a curse.

As God declares the curses of the broken covenant, He also declares a curse on Satan and the serpent. "I will put," God says, "enmity between you and the woman," He says to the serpent, "and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." This curse indicates that Satan and evil will now be tied forever in this fight, this struggle, this battle. And so too will their children.

Satan, of course, does not have literal children, but he does lead an army of fallen angels, of demons, and the overlapping implications of the physical and the spiritual happens here. The serpent itself, the snake, will have an unfortunate relationship with human beings. Anyone who has a phobia for snakes knows that very well. The serpent itself will bite humans, and humans will kill snakes, but there's something far deeper here, something that perhaps only becomes clear to us when Jesus comes.

But the word offspring can be plural or singular. The word offspring can mean many children, all of your descendants of Eve and Satan, or it can simply be the singular child. Both the Hebrew in the original and our English translations can remain ambiguous. One offspring, many offspring. Yet it says, "He shall bruise your head."

And so I think it's ambiguous for a very profound reason. Humanity will battle against Satan through every generation. And Satan will strike mankind at every opportunity. The physical snake will hold the unenviable position with humans that it does now, but then it zooms in on the He, on the one, on the offspring to crush the serpent's head. And so what we see is what theologians call in Genesis 3:15 the Proto Euangelion.

The Greek for the first gospel. It is a promise in Genesis, the third chapter, from the beginning of a saviour. But we find ourselves in a tension as we continue the story, don't we? We see that there is a tension where God will sort out things in the future.

Something is coming, but for now, humanity is experiencing the prospect and the hardship of a cursed existence. This is shown very clearly for us in the next chapter of the covenant story, the covenant God makes with a man called Noah. The covenant is also referred to as the covenant of common grace, in Genesis chapter 6. And you can turn to that.

In Genesis chapter 6, we find the corrupting effects of sin and the battle of Eve's offspring and Satan's offspring in full flight. This battle is waging with all its power. And in this time of Noah, God looks upon the earth, and Genesis 6:5 says, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And then listen to this: and every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Only evil all the time. The war, in other words, is being lost. Satan is winning. Humanity is running away from God, and then God says in verse 7, "Have a look at that. The Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land.

Man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry I have made them.'" Another translation says, "I repent of having created them." The horror of mankind's fall in only a few chapters is laid bare. Only evil inclinations all the time. And God says judgment must come.

Something must be done. And as we read that story, and we know it well, don't we, there is one man, Noah, who is righteous. One man on the whole face of the planet that God says, "This man is good, good enough."

And so through Noah, his family, his wife, his sons, and his sons' wives are to be spared. Through one man, his family is spared. Noah will build a large ship to save himself and his family. And then above that, God's gracious to even the living animals, and He allows animals to be saved through them as well. We know that story, but what happens after the flood is what we're going to focus on today.

Genesis chapter 9, verses 8 to 11. Let's read that. Genesis 9, verse 8: "Then God said to Noah, after the flood, after they had come back on dry land, God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 'Behold, I establish my covenant with you, my covenant with you and your offspring after you. And with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. It is for every beast of the earth.

I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.' And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant that I make between you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.'" God makes a covenant. And although Noah is the king of this covenant, he's the one that God directly relates with.

It also says his sons are right there. So it's not just to Noah, it is to the sons as well. And then God says, "Not just to you and your sons, but the generations after you, that is, to come. And then not just those generations, every living, breathing creature that has come out of the ark and has been saved with you. This is a covenant I make with you."

Now scholars are very quick and careful to point out that although God calls this a covenant, it doesn't fit into the general covenant mould. And remember we looked at that last week. A covenant is conditional. A covenant has blessings and curses attached to it. A covenant is made between God and man, with God having expectations on how that covenant should be adhered to.

But theologians point out that God doesn't have any conditions here. This is an unconditional promise. This is why this covenant is called the covenant of grace, the covenant of specifically common grace. A grace that is common to all of humanity, in fact, to all living things. God's good gifts without any conditions.

Common grace is distinguished from what is called elsewhere saving grace, which we will get to a bit later. Saving grace is the grace that is provided to those who trust in Jesus Christ alone. So unlike common grace, saving grace, which is narrower and more specific, doesn't extend to all of humanity, only to those called by God, or as the Bible calls it, the elect. But here we see God making a promise to all of humanity now, to all of humanity and the whole earth. A covenant God calls it, that is unconditional.

And there are two things that God promises. Two things that are included in this agreement. Firstly, provision. God promises to Noah that He will continue providing for the world even when it fills up with sinners again. God will continue looking after and providing for the world even when the sinners return again.

Genesis 8:21-22 says this: "The Lord said in His heart, 'I will never again curse the ground because of man. This is the heart of God the Father breaking. I will never again curse the ground because of man. For the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.' Whether you believe in God or not, whether your son or your daughter, your neighbour, your colleague believes in God or not, whether they know Jesus Christ as their King or not, the promise is God will give them the air to breathe. God will give them the rain for their crops. God will keep giving them the gravity that keeps them pinned to this ground. And Jesus summed it up this way, didn't He?

In Matthew 5:45. He said, "God makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good. He makes, He sends the rain on the just and the unjust." What this means is that even the everyday things in our lives are gifts of grace. The sun, your heartbeat, your income—these are things that you have not deserved or earned.

They are gifts. Why? Because God is gracious. And God's heart broke because at one time He took that away. The thing is, none of us deserve health.

None of us deserve wealth. We don't even deserve happiness, but God is kind. Because at one time with Noah, He broke His own heart in nearly destroying the earth, and God said, "Never again. Never again." And now, even our ungrateful kids, even our unworthy prisoners in jail, even ungrateful humanity receives God's good gifts.

That is grace. Then there's a second promise as well. And the second area where we see God's common grace is in the area of the restraint or the prevention of sin. God says in verse 21, "I will never again curse the ground because of man. For the intention of man's heart is evil from youth."

Notice the grammar here. Never again will God curse the earth for, or because, man's heart is evil from youth. That's a strange thing. You might have thought, "Never again will I curse the ground even though man's heart is evil." God understands, and God wants to show us that destroying the world and almost all of humanity is not going to solve this problem of sin.

Because even if one heart would survive, evil would survive. Even if God was to wipe the world clean, start again with a clean slate, that would not solve the problem. And in many ways, we see that Noah is held out as the second attempt. Noah is like a second Adam. A flood covering the earth, like the chaos covering the waters, remember, with the Holy Spirit before creation.

Noah ending up in a little dry patch and Adam being placed in the garden. But has Noah chosen better than Adam? He hasn't. He doesn't. Did giving humanity a second chance help?

No. Unfortunately, not at all. God says that even Noah has the virus of sin in him. And just to make that point and just wedge that knife in deeper, only a few verses later, after God makes His unconditional promise with Noah, we see Noah start working the soil. Good old Noah.

He starts filling the world, and he creates a vineyard. Beautiful. Beautiful. I'm sure he was dying for fresh produce. And he makes wine from the grapes.

And Noah enjoys the fruit of his labours, but a little bit too much, and he gets drunk. And he passes out completely naked. The great, the great king, the second Adam, the father of all nations, undignified and exposed. So much for this new king of the new world. And this insight God gives us to tell us the same story—that Eve's offspring will still be sinful.

And yet Noah was considered a righteous man by God. And so what this tells us is that even believers, even those who will be the offspring of Eve that follow God, will be sinful. The apostle Paul in the New Testament writes that the desires of the flesh are against God's spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these, Paul says, are opposed to each other. And so the promise that God makes in the covenant of common grace is not the solution to sin.

It's not yet. This is the picture that God gives us now. There is grace available to all. There are gifts available to all. God will relent with His punishment for a time.

Never again, God says. The covenant that can be kept will provide provision and prevention. The covenant that may be broken will do the same. Even though man's heart is evil from youth, God will have pity, and God will wait, and He will be patient so that He might find a better solution. And so we come to our final point: How do we, as believers, how do we as people, as Christians, having heard this and understanding this incredible act of God, live in light of this?

Well, we can now understand that there exists a tension in the world, can't we? We understand that now. As Christians, we hold things in tension, just as we have to. Fundamentally, we must understand that there is a conflict.

The world will always hear and see two gospels. Two gospels. Two newses. Two declarations. The gospel of Satan's offspring and the gospel of Eve's offspring.

People who are opposed to God and people who have become part of God's family live in tension. The understanding that God's grace is still prevalent around us from this message is hugely comforting for us. And it is massively important for us to understand our engagement with the world, our mission to a lost world. So important. Imagine if we didn't understand common grace.

Imagine if we didn't understand that. And I'll tell you, it comes out. We can see it. If we don't understand common grace, there's one or two things that can happen. Firstly, every bit of art, every bit of good thing that's being produced, any beautiful thing that is being created by non-Christians, every movie created, every painting painted, every book written—if we don't understand God's grace available commonly to all, everything that's produced by non-believers would be considered a waste.

Something to be burned, destroyed. If we don't understand common grace, we would throw our hands in the air. We would declare that everything is satanic, and all Christians should be barred from engaging in them. When we understand common grace, however, we'll see that there is some goodness. There is some truth.

There is some beauty from God, even in these things. Films that keep showing us that it's normal and preferred to sleep with someone outside of marriage show the brokenness, the distortion of sin. But if we understand it, then we also realise that we know that God has created sex for good, for happiness, for intimacy. But we realise that things have been distorted and changed and confused by sin. And so we don't see in these things that money or power or sex can bring the results that God has originally intended.

And so in many things created by even non-believers, we can see the work of God, the goodness of God peeking out. Therefore, even a non-Christian's perspective, a non-Christian's message, a non-Christian's work can be beautiful and encouraging. On the other hand, so I said that's one error. On the other hand, if we don't hold attention perfectly, we can forget that there is a gospel war that is raging. We may start to think that films are entirely harmless.

What books I read, what conversations I engage with, what work I do—these things are bound to be okay, even if they are PG-rated. However, there is a war going on. And ultimately, there are only two masters: God or Satan. And Satan's tactics haven't changed very much. Just like he did with Adam and Eve, he distorts the truth.

He just changes the angle a little bit. And every lie that makes you believe happiness and blessing can be found outside of God is a win for him. Many little girls have grown up therefore on a diet of, and mums and dads, I hope this does not put any guilt on you, but I'm sure you've heard this:

Many girls have grown up on a diet of Disney. And therefore believe a man must come and must sweep them off their feet in order to be happy. The question then is, what happens if that man doesn't come? And what happens if the man that does come along is not as perfect as Prince Charming? Unhappiness happens.

The lie has been bought. Many Christian men who have gone on to shipwreck their faith by chasing those non-Christian girls, because the lie has been believed. And friends, the lie about sex and sexuality is the biggest one in our generation. The lie our young men and even our not so young men can believe is that they are a man by how much they can score. And the lies are so subtle, and they are so cunning.

Because Beauty and the Beast may be very low on hardcore violence and sex scenes, but the message is just so powerful. So keeping both common grace—the beauty and the splendour and the goodness of God—throughout chaos and sin and brokenness, and also this understanding of the continuing conflict clear in our sights, holding these two together will stop us from being naïve about the world but also help us to be joyful and engaging with the world that still bears the marks of a good God. And so God marks in closing, God marks this special unconditional covenant with this sign—the rainbow.

A reminder, each time it rains, that God is out there, that He is sharing the world not just with rain but with His kindness. And in it, Noah would see that there is unfinished business still. Sin has still not been dealt with. But instead of drowning sinful humanity again, God must drown sin itself. And we know, thankfully, don't we, that Christ Himself would come to sink under the weight of sin for us.

Under the weight and the flood of God's judgment, that sin that would seek to pull us into the abyss, into the deepest, darkest waters of hell, was dealt with by Him. Never again will I flood the earth, God said. But My wrath will be poured out once more on Eve's special offspring. And so the one who will finally crush the serpent's skull, Jesus Christ, has become the saviour of the world. Our friends, God's grace is so great that God makes it rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. Brothers and sisters, this is His most profound grace: that you should be loved so much that God would send His son as a payment for your sin.

Let's pray. Oh God, how incredible that You would love us so much that at one time You gave us wealth and health, prosperity, beauty, family, love, even when we didn't know You. Oh God, that our friends may receive this, that our colleagues may rejoice in it, that our celebrities and the ones we look up to may flourish in this grace of free gifts, of good things, of riches and bounty, and yet none of it is deserved. Oh but God, You go on further and we receive us, for some reason, cherished and loved.

We receive Christ as an atoning sacrifice, as a final dealing with our sin. We will never face judgment. We will never be consumed. We will never know the terror and the horror of what Your wrath looks like. So what else can we say, God, but thank You?

Help us to live in joy, in gratitude, in winsome engagement with our neighbour who will and can produce beautiful things, can say and do nice things. Help us to understand and not to reject out of hand these things that are gifts from You. Help us to understand and to deal with it wisely, however, knowing that there is a lie that is perpetuated and shared. A lie that is declared like a gospel message. And Father, help us to live in this tension between the serpent striking our heels.

But thank You God that You have crushed His head. Father, we lay our lives before You. We take up this great news as our own. Help us to live lives worthy of it. In Jesus' name. Amen.