Common Grace

Definition and Meaning

Common grace (Korean ilban eunchong, 一般恩寵) refers to the grace that God extends to all people and to the whole created order, regardless of whether they are saved. It is generally understood to include the following:

• Sunshine and rain, and the sustaining of life
• Conscience and a moral sense
• Gifts in learning, the arts, and technology
• The state and the law, which preserve social order

The term is paired with special grace (saving grace), which forgives sin and leads to salvation. Common grace does not save anyone. Rather, it is described as restraining sin so that sin cannot utterly destroy the world even after the Fall, and as preserving life.

Biblical and Historical Background

The passage most commonly cited in support is Matthew 5:45, which says that God "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Other frequently cited passages include Acts 14:17, Psalm 145:9, and Romans 2:14–15, which speaks of the law of conscience among the Gentiles. The covenant with Noah (Genesis 9) is also sometimes connected with common grace, read as a promise to preserve all life.

John Calvin taught that the learning and talents found in unbelievers are also gifts of God. The Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper is regarded as the one who gave the concept systematic form. In the early twentieth century Kuyper published a multivolume work on common grace and used it as a basis for Christian engagement in politics, education, and culture. Herman Bavinck carried the discussion further.

There is also an opposing current within the Reformed tradition. When the 1924 synod of the Christian Reformed Church in North America adopted a decision affirming common grace, Herman Hoeksema and others rejected it and formed a separate denomination. They maintained that God's grace is given only to the elect.

Use in Korean Churches

• Presbyterian churches: Denominations that follow Reformed theology teach this concept alongside special grace in systematic theology textbooks and seminary courses. It serves as a basis for explaining Christian vocation, scholarship, and social engagement, and is reportedly cited often in the Christian worldview movement. In preaching, the term appears when the good deeds of unbelievers or advances in medicine and science are attributed to the grace of God.
• Methodist, Holiness, and other churches in the Wesleyan tradition: These churches emphasize prevenient grace (grace given to people before they believe, enabling them to respond to the gospel) rather than common grace. The two concepts differ in emphasis. Common grace in the Reformed sense is a preserving grace not directly connected to salvation, whereas prevenient grace in the Wesleyan tradition is a grace that calls all people to salvation.
• Usage across denominations: In congregational life the term is used across denominational lines in the broad sense that "God gives good things even to those who do not believe."