Common Grace and the Noetic Effect of Sin
In Reformed Christian theology, unregenerate persons are totally depraved and all of their thinking is under the noetic (mind) impact of sin.
Yet, also in Reformed thinking, unregenerate/unsaved persons can make valid contributions to society, culture, the arts, research, science, and more.
How can these two truths be simultaneously true?
The Reformed doctrine of common grace answers this question.
The Presbyterian theologian John Murray defined common grace as “every favor of whatever kind or degree, falling short of salvation, which this undeserving and sin-cursed world enjoys at the hand of God.” Murray teaches that:
Common grace involves God’s restraint of sin, divine wrath, and evil. Connon grace functions to bestow God’s goodness on men and to excite goodness from men. Common grace bestows goodness and beauty in the bounty of creation. In common grace, God bestows goodness to the unregenerate, enables them to want to do acts of common goodness, and produces non-saving influences of biblical truth on the minds of the unregenerate. Common Grace and the Goodness of God
I’ve study the biblical teaching about common grace for decades. This past week, I’ve been reading Herman Bavinck’s Biblical and Religious
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