The Apostles' Creed: The Holy SpiritSample

Common Grace: Romans 8:1-8

Common grace is the forbearance that God shows and the benefits that he gives to all humanity, regardless of their faith. The Holy Spirit does not give common grace to all people equally. Rather, he works here and there, according to his plans and desires.

For example, common grace is seen in the way that the Holy Spirit restrains sin in the world. Fallen unbelievers are controlled by sin, as Paul taught in Romans 8:1-8. They are hostile to God by nature, and they love sin. But as Paul taught throughout Romans 7–8, the Holy Spirit combats sin in the world. This is similar to the way he works in believers after he regenerates them. Although he does not grant a blessing this great to unbelievers, it is still true that he often restrains them so that they do not sin as greatly as they are able. 

Another aspect of common grace that is frequently seen in the world is the knowledge that unbelievers acquire, and the good things they are able to do with that knowledge. Unbelievers can learn many valuable truths that they use to benefit the church and its believers, along with the rest of humanity. And whenever anyone discovers something useful, that knowledge is a gracious gift from the Holy Spirit. 

John Calvin, the famous Protestant Reformer who lived from A.D. 1509 to 1564, described the Holy Spirit’s common gifts of knowledge in his work the Institutes of the Christian Religion, book 2, chapter 2, sections 15 and 16. Consider what he wrote there:

Whenever we come upon these matters in secular writers, let that admirable light of truth shining in them teach us that the mind of man, though fallen and perverted from its wholeness, is nevertheless clothed and ornamented with God’s excellent gifts. If we regard the Spirit of God as the sole fountain of truth, we will neither reject the truth itself, nor despise it wherever it shall appear, unless we wish to dishonor the Spirit of God … But if the Lord has willed that we be helped in physics, dialectic, mathematics, and other like disciplines, by the work and ministry of the ungodly, let us use their assistance.