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God's Covenant of Common Grace with the World A COVENANT THEOLOGY PART 5 - GOD’S COVENANT OF COMMON GRACE WITH THE WORLD A PREVIEW In Part 5 we see that after the fall of Adam and Eve in Gen 3 that God comes in judgment. But it is not final judgment! If the gospel promised in Gen 3:15 was to be fulfilled then final judgment must be postponed to allow for a human history so that God can save a people and wage war on the devil. So God makes a Covenant of Common Grace with all of mankind to restrain the evil of each individual and that of society to allow for the history of redemption to unfold. RESOURCES This series of lectures is based on and in many instances taken directly from the works of Meredith Kline, Lee Irons, Gordon Hugenberger, Rick Lints and many conversations with pastor friends and fellow covenant theologians. ​ A REVIEW We left off in Gen 3 and saw that after the fall God shows up in the garden in judgment. And the amazing thing is that he judges and condemns the devil and promises to save his people. So God enters into a Covenant of Grace with Adam and Eve and promises that their seed will defeat evil and the devil and save them. And, the devil and all who will follow him in this world will be justly condemned. Gen 3:14-15: 14 ​ The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat 1 all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” DELAYED JUDGMENT Now what we too quickly passover at this point is this BIG POINT that final judgment could have happened right then and there after the fall. Instead final judgment is delayed. “If the gospel promise in Gen 3:15 was to be fulfilled, final judgment must be postponed ​ to make room for the kind of human history that was presupposed in the prophecy of the woman’s seed and the great warfare with the devil and his seed.” - Meredith Kline, ​ Kingdom Prologue 153.1 ​ COMMON CURSE However, right after the fall, God does pronounce a temporal, common curse on mankind. Gen 3:16-19: 16 ​ To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17 ​ And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, 1 Kline, Meredith, Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview. Overland Park, ​ ​ KS: Two Age Press, 2001. 2 till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Commentary notes below from Meredith Kline, Genesis A New Commentary, 23.2 ​ ​ 3:16-19 - During the interim, until the final judgment on Satan and his seed and the ​ consummation of the redemption of God’s elect, all fallen mankind would be under a common, temporal curse…[the following are the major features of the common curse ​ God pronounces] Rule over you (v.16). In the fall, the marriage institution had been violated and, ​ though continued and in measure blessed with children, it would be beset with difficulties in the procreation process. Also, the husband’s rightful authority would become a tyrannical mastery over a wife trying to dominate him. As a consequence of the fall, marriage and having a family will be hard. -The process of having children is frustrated and beset with difficulty because of this common curse following the fall. -The relationship between husbands and wives is marked by struggle and conflict because of this common curse following the fall. Note, that same language in the last part of 3:16 is found again in Gen 4:7 when God warns, Cain, the first child of Adam and Eve, that his sin is going to destroy him if he doesn’t repent of it. God says to Cain, “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, ​ but you must rule over it.” As a result of the fall one feature of the common curse is that ​ God’s ordained roles for husbands to lead their wives and for wives to help their husbands will be frustrated and up ended. Generally speaking, rather than laying down their lives and leading their wives sacrificially (Eph 5:25), husbands will rule over their wives and households in a harsh manner. (Not in a one to one sense, but similar to the way Cain should harshly, strictly “rule” over his own sin, Gen 4:7). Likewise, generally speaking, rather than helping their husbands lead sacrificially (Eph 5:22), wives will “desire” to master their husbands in a controlling manner. (Not in a one to one sense, but similar to the way Cain’s sin “desires” to master Cain in a controlling manner, Gen 4:7). 2 Kline, Meredith, Genesis: A New Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2016. ​ ​ ​ ​ 3 Cursed is the ground (v.17)...return to the ground (v.19). Man’s transgression ​ had involved the realm of nature, and the task of subduing it...would be a frustrating, painful process culminating in death. Cursing the ground did not introduce new objects or laws of nature. The curse consisted in the earth’s dominating and victimizing man, even reclaiming him. Recoiling from the grave-function under the common curse, earth groans, longing for its resurrection deliverance (Rom 8:20ff). Dust you are (v.19). Man’s being made with an earthly body did not make ​ physical death inevitable, but possible, as a consequence of sin. The common curse does not change how nature works but how nature works in relation to mankind. Originally all of creation was consecrated to the service of man and his dominion. Now our dominion over creation is frustrated. The biggest frustration is that instead of forever ruling over creation, our earthly bodies will grow old and one day the ground will rule over us as we are buried in the earth. See Gen 3:17 and Rom 8:19ff - creation is personified as being cursed itself. Creation bemoans the loss of its original role as one of service to mankind’s dominion and advancement. Now creation is subjected as having to rule over mankind as the grave of mankind. Creation longs for the resurrection of mankind and emptying itself of all of this death, giving birth as it were to new resurrection life of mankind. COMMON BLESSING God’s approach to mankind to pronounce the common curse judgment does show his displeasure with Adam and Eve’s rebellion and the entrance of sin into the world. But, on the other hand, it also confirms God’s purpose of salvation because this is a pronouncement of temporal cursing NOT final, ultimate judgment of fiery wrath. That is, God’s common curse is tempered by God’s common grace. ​ Think of these major features of God’s common grace to mankind after the fall. The following are notes from Kline’s, Kingdom Prologue 153-155: ​ ​ -The world order continued. The sun was not darkened; the heavens did not pass away; the earth was not consumed. -The natural order of creation is preserved in a form that made a history of man on earth still possible. -Man was not totally abandoned to the power of sin and the devil; he was not cast into outer darkness. -Important elements of the social-cultural order that had been established under God’s Covenant with Adam continue: 4 -Implied in the curse upon the woman (Gen 3:16) is that marriage institution will endure in human society. -And, God would continue to bless not only the marriage institution but the marriage relationship as the means for propagating human life. There would be barrenness and pain, miscarriage and abortion, as features of the common curse but there would still be children. -Implied in the curse upon the man (Gen 3:17-19) it is presupposed that man’s dominion over the earth would continue and although it would be frustrated by common curse, God would bless the labor of man to such a degree that human life would be sustained and cultural satisfactions realized. SO there would be thorns and pests, drought and famine, toil unto death, as features of the common curse, but there would still be bread and wine. And there would be music and dancing and technological advances. The sciences, industry, the arts would endure with both the ungodly and the godly contributing and enjoying these benefits of common grace. -Common grace was introduced to act as a rein to hold in check the curse on mankind and to make possible an interim historical environment as the theater for a program of redemption. APPLICATION Common curse was introduced to drive mankind back to God. Why does God allow evil and suffering in this life? We can answer that now in terms of the common curse.
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