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Dr. Meredith Kline, Prologue, Lecture 24

2012, Dr. Meredith Kline and Ted Hildebrandt

Toward the end of last week we had moved into an area, and Ill just back up a little. I think I had begun to jump ahead a little in the Kingdom Prologue treatment of things. It might be easier if we do back up and just follow the sequence of the Kingdom Prologue. What I started to do was to move on from the subject of Gods common grace there after the Fall to deal with one of the common grace institutions, namely the family. We only got so far into that subject as to deal with the text in Genesis 4:15, which I see as the initiation of this institution of the state. So it wont hurt much if we just back up just a bit and then come back to our discussion of the state as to its functions and so on.

Survey of fall to consummation In your Kingdom Prologues then, what I had jumped over I think was material aroundI guess it would be around page 96 through 99. So lets just quickly recap what we were saying there, and introduce the concept of intrusion, which appears somewhere on page 97 I believe. But the way we are working things out then, we come back to our overall chart of these things. We were in between the fall and the consummation. We have then this line which represents what we are talking about now, the common grace of God, so that after the fall things did continue. They werent as great as they were, but the world did continue in Gods common grace. Then, of course, the purposes of common grace were to provide this space were talking about between the fall and the consummation. This interim space, so that Gods eternal purposes in terms of his eternal covenant with the Son might begin to be fulfilled in history as the Son pours forth the Holy Spirit and hes developing the covenant community, the holy community, which involves the kingdom of God and the people of God. Whereas this common grace program is just going to terminate, it lasts as long as the earth endures, but then it terminates here. Gods holy redemptive operations do not terminate, but they consummate--they achieve the consummation.

Common Grace: Family and State Well, thats the fundamental structure of things and when were trying to see particular developments all along the line of each one. But right now were just looking at this whole operation of common grace and what then we have already noted is well, where we read about itwhere weve already dealt with itwas back when we were dealing with Gods judgment on Adam and Eve after the Fall. We saw implicit in his words of curse of them, implicit was already the principle of common grace because the curse wasnt as bad as it might have been. There was a restraint on it, whether youre talking about the functions of the woman or the man or the whole thing. God puts the reins on his common curse so that it is tempered. The roughest edges of the common curse are relieved, which is to say that there was a common grace principle that was restrained because fallen man didnt deserve anything but the complete, intense wrath of God. So any restraint that is put upon that and whatever benefits attached to that restraint is a gift of Gods grace. So thats the language we are using. It is common we were saying in the sense that it is something that is shared. As I was saying, already then in Gods words to Adam and Eve about the common curse, common grace is implicit and right up then until, lets say, this is the Flood episode, right up until the flood episode. We see that in terms of Gods common grace, there is the institution of the family. From what we did already say about the state last week, we saw that already in this period between the fall and the flood, namely in Genesis 4:15, a second institution that the Lord provided in his common grace was the institution of the state. Then as we study this matter presently, of the institution of the state, we see that after the flood when this revelation of common grace is given a covenantal form, that takes place then in Genesis 8:20-9:17. So we will see then that after the flood, to Noah, God takes this whole business were talking about and he does now put it in the form of a covenant with a sign of the covenantthe rainbow and so forth. So this is the history of things, with this gradual further revelation with its covenantal organization and so on. As we study these texts and the light that they throw on this principle of common grace, what we find then is that this is something which does not involve the production of the holy kingdom, thats up there. Whats going on here does not involve a called-out, separate, holy people. Thats not whats going on up here. This involves Gods Holy Spirit working in the hearts of a people and calling them out and theyre being organized as the covenant community within which there is the election and so on. They are the ones who have a special relationship to God. They are the ones that have special hope of inheritance and so on. The holy kingdom of God belongs to them as Gods holy, special people. But none of that applies down here. This is common, no holy people as the covenant people. But unbelievers, believers, select and reprobate, all together share in these benefits as the Lord will resort to be like the Lord who shows his good favors and sunshine and rain and on the wicked as well as to the righteous. This is the area of common shared benefits which in the area of the state then involves that there is an arrangement or a pragmatic coexistence of things political then for those who are Gods people and those who arent. So common grace then involves that idea, that it is something that is shared by believers and unbelievers. There is no particular weighting of the benefits on behalf of Gods people. In fact, it often seems to go the other way. The unbelievers seem to get the lions share of the benefits of Gods common grace. That is underscore for example in Genesis 4 where the cultural talents and so on that are described as being developed in humanity are especially associated with the line of Cain. So shared benefits between believers and unbelievers is the picture that we get. Then the other element there that is indicated by the term common is that its the opposite of holy. Whats going on out there is holy and whats going on down here is common. Its non-holy. So shared between believers and unbelievers and the non-holy; these are the characteristics of whats going on here that are leading to our calling it Gods common grace. Now what aspects of human existence and life are involved here especially now when you come here to the covenantal form. Already where else along the line, what particular aspects, what functions are assigned to this common sphere? Where can we be cooperating as believers and unbelievers in this particular way? Well, its in the area of culture. The consistent picture then is that wherever we have biblical revelation concerning common grace, the area of culture is assigned to it. That, of course, then is determinative to the purpose of common grace institutions like the family or like the state. Their purpose, their function is defined in terms of culture by the biblical evidence. Whereas on the other hand, the peculiar, the distinctive functions, that are assigned and in terms of the covenantal revelation of top line has to do with the cult--the worship of God. Now this line involves the covenants. Of course, this redemptive holy line involves its covenants: its Abrahamic, its old covenant, new covenant, and so on. Where God himself in his covenants defines what is going on up along that line its in terms essentially of cult, and not culture. Of course, with those outstanding examples that we keep talking about where along that top line, theres the flood, we say that there was a theocracy there. In Israel and later on, Christ comes here, Moses comes here and Israel, there we have a theocracy. But apart from those exceptional typological intrusions into history as were going to be calling it, but apart from that what is characteristic always of this holy redemption line is cultic activity. So the scriptural arrangement is actually quite simple, and the line is clearly drawn the function of this covenantal order, and the function of that covenantal order. So were talking now about this.

The Cultural task re-issued: e.g. Sabbath Now the fact that this is a non-holy area we can relate to our discussion earlier on of the Sabbath. We took the position that the Sabbath is a creation ordinance to be sure. But here before the fall, it was a creation ordinance, but it was a sign of Gods holy covenant. Later on, when he renews the Sabbath to Israelthats in Exodus 31the Lord reminds them that the Sabbath is a berith olam. Its an everlasting covenant. Its a sign, O Israel that I am sanctifying you because Ive called you out of the profane world out here onto myself to be consecrated to me. So the Sabbath is a sign of holiness. The Sabbath is a sign of the holy kingdom order. The Sabbath conveys the promise that you people who have this Sabbath sign are destined for the eternal holy kingdom of God. That Sabbath sign is given as you would expect to this program up here. And as you would also expect, its completely missing from the revelation whether you look at Genesis 3:16-19 or chapter 4, whether you look at the covenantal description of it in Genesis 8 and 9. No matter where you look, where God is defining this particular order, he gives the cultural task, or at least a cultural task, he gives assignments that on the surface formally are somewhat similar to the cultural task that he had given back in the Garden of Eden, namely, procreation and exercising of do