Common Grace, the Authority of Scripture, and Biblical Counseling
The issue of common grace and how it affects the way we counsel people is a spicy topic right now in the biblical counseling world. In this three-part series, we will look at how we should understand common grace biblically, give a definition of the authority of Scripture, and finally, explain why the authority of Scripture should be relied on and exhausted before seeking counseling help in common grace.
Common Grace
A definition of common grace is: God's goodness and mercy upon all his creation, specifically to people, indiscriminately, whether they are Christian or not. Even though the word “grace” is used, we must be clear that no one is saved or sanctified through common grace.
We will look at common grace through the lens of three distinct categories:¹
Divine moral provision
Divine physical provision
Divine intellectual provision
Divine Moral Provision
Under the category of divine moral provision, we see that God restrains sin. Genesis 20:6–7 contains the narrative of Abraham and Abimelech, king of Gerar. This king took Abraham’s wife, Sarah, when they were sojourning in Gerar, with the intention of making her his wife. God appeared in a dream to the pagan king Abimelech and told him he was a dead man for taking another man’s wife. Abimelech responded to God by saying that Abraham told him she was his sister, and in his own integrity of heart and innocence he took her. God then said: “It was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her” (Genesis 20:6). In God’s sovereignty, and allowing people in the integrity of their heart to make decisions, it is credited in God’s divine Word that it was God himself who kept Abimelech from having sexual relations with Abraham’s wife. God himself restrained that sin.
We also see God restraining sin even though human beings are totally depraved. Humanity is born into sin, guilty before God from birth, and every part of life is stained by sin. And yet, because of God’s moral provision and restraint of sin, people aren’t as bad as they could be. This is God’s common grace to mankind, regardless of whether people are saved or not.
Divine Physical Provision
The next category of common grace is divine physical provision. This is the category we are probably the most accustomed to thinking in. We have food, shelter, families, sunshine, and rain. Jesus shows us this in the Sermon on the Mount:
You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:43–45).
This passage shows us that God’s divine physical provision is for everyone, just and unjust alike.
Divine Intellectual Provision
The third category of common grace is divine intellectual provision. This is the preservation of some truth, morality, and religion. Saved and unsaved people are able to know correct information, and this knowledge they possess about the world comes from Jesus Christ Himself (John 1:9).
We’ve all experienced this in neighbors who are unsaved but kind and smart, friends who are unsaved but moral, and people we know who again, are unsaved, but possess a vestige of religion.
Romans 1:18–25 is helpful in understanding that the truth is written on everyone’s heart that there is a God, and by witnessing creation and beauty in the world, they can come to an understanding that something is out there and that something possesses eternal power and divine nature. God’s law is in fact written on the hearts of all men (Romans 2:15), which is evidence of divine intellectual provision, and the reason unsaved people can know true things and be moral people.
Let’s connect common grace with biblical counseling.
Common Grace and Biblical Counseling
We know, from the different categories of common grace, that secular psychologists can know true information. They are able to make true observations about the world and hurting people, and are in fact often very good at this! After all, they have spent thousands of hours counseling people and often work tirelessly to help others.
The trouble comes in their interpretation of people’s problems or suffering.
When we think of common grace, again we’re aware that unsaved people can definitely make good and true observations about the world and its people, but the trouble comes in the interpretation phase. The reason for this is a worldview issue: all people, saved and secular alike, are operating based on a certain lens, or a worldview. Secular therapists or counselors are operating out of a godless worldview and most often a false view of anthropology. They are not proceeding with counseling based on the understanding that there is a guidebook for people and their problems. So, we can be on the same page with secular people when it comes to observations, but when it comes to interpreting problems, this is where we must part ways.
The reason for this is because interventions flow from interpretation of problems, and if you start from a godless or false worldview, then your intervention or methodology will also be godless or false.
There is much to be thankful for when it comes to common grace! In the next part of the series, we will look at the authority of Scripture and how it relates to common grace and counseling.
¹ Heath Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, 67–70.