A Word from Bob
You’re reading part of a series of posts on Reformed thinking on common grace. For a collation of all of my posts on common grace, see: Common Grace and Biblical Counseling: Wisdom from Reformed Theologians. Among those posts, if you are especially interested in John Calvin, you might want also want to read: John Calvin: “Integrationist?”
Introducing “Common Grace”
In Reformed Christian theology, unregenerate persons are totally depraved and all of their thinking is seen as under the noetic (mind) impact of sin and fallenness.
Yet, also in Reformed thinking, the unregenerate/unsaved person can make valid contributions to society, culture, the arts, research, science, and more.
How can these two truths be held together at one time?
The Reformed doctrine of common grace explains how we can hold to both truths. It also explains how to engage with and evaluate common grace resources using the lens/spectacles of God’s all-sufficient Word.
Calvin on the “Common Good” and the “Peculiar Grace” of God
The Reformer, John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564), insisted that it is the Spirit of God who establishes all human competence in arts and sciences “for the common good of mankind” and that common grace is a tool given by God that should not be neglected. In the Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin taught that the Bible draws a distinction between God’s special or saving grace and His common or non-saving grace.
Calvin explained that there are some “natural gifts” that are “by nature implanted into men” by God, and that these gifts are “bestowed indiscriminately upon the pious and impious.” He argued that this bestowal should be seen as a “peculiar grace of God” (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.2.14).
Calvin on the Believer’s Use of the Unbeliever’s Understanding
According to Calvin, the light of intelligence is to be regarded as a divine grace and its power is discussed extensively in the Institutes at II: 2.12-15. For example:
“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 through fallen and perverted from its wholeness, is nevertheless clothed and ornamented with God’s excellent gifts…. Shall we deny that the truth shone upon the ancient jurists who established civic order and discipline with such great equity? Shall we say that the philosophers were blind in their fine observations and artful descriptions of nature? Shall we say that those men were devoid of understanding who conceived the art of disputation and taught us to speak reasonably? Shall we say that they are insane who developed medicine, devoting their labor to our benefit? What shall we say of all the mathematical sciences? Shall we consider them the ravings of madmen? No, we cannot read the writings of the ancients on these subjects without great admiration. We marvel at them because we are compelled to recognized how preeminent they are…. Those men whom Scripture (1 Cor. 2:14) calls ‘natural men’ were, indeed, sharp and penetrating in their investigation of inferior things. Let us, accordingly, learn by their example how many gifts the Lord left to human nature even after it was despoiled of its true good” (Calvin, Institutes, II: 2.15, 273-275).
Consider what Calvin has written. He describes the writings of non-Christians as “admirable light of truth shining in them.” He describes fallen people as “clothed and ornamented with God’s excellent gifts. He includes fields such as law, debate, elocution, and medicine. Regarding philosophers, Calvin specifically highlights philosophical psychology and their find observations and artful descriptions of human nature.
This gift of peculiar grace is so significant for Calvin that when we come across it manifested in an unbeliever,
“We shall neither reject the truth itself, nor despise it wherever it appears, unless we wish to dishonor the Spirit of God. If we regard the Spirit of God as the sole foundation of truth, we shall not despise it wherever it shall appear” (Calvin, Institutes, II: 2.14).
According to Calvin, to reject truth, wherever it appears, is to dishonor God, who is the sole foundation of truth. Instead, we should “own this assistance” given to us “by the work of the ungodly:
“If the Spirit dwells only in believers, this refers to the Spirit of Sanctification. Nevertheless, he fills, moves and quickens all things by the power of the same Spirit. If the Lord has willed that we be helped in physics, dialectic, mathematics and other like disciplines by the work of the ungodly—let us own this assistance” (Calvin, Institutes, II: 2.16).
“While men dispute about individual sections of the law, they agree on the general conception of equity. The fact remains that some seed of political order has been implanted in all men” (Calvin, Institutes, II: 2.13).
“Hardly anyone is found who does not manifest talent in some art” (Calvin, Institutes, II: 2:17).
For Calvin, God’s common grace extends to matters of philosophy, theology, and even to “a slight taste of His divinity.” However, apart from saving grace, their common grace understandings could only lead them so far.
“Certainly I do not deny that one can read competent and apt statements about God here and there in the philosophers. The Lord gave them a slight taste of His divinity—sometimes impelled them to make utterances by the confession of which they would themselves be corrected. But their seeing did not direct them to the truth, much less enable them to attain it” (Calvin, Institutes, II: 2.18).
In his Commentary on Hebrews, while Calvin distinguishes the regenerate from the unregenerate mind, he still commends God’s work in the minds of the unbeliever:
“God indeed favors none but the elect alone with the Spirit of regeneration, and that by this they are distinguished from the reprobate; for they are renewed after his image and receive the earnest of the Spirit in hope of the future inheritance, and by the same Spirit the Gospel is sealed in their hearts. But I cannot admit that all this is any reason why He should not grant the reprobate also some taste of his grace, why He should not irradiate their minds with some sparks of his light, why he should not give them some perception of his goodness, and in some sort engrave his word on their hearts.”
In his Commentary on Genesis, Calvin noted how Cain’s descendants distinguished themselves in animal husbandry, music, and metallurgy. Jabal fathered “those who live in tents and raise livestock, while Jubal “was the father of all who play the harp and flute” and Tubal-Cain “forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron” (Gen 4:20-21). Calvin elaborates on this:
“Moses now relates that, with the evils which proceeded from the family of Cain, some good had been blended. For the invention of arts, and of other things which serve to the common use and convenience of life, is a gift of God by no means to be despised, and a faculty worthy of commendation.”
Here, once again, Calvin commends the common grace gifts of the unbeliever, while also commanding the believer to refuse to despise such God-given contributions and capacities.
Calvin on the Unbelieving Mind “Clothed and Ornamented with God’s Excellent Gifts”
Calvin described the capacity for goodness in the non-Christian as a gift from God. He said that an unbelieving mind:
“Though fallen and perverted from its wholeness, is nevertheless clothed and ornamented with God’s excellent gifts” (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.2.15).
Regarding human understanding, Calvin wrote:
“When we so condemn human understanding for its perpetual blindness as to leave it no perception of any object whatever, we not only go against God’s Word, but also run counter to the experience of common sense” (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.ii.12).
Thus, for Calvin, denying the unbeliever’s perceptual capacities goes against Scripture, experience, and common sense.
While a weakened human understanding stumbles around, according to Calvin:
“Its efforts do not always become so worthless as to have no effect, especially when it turns its attention to things below” (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.ii.13).
He then explained himself more fully:
“To perceive more clearly how far the mind can proceed in any matter according to the degree of its ability, we must here set forth a distinction. This, then, is the distinction: that there is one kind of understanding of earthly things; another of heavenly” (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.ii.13).
It is important to understand what Calvin meant by “earthly things.” He includes government, household management, mechanical skills, and the liberal arts (which includes philosophy) and sciences. Among the “heavenly things” are the pure knowledge of God, the nature of true righteousness, and the mysteries of the kingdom (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.ii.13).
Similarly, the Canons of Dort explain,
“There remain, however, in man since the fall, the glimmerings of natural light, whereby he retains some knowledge of God, of natural things, and of the differences between good and evil, and discovers some regard for virtue, good order in society, and for maintaining an orderly external deportment.”
Notice that even these “natural things,” for Reformed theology, include significant spiritual issues such as “some knowledge of God,” “differences between good and evil,” and “some regard for virtue.”
Calvin on Types of Common Grace Knowledge
According to Calvin, despite the Fall, unbelievers can come to a knowledge in many fields, and he provides numerous examples. Regarding knowledge of the sciences, Calvin wrote:
“Those men whom Scripture (1 Corinthians 2:14) calls ‘natural men’ were, indeed, sharp and penetrating in their investigation of inferior things” (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.ii.15).
In the next section, he continued along the same lines, even more forcefully admonishing Christians not to neglect the scientific studies of the ungodly:
“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 this assistance. For if we neglect God’s gift freely offered in these arts, we ought to suffer just punishment for our sloths” (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.2.16).
For Calvin, neglecting to use the assistance of the common grace knowledge of unbelievers reflects the sin of sloth—spiritual apathy and mental laziness.
Calvin on “The Ministry of the Ungodly”
Similarly, Calvin made a startling case, in his Institutes (Beveridge ed.), 2.2.15–16, for Christians availing themselves of “the work and ministry of the ungodly”:
“Therefore, in reading profane authors, the admirable light of truth displayed in them should remind us that the human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator. If we reflect that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth, we will be careful, as we would avoid offering insult to him, not to reject or condemn truth wherever it appears…. If the Lord has been pleased to assist us by the work and ministry of the ungodly in physics, dialectics, mathematics, and other similar sciences, let us avail ourselves of it.”
In his Commentary on Titus, speaking of Paul’s positive use of a non-Christian philosopher in Titus 1:12, Calvin explains:
“From this passage we may infer that those persons are superstitious, who do not venture to borrow anything from heathen authors. All truth is from God; and consequently, if wicked men have said anything that is true and just, we ought not to reject it; for it has come from God. Besides, all things are of God; and, therefore, why should it not be lawful to dedicate to his glory everything that can properly be employed for such a purpose?”
That’s quite the commentary by Calvin—Christians are “superstitious” if they refuse “to borrow anything from heathen authors.” In our modern biblical counseling world, Christians who borrow from heathen offers are labeled not “superstitious,” but “syncretistic.” Calvin believes that “wicked men” say things that are “true and just,” and that Christians “ought not reject it.” In common grace, those “true and just” insights have “come from God” according to Calvin.
What is our assessment? Is Calvin syncretistic? Or, are we superstitious?
Join the Conversation
What are the implications of Calvin’s views of common grace for how believers engage with the thinking of unbelievers?
