It’s been my observation over the past decade of pastoral ministry that believers are generally unacquainted with the doctrine of common grace. This lack of familiarity is unfortunate because the doctrine of common grace offers significant insight into our Christian experience if rightly understood and applied.
I recall a discussion in our living room with a group of about thirty young professionals when one young lady asked specifically how we are to think about the “good” things that unbelievers do. It was clear by the question and the way she framed it that this young woman was caught in a bit of cognitive dissonance.
Relief from Cognitive Dissonance
On the one hand, she believed Scripture’s teaching on total depravity: apart from Christ and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, people are dead in sin (Eph 2:1-3), in a state of rebellion against their Creator (Rom 3:10-18), and unable to please God in any way (Rom 8:8). On the other hand, she knew unbelievers who seemed to be people of integrity who loved their families and did good to those around them. In some cases, they were even better at “good works” than this young woman. How could she make sense of these two seemingly contradictory realities? As she started to understand the doctrine of common grace, the cognitive dissonance abated, and she gained clarity on how God works in the world among believers and unbelievers.
But this was not an isolated incident. As I teach on common grace in both church and seminary settings, I find that many Christians respond with a similar kind of spiritual and intellectual relief as they see—in many cases, for the first time—how the doctrines of total depravity and regeneration fit together with the Bible’s teaching on creation, anthropology, and divine providence. And these theological connections often result in more fruitful relationships with unbelievers, greater thankfulness to God for his goodness, sharper discernment, and stronger consciences.
Common Grace, Good Works, and the Unbeliever
How can unbelievers perform—even excel in—certain aspects of outward righteousness? How can it be that someone bereft of the Holy Spirit and unrepentant toward their Creator can perform any kind of righteousness in society, within their family, or among their friends? Happily, believers in the twenty-first century are not the first to wrestle with this question.
The Westminster divines addressed the problem of “works done by unregenerate men” in the sixteenth chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands; and of good use both to themselves and others yet, because they proceed not from an heart purified by faith; nor are done in a right manner, according to the Word; nor to a right end, the glory of God, they are therefore sinful and cannot please God, or make a man meet to receive grace from God: and yet, their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing unto God.1
The confession provides us with several important insights.
First, it is acknowledged that unregenerate people are able to do what God commands—albeit in a limited and incomplete way.
Second, these works are not produced by a heart of faith toward Christ, or conducted according to God’s instruction in Scripture, so they cannot please God or compel God to show them saving grace.2 Nevertheless, these works are of “good use to themselves and to others.” Despite the absence of a right motivation (from faith), method (according to God’s Word) and goal (the glory of God), a work produced by an unbeliever can nevertheless still serve some temporal usefulness for the unbeliever himself and others.
For example, consider how God has designed the mutual interdependence people in a given economy. Men and women in their various roles and capacities in society, engage in labor in order to provide for themselves and their families. Their labor benefits others by supplying goods and services for which the public is willing to pay money or trade other goods and services.
Here, although most items in the marketplace are produced by those who do not believe in Christ, their labor is useful to themselves and others—they provide for themselves and may enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done, while their patrons are supplied with necessities for daily life.
Indeed, there are many people who, though unbelieving, maintain well-ordered and honest businesses, consistently provide excellent products, and exhibit a strong work ethic. While their inward motivation does not consist of faith in Christ and aim at the glory of God, they are, nevertheless, externally obeying the law of God written on their conscience and therefore benefitting God’s world (Rom 2:14). Honesty, excellence, and diligence are what God requires from his image-bearers (e.g., Prov 11:1; 12:24; 12:27; 13:4), and by God’s common grace, unbelievers fulfill these requirements, though in a limited, incomplete, and non-sanctified way.3
Can an Unbeliever Perform Righteous Deeds? Yes and No
Therefore, if we pose the question this way, “Can an unbeliever perform righteous deeds?” we must answer “yes” and “no.” Following the framework of Article VII of the WTC, John Frame defines a righteous deed in the following way. A righteous deed is one that (1) obeys the proper standard, God’s law (James 4:11; 1 John 3:4); (2) seeks the proper goal, God’s glory (1 Cor 10:31) and the success of his kingdom (Matt 6:33), and (3) is motivated by true faith (Rom 14:23) and love (1 Cor 13:1-3).4
In light of Frame’s definition of a righteous deed, we can say that it is possible for an unbeliever to do an act that “is good for society, at least at a surface level,” without fulfilling Frame’s three-part criteria of a good work. Specifically, Frame comments, “Some people contribute much to the well-being of society—by helping the poor, by becoming great artists, musicians, authors, and public servants, and in other ways—without a heart to serve God. This is often called civic righteousness in the theological literature.”5
Nevertheless, it is vital to make a distinction between a (1) righteous work that conforms to the external requirements of God’s law yet fails to conform to the internal requirements of God’s law (what an unbeliever is able to perform); and (2) good works that conform to both external and internal requirements (what only believers can perform). We can speak of “good” done by an unbeliever because we are judging the goodness of the external action and what it produced, not the heart (attitude, motive) from which the action originated.
Importantly, Christians need not concern themselves over the inward motivations of unbelievers in order to appreciate their wholesome and otherwise useful contributions to society. Their works are gifts of God’s common grace though they do not please God directly. Again, the doctrine of common grace should have a freeing effect on the believer so that they are enabled to worship God all the more as they witness his goodness in the works of unbelievers.
It is not necessary, therefore, for a Christian to dismiss the excellent and otherwise useful work of unbelievers out of fear that to affirm such work would be to affirm their unbelief. Rather, the doctrine of common grace frees the believer to see the goodness and glory of God in the work of the unbeliever and, assuming that it is truly good, affirm it as such.
Whatever is Commendable
“Finally, brothers,” the apostle Paul wrote to the Philippian church, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8). A vital part of the Philippian’s discipleship was their growing ability to distinguish between what was commendable and what wasn’t and rivet their minds on the former. Paul widens the scope of their discernment to include all of reality, not just what we might consider the “spiritual” or “church-related” aspects of our lives.
Nor did Paul limit their affirmation of the good to only what other Christians produce. “Whatever is true…honorable…just…pure,” the apostle wrote. In their pursuit of Christ-centered spiritual growth, the Philippians were to exhibit an increasing ability to survey all of life, take note of, and enjoy the hints of God’s common grace that were evident everywhere, even if those hints came from the hands of an unbeliever.
NOTES
1WTC, 16.7.
2This last principle coincides with Paul’s statement that the one who is in the flesh cannot please God (Rom 8:7-8). It is well established in Reformed theology that, so long as we are in an unregenerate state, all of our actions, no matter how outwardly noble, are all sinful and displeasing to God.
3Wayne Grudem observes, “…unbelievers can have an approximation of God’s wisdom in some areas of life even though they do not have the Bible or access to the teachings of the Bible. Yet, their understanding, not based on the Bible itself, will also include many errors, and will not equal the true biblical wisdom that is practiced in relationship to God himself” (Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning, [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018], 163).
4John Frame, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 2013), 848-49.
5Frame, Systematic Theology, 862.
