God's Common Grace

Matthew 5:44-45

The Bible Teaching Commentary

Paul J. Bucknell

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The Rain | Explain Causality | Common Grace | Kinds of Grace | The Shock | Goodness & Doubt | Misinterpetations of Love | Effects of Grace | Examples of Grace | Call to Com
Video | Audio

Purpose

God's Common Grace, an expository message from Matthew 5:44-45, reveals how God’s glorious favor is consistently dispersed over all mankind regardless to their good or evil deeds so that God might have them discover the magnitude of our Lord’s love and draw them closer to Him.

The ability to meditate on God’s common grace is indeed a great blessing to us all. If we rightly understand and train ourselves to recognize His common grace, then it will literally transform the way we approach our lives.

A Rain Storm

Let me start by sharing about a recent event.

One day after holding a marriage seminar in northwest Kenya, the team went to visit some nearby strange looking rocks. They were fabulous. But after being there five minutes, torrential rains soaked us in our suits.

We were caught in one of the huge boulder caves. Water was dripping. A small canal was running by our feet spreading wider and wider. After twenty minutes we decided we better go back.

Things were not looking any better. We had to go out the way that we came in, ducking in and out of caves and huge rocks. I remember going around one corner and going through two sheer boulders.

Wow! The wind-driven rain came sideways almost blowing us over. I don’t think we had any dry spots after that. But with appreciation for the rains, my fellow Kenyans without hesitancy said, “The Lord is good all the time.” They remembered what it could be like without rain. They had a drought in the region last year.

Our passage for today presents rain as one sign of God’s grace, but the Lord desires much more of His grace. He wants us to discover His great love through all the great number of things that He has brought into our lives. The statement from Jesus’ lips is filed with wisdom.

“But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:44-45).

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Rev. Paul J. Bucknell