The Common Grace of Government

August 27th, 2024
by Jason Gillespie

Last week, we began a discussion about God's common graces. The first is the common grace of the family. The next significant common grace God created is the government.
God created the institution of government to bless all of society. Government is given for the welfare of all mankind.
In Genesis 9:6, God establishes the seedbed of government. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.”

The First Government

In the beginning, God did not establish civil government, and evil prevailed across the world. In flooding the earth, God destroyed all those on the earth but preserved Noah and his family in the ark.
Once the waters receded, God made Noah a promise by placing a rainbow in the sky that He'd never again flood the earth.
God's Noahic covenant embodies two ideas: first, never to destroy the earth again by water, and second, to preserve man. This covenant ensures the earth’s preservation and the preservation of mankind.
In addition to this covenant promise, God established the first government. Its sole purpose was to subdue evil. This new law would attempt to establish fear in the heart of the sinner so that he would not shed innocent blood.

"Since all people are created in God’s image, the murder of another human being is to murder someone who is more like God than any other creature on the earth."

The language in Genesis 9:6 indicates the murder of another human being. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed." The reason the penalty for murder is so high is embedded within the rest of the text. “For in the image of God, He made man.”
Since all people are created in God’s image, the murder of another human being is to murder someone who is more like God than any other creature on the earth. In this brief text, we find that God established the government for the good of humanity.

The Limitations of Government

What the government can’t do is also implied. Human government, even though ordained by God, can’t save man from God’s wrath upon sin. Neither can it change the human heart.
God has not designed the government to impose religion or legislate morality, but to protect society from evil. Paul, in Romans 13, seems to pull his theology from Genesis, as he points out the role and responsibility of government:

"Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil."
- Romans 13:1–4 NASB

Paul clearly says in this passage that government is accountable to God. It is a servant of God, a protector of the innocent, and the punisher of those that do evil. In short, the government was created to “protect and to serve.”
When a government fails to operate within this paradigm, we know it is no longer a government that is a common grace to society as God designed.
I pray this helps us see more clearly another of the common graces of God.

Posted in Pastors Pen