Basic Principles of the Christian Worldview and Common Grace

The following are quotes from the excellent book, He Speaks to Me Everywhere by Dr. Philip Graham Ryken, the pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

1. The basic principles of the Christian worldview includes the following (pages 14-15):

· Creation: God made the world and everything in it
· The Image of God: Me, women and children are made in the likeness of God
· Law: God has revealed one standard of righteousness for all people
· Sin: In our rebellion we have broken God’s law, and now the whole world is corrupted by sin
· Salvation: God is working to rescue His people and renew His creation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
· Providence: By the wise counsel of His will, God governs and sustains the world that He has made
· The Lordship of Christ: In all of life Jesus rules over the people He is working to save
· Final Judgment: The world will end when Jesus Christ returns to punish the wicked and take His people into everlasting joy
· The Glory of God: The goal of all things is for God to be praised

2. Common Grace (pages 15-16)
“One further principle of the Christian worldview deserves special mention: the doctrine of common grace. Theologians make a distinction between the grace God shows people in salvation (saving grace) and the grace He shows to humanity in general (common grace). God has not reserved all His gifts for Christians. Even the ungodly are graced by His goodness, for “the LORD is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made” (Ps. 145:9 ESV). This is God’s common grace, common in the sense that it belongs to everyone as part of our common life in this world.
Common grace is not saving grace. In the words of the systematic theologian Louis Berkhof, it “does not pardon or purify human nature, and does not effect the salvation of sinners.” Nevertheless, there is something gracious about it, and thus it has a positive influence on the world. As Berkhof goes on to say, common grace “curbs the destructive power of sin, maintains in a measure the moral order of the universe, thus making an orderly life possible, distributes in varying degrees gifts and talents among men, promotes the development of science and art and showers untold blessings upon the children of men.” In other words, common grace includes every divine blessing short o salvation.