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sentence of condemnation, but only postpones the execution. Perhaps the divine good
pleasure to stay the revelation of His wrath and to endure “with much longsuffering vessels of
wrath fitted unto destruction,” offers a sufficient explanation for the blessings of common
grace.
Reformed theologians generally hesitate to say that Christ by His atoning blood merited these
blessings for the impenitent and reprobate. At the same time they do believe that important
natural benefits accrue to the whole human race from the death of Christ, and that in these
benefits the unbelieving, the impenitent, and the reprobate also share. In every covenant
transaction recorded in Scripture it appears that the covenant of grace carries with it not only
spiritual but also material blessings, and those material blessings are generally of such a kind
that they are naturally shared also by unbelievers. Says Cunningham: “Many blessings flow to
mankind at large from the death of Christ, collaterally and incidentally, in consequence of the
relation in which men, viewed collectively, stand to each other.”[Hist. Theol. II, p. 333.] And it is
but natural that this should be so. If Christ was to save an elect race, gradually called out of the
world of humanity in the course of centuries, it became necessary for God to exercise
forbearance, to check the course of evil, to promote the development of the natural powers of
man, to keep alive within the hearts of men a desire for civil righteousness, for external
morality and good order in society, and to shower untold blessings upon mankind in general.
Dr. Hodge expresses it thus: “It is very plain that any plan designed to secure the salvation of an
elect portion of a race propagated by generation and living in association, as is the case with
mankind, cannot secure its end without greatly affecting, for better or for worse, the character
and destiny of all the rest of the race not elected.” He quotes Dr. Candlish to the effect that
“the entire history of the human race, from the apostasy to the final judgment, is a
dispensation of forbearance in respect to the reprobate, in which many blessings, physical and
moral, affecting their characters and destinies forever, accrue even to the heathen, and many
more to the educated and refined citizens of Christian communities. These come to them
through the mediation of Christ, and coming to them now, must have been designed for them
from the beginning.”[The Atonement, pp. 358 f.] These general blessings of mankind, indirectly
resulting from the atoning work of Christ, were not only foreseen by God, but designed by Him
as blessings for all concerned. It is perfectly true, of course, that the design of God in the work
of Christ pertained primarily and directly, not to the temporal well-being of men in general, but
to the redemption of the elect; but secondarily and indirectly it also included the natural
blessings bestowed on mankind indiscriminately. All that the natural man receives other than
curse and death is an indirect result of the redemptive work of Christ.[Cf Turretin, Opera, Locus
XIV, Q. XIV, par. XI; Witsius, De Verbonden, B. II, Kap. 9, s. 4; Cunningham, Hist. Theol. II, p. 332;
Symington, Atonement and Intercession, p. 255; Bavinck, Geref. Dogm. III, p. 535; Vos, Ger.
Dogm. III, p. 150.]