We are all “creatures of our God and King,” as the hymn by Francis of Assisi reminds us. However, since the Fall in Genesis 3, we are not just creatures who live in a state of perfection and innocence, but sinners who live in a state of misery and perdition. As such, the relationship that we have with God as Creator is not just one of dependance as creatures, but one of dependance as rebels. There are several ways in which we, as sinners, are dependent on God.

Firstly, we depend on God as sinners for preservation. Psalm 104 (which we quoted in our former Pastor’s Corner), is a celebration of God’s bountiful provision for all creation, including mankind. After affirming that when God opens His hand all creatures are filled with good things, the Psalmist proceeds, “When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust” (Psalm 104:29). To take away our breath would kill us. We know that the wages of sin is death; therefore, the very fact that we breath, as sinners, shows that we are dependent on God for our preservation. The atheist who exclaims, “There is no God!” denies his claim by the very breath he takes to say it. We depend on God for our preservation.

Secondly, we depend on God as sinners for revelation. In the Edenic state, God spoke face to face with man. But, when Adam and Eve believed the Serpent’s lie, they brought darkness into the mind of man and falsehood into the world. Since then, confusion regarding the nature of God, the nature of man, and the nature of the world has reigned supreme. In light of that, how can man know what he ought "to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man?" (WSC Q. 3). How can man properly understand "creation's voice" (Psalm 19:1)? We need God's interpretative grace. That is a grace that the Holy Spirit mediates to sinners. Commenting on verse 31 of Psalm 104, Joel Beeke writes, “The Spirit’s sustaining work reveals the joy of God in his creation and makes known the glorious Giver of all good things” (Beeke and Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, 75). We are dependant on God in order to interpret the world around us.

Thirdly, we depend on God as sinners for wisdom. After Job’s three friends ended their lackluster liturgies and locutions, the youngest member of the company, Elihu, takes up the word and claims that, “It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right,” but rather, “it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand” (Job 32:9, 8). It was Augustine who said that all truth, wherever it can be found, is God’s truth. It is the Lord who gives understanding and wisdom to all sinners. From the greatest scientist to the most insightful thinker, from the most skillful painter to the most able sculptor, from the most famous violinist to the most sublime singer, from the most powerful speaker to the most righteous judge, all wisdom proceeds from the Lord. This is how Proverbs puts it: "I [wisdom] have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just” (Prov. 8:14-15). John Calvin puts it in this way: “Whenever we come upon these matters in secular writers, let that admirable light of truth shining in them teach us that the mind of man, though fallen and perverted from its wholeness, is nevertheless clothed and ornamented with God’s excellent gifts. If we regard the Spirit of God as the sole fountain of truth, we shall neither reject the truth itself, nor despise it wherever it shall appear“ (Calvin, Institutes, 2.2.15, emphasis added). In other words, Calvin is saying that it is the Spirit of God who distributes these excellent gifts “for the common good of mankind” (Calvin, Institutes, 2.2.16). We depend on God for wisdom.

Fourthly, we depend on God for restraining sin. The fall of man has corrupted the soul and body of man in all its capacities. As Pastor John taught two weeks ago, all mankind can be described in the same way as Isaiah mourned over Israel, calling them, “a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers” (Isaiah 1:4). In other words, man is totally corrupted. However, we are not completely corrupted. If we are not a world full of Hitlers, it is because of the sheer mercy of God. This is so because God has established four restraints upon man: the conscience (Romans 2:14-15), the family (Genesis 1:27-28), civil government (Romans 13:1-7), and the church (Matthew 5:13-16). Were God to withhold these restraining forces of evil for one moment, our society and all the world would fall in an instant into exceedingly great lawlessness and a state of complete degeneration. In other words, we depend on God for restraining evil.

Now, all of these (and more) of God’s gracious actions toward man fall under the umbrella of what many theologians have called “common grace.” This is the non-salvific grace that God extends to all mankind by showering all with “rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying [our] hearts with food and gladness", "making the sun to rise over the good and the evil" (Acts 14:17; Matthew 5:45). But this grace is not one which has an end in itself; rather it is one that has a goal. Abraham Kuyper writes, “particular grace presupposed common grace” (Kuyper, Common Grace, 1:265); or, to put it in Paul’s words, don’t you know that “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4). God’s common grace has as its object God’s salvific grace, which we will consider next week. Therefore, dear saint, will you not thank the Lord for His exceedingly great mercy to us fallen creatures? Will you not praise the Lord for showering on us "every good and every perfect gift"? (James 1:17). Will you not extol the Lord because He has covered this sinful and cursed world with beauty that is beyond imagination and with excellencies that are beyond human comprehension? If this is the world that exists here, what will the new creation be? And you, sinner, who has read this piece, will you not repent of your indifference toward God and put your trust in the Lord, the giver of all good things? Will you not embrace His kindness for all the grace that He has shown in your life? He is calling all people to repent, for he has set a day to judge the world by a man whom he has appointed, and He has confirmed it by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:31). 

In conclusion, we are not only dependent on God as creatures, but we depend on God as sinners. Therefore, let us sing:

Thy Spirit, O Lord, makes life to abound;
The earth is renewed, and fruitful the ground;
To God ascribe glory and wisdom and might,
Let God in His creatures forever delight.

Before the Lord's might earth trembles and quakes,
The mountains are rent, and smoke from them breaks;
The Lord I will worship through all of my days,
Yea, while I have being my God I will praise.

Rejoicing in God, my thought shall be sweet,
While sinners depart in ruin complete;
My soul, bless Jehovah, His Name be adored,
Come praise Him, ye people, and worship the Lord.

Psalm 104:30-35
Tune: Aspinwall
The Psalter, No. 287
Or Tune: Houghton
Trinity Hymnal-Baptist Edition, No. 110, Stanzas 5-6 (one omitted)