Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Colson on Common Grace
Colson on Common Grace
Jun 6, 2025 7:01 AM

On of Chuck Colson’s heroes was Abraham Kuyper, and when we set out to publish a translation of Kuyper’s three volumes on the topic mon grace, Chuck was happy to support the project.

Here’s what he said about the first selection from the larger translation project, Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art:

Abraham Kuyper was a profound theologian, an encyclopedic thinker, and a deeply spiritual man who believed that it is the believer’s task ‘to know God in all his works.’ In a day when secular science is seeking to establish hegemony over all knowing, and when postmodern art is threatening to bring an end to art, Kuyper’s solid, Biblical insights can help to restore perspective and sanity to these two critical areas of creation.

But Chuck likewise inspired others in the quest to understand the implications of Christ’s lordship over all areas of human life. Gabe Lyons and Jon Tyson said this of Colson in their foreword to Wisdom & Wonder:

Like many, we were first introduced to Kuyper’s work indirectly through famed evangelical Chuck Colson when he exclaimed in his book, How Now Shall We Live?, that “Christians are called to redeem entire cultures, not just individuals.”

That single declaration changes everything. It reveals a truth that many Christians have forgotten, that we as Christians have a role, indeed a responsibility, to be involved in renewing every realm of the world. Nothing is to be left untouched by the transformative power of the Gospel. This was the influence of Kuyper.

And it was the influence of Colson, I would add. Colson understood himself in large part as a popularizer of Kuyper’s ideas about Christ’s mon grace, and worldview.

Gabe Lyons, who is the founder of Q Ideas, also passes along a 2007 interview conducted with Chuck Colson, in which “Chuck describes, in his own words, the legacy he hopes to leave behind.” Gabe says here too that Colson’s book, How Now Shall We Live?, “changed everything for me.”

Here’s what Chuck says mon grace in that interview:

Common grace is a term that’s fallen into disuse in modern times, but the reformers understood it to be God’s grace spilled out in life for the benefit of non-believers as well as believers. Saving grace is grace which transforms us. Common grace is, to the just and the unjust alike, experienced when God’s people do what God’s people are supposed to do. It was also was used in the Reformation era as a synonym because it was less offensive than saving grace to people of the natural law.

We believe that God spoke into being the universe, and spoke to us and revealed to us the eternal, immutable laws—which go back to the beginning of creation. I think people can access those, non-believers and it’s one of the ways they know the truth. That was a little bit offensive to the reformers so they used the mon grace in lieu of natural law. But it’s the outworking of God that affects believers, as well as nonbelievers, all people in society.

If Christians are doing what they’re supposed to be doing—being the light, exercising their cultural mon grace is going to be shared abroad for the good of believers and non-believers.

And if you haven’t seen Chuck’s story as told through his last interview, be sure to check out “Like I Am.”

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Audio: Sirico on Pope Francis, the Media, and the Future of The Catholic Church
Last week, the first major interview with Pope Francis was released to the world via a number of Jesuit journals; you can read the interview for yourself at America Magazine. As usually happens, major media outlets reported on the interview, often putting their own spin on it (the New York Times provides an example of this type of coverage here). This morning, Frank Beckmann of Detroit, Michigan’s WJR Radiocalled upon Acton President Rev. Robert A. Sirico to discuss what the...
Even in Prison There is Dignity in Work
In a program at Colorado’s Crowley County Correctional Facility, prisoners hand-make roof trusses and oak cabinets for use in Habitat For Humanity home. The inmates not only learn carpentry skills but the dignity of work: “For me, personally, having that apprenticeship was priceless,” said Mike Voss. He learned carpentry when he served time at Crowley and now, five years after being hired as a benchman carpenter, is a co-owner of Artisan Cabinetry in Denver. “Everything I’d done in the past...
Deadlines Approach for Novak Award and Calihan Fellowships
Are you seeking scholarships to offset graduate school costs? Have you e acquainted with an emerging scholar and would like to recognize this individual by nominating him/her for a prestigious award? If you are involved in academia and have a passion for work that values rule of law, limited government, religious liberty, and freedom in economic life, we mend you look into the Acton Institute’s scholarship programs. And we encourage you to do so quickly, for important deadlines are rapidly...
Revival, Calvin Coolidge, and Recovering America’s Foundations
Often many on the political right believe that reform or change in the country is just one election or another president away. Some declare another Ronald Reagan can fix America’s problems, but entirely miss that there may be no culture left to support a president like Reagan. For almost every problem in this nation, there is not a political solution that will make any lasting impact or change for the better. This point is entirely missed by so many during...
Audio: Tea Party Catholic Heads to the Heartland
Samuel Gregg, Acton’s Director of Research, continues to promote his fine new bookTea Party Catholic: The Catholic Case for Limited Government, a Free Economy and Human Flourishing via radio interviews all across the country. Today, Sam spoke with Jan Mickelson on Des Moines, Iowa’s 50,000 watt WHO Radio. It was a fine conversation, with Mickelson calling the book “a spirited read,” well worth your time. To pick up a copy of your own, head over to the book’s website. Listen...
A Confederacy of IRS Dunces
A few months ago I wrote about how when I was a young Marine I learned that when manding officer says, “I wish” or “I desire,” these expressions have the force of a direct order and should be acted upon as if they had given a direct order. If our CO were to say, even in musing to themselves, “I wish there was something that could be done about that,” we knew we should jump into action. The main problem...
Samuel Gregg: The Jesuit, Pope Francis and The Poor
Acton’s Director of Research, Samuel Gregg, offers some fresh thoughts on Pope Francis today at Crisis Magazine. Gregg points out that there has been much talk about “poverty” and the “poor” since the election of Pope Francis, but that this is nothing new in the Catholic Church. …Francis isn’t the first to have used the phrase “a poor church of the poor.” It’s also been employed in a positive fashion by figures ranging from the father of liberation theology, Gustavo...
Dear Millennials: Get Over Yourselves and Get to Work
This is a guest post by Michael Hendrix in response to the recent debate sparked by a provocative poston millennials and Gen Y “yuppie culture.” Michael serves as the director for emerging issues and research at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of St. Andrews and a Texas native. By Michael Hendrix Over the past few weeks, much has been written on GYPSY unicorns and my generation’s dashed hopes (warning: strong...
Hours Cut Due To Obamacare? Follow Your Passion, Says Pelosi
According to Investor’s Business Daily, over 300 businesses are cutting employee hours and jobs to avoid Obamacare. If employers restrict employee work hours to 30 per week, then they avoid Obamacare mandates for health insurance. Jed Graham of Investor’s Business Daily says, “Data also point to a record low workweek in low-wage industries.” Casinos are one industry that exemply these cuts. In Grantville, Penn., the Hollywood Casino has told part-time workers they are now limited to no more than 30...
Multiple Companies Changing Insurance Plans Due To Obamacare
With Obamacare (the Affordable Health Care Act) set to begin on October 1, panies are changing their employee health care. For some, it’s a change in what benefits employees will receive; for others, employees will be losing health care all together and told to sign up under Obamacare. The Wall Street Journal did a “round-up” panies who’ve announced changes. Walgreens is the largest employer yet to disclose employee health care changes. [T]he drugstore giant disclosed a plan to provide payments...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved