The immediate restraining of Common Grace means that the arena for saving grace is opened: ‘Total depravity’ is a reality restrained by Common Grace in the human heart and not merely restrained by external constraints (such as opportunities for sin being removed). The ‘small sparks’ of the image of God in the human are guarded. This happens straight after the fall as can be observed in Eve’s reaction upon bearing Cain: She is glad that – as she imagines – Satan has been defeated, in fulfilment of the judgement on the serpent and the ‘placing of enmity’ promised by God. These restraining works of Common Grace against the full effects of death and the Fall are also outworked in the realms of bodily death (medicine etc) and the extent of the cursedness of the Earth itself.
Light in Public Life
