Common, Covenant & Saving Grace

In many places in Scripture, we can see the Holy Spirit’s administration of three types of grace: common grace, covenant grace, and saving grace. Let's begin with common grace. Common grace is:

The forbearance that God shows and the benefits that he gives to all humanity, regardless of their faith.

The Holy Spirit does not give common grace to all people equally. Rather, he works here and there, according to his plans and desires.

Unbelievers can learn many valuable truths that they use to benefit the church and its believers, along with the rest of humanity. John Calvin, the famous Protestant Reformer who lived from A.D. 1509 to 1564, described the Holy Spirit’s common gifts of knowledge in his work The Institutes of the Christian Religion, book 2, chapter 2, sections 15 and 16. Listen to what he wrote there:

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 will neither reject the truth itself, nor despise it wherever it shall appear, unless we wish to dishonor the Spirit of God … But if the Lord has willed that we be helped in physics, dialectic, mathematics, and other like disciplines, by the work and ministry of the ungodly, let us use their assistance.

A second type of grace administered by the Holy Spirit that is sometimes called covenant grace. Covenant grace consists of:

The forbearance and benefits that God gives to everyone that is part of his covenant people, even if they are not true believers.

In the Old Testament, Israel was God’s covenant people because the whole nation was under God’s special covenants with Abraham, Moses and David. In the New Testament, God’s covenant people are the visible church, which consists of people associated with the church even if they are not true believers. God’s covenant grace is even more abundant and forbearing than his common grace. For example, everyone that is part of the church is regularly presented with the gospel and the opportunity to repent and be saved. And they share in those blessings that God grants to the church as a whole.

Finally, the third type of grace administered by the Holy Spirit is what many theologians call saving grace. Saving grace is:

The application of the eternal benefits of Christ’s perfect life, death, resurrection, ascension and glorious return to those who receive him as Lord and Savior.

Every believer receives saving grace from the Holy Spirit. The blessings we receive as a result of the Holy Spirit’s administration of saving grace are already reserved for us on the basis of Jesus’ work. But we do not begin to receive their benefits until the Holy Spirit applies them to us. The most obvious of these blessings are things like regeneration, by which the Holy Spirit gives new life to our spirits, so that we are born again. Repentance, forgiveness of sins and justification are also saving graces the Holy Spirit applies to us.

When Christians talk about individual salvation, we tend to focus on Jesus Christ and his work. And of course this is a fine thing to do. But it’s also important to recognize the role the Holy Spirit plays.

Understanding what the Holy Spirit does in the believer makes for the fullest possible Christian life. The Holy Spirit motivates us, and that’s a key understanding to realize that both the desire and the power to live for Christ comes from the Holy Spirit. [Dr. Donald Whitney]

More than any other person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is active in our lives, making sure that we receive forgiveness, and joy, and goodness, and strength, and peace, and all the other blessings of salvation. So, if we want to receive these things in abundance, we should appeal to him for his saving grace. And beyond this, we need to honor the Spirit for his faithfulness and mercy. The saving grace he grants us makes him more than worthy of our thanks, our adoration, our worship, and our love.