This is where the story most becomes an illustration of how millions of men and women respond to the true and even greater benevolence of God. All are recipients of what theologians call “common grace,” the gracious provision of God for all persons; yet they do not acknowledge Him for it and do not allow it to accomplish the ends for which God dispenses such benevolence. Romans 2:4 speaks of this. “Do you show contempt for the riches of his [that is, God’s] kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”
If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, you are in the same position as Joseph’s brothers at this point in the story. You have sinned against your elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, by denying His claims and refusing His proper lordship over your life. He has used means to awaken you to your need and bring you to an open confession of sin. But you have gone only so far as God’s tactics have forced you to go; even though He has been most loving and gracious toward you, you have not acknowledged His hand in these benefits.
I want you to awaken to God’s goodness. I want you to see that all you are and all you have are a result of God’s common grace to you. God owes us nothing. Yet, as we well know, God did not immediately banish Adam and Eve to hell, nor did he later suddenly consign the masses of mankind to torment. On the contrary, though there is a judgment yet to come, God has continually poured out His blessings on men and women.
You have received such blessings. Donald Grey Barnhouse writes correctly,
For example, you are not a believer in Christ and yet you are still out of hell. That is the grace of God. You are not in hell, but you are on earth in good health and prosperity. That is the common grace of God. The vast majority of those who read these words are living in comfortable homes or apartments. That is common grace. You are not fleeing as refugees along the highways of a country desolated by war. That is common grace. You come home from your job and your child runs to meet you in good health and spirits. That is common grace. You are able to put your hand in your pocket and give the child a quarter or a half dollar for an allowance. It is common grace that you have such abundance. You go into your house and sit down to a good meal. That is common grace. On the day that you read these words there are more than a billion and a half members of the human race who will go to sleep without enough to satisfy their hunger. The fact that you have enough is common grace. You do not deserve it. And if you think that you do deserve anything at all from God beyond the wrath which you have so richly earned, you merely show your ignorance of spiritual principles.1
1Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Wrath, The Book of Romans, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1953), 25.
