Through millions of years of death and decay God provided the human race with natural resources such as gas, coal, oil, topsoil, etc. So, even before man arrived we see God’s grace towards man through His wrath. After all nobody deserves to be created. Also, even before Adam and Eve sinned they lived on God’s grace in the garden. Adam and Eve didn’t deserve grace but it was not yet accompanied by misery. Since sin always brings misery, and misery is always accompanied by sinners then all of God’s acts of mercy are also acts of grace. Every act of grace shown to a person because he is a sinner is also an act of mercy because his sin brings misery. And every act of mercy shown to a person because of his miserable plight is also an act of grace because he doesn’t deserve it. God doesn’t sometimes show mercy and sometimes grace. Rather, He shows them both. That is, whenever He is showing one of them to His fallen creatures He is showing both.Nobody deserves God’s grace whether we are talking about common grace or saving grace.

The very meaning of grace is something we don’t deserve. What we deserve is God’s eternal justice.Eternal death, which is eternal seperation from God.Because we have spurned the infinite worth of God’s glory the consequences are infinite. Whenever we talk about something that is deserved we talk about God’s justice. God is never obligated to show His grace. In order for grace to be grace it must be freely given. Because God doesn’t owe it to us. The fact that I am alive today is an act of God’s mercy. God owes me nothing and I owe Him everything. If He alows me to get run over by a bus He does nothing wrong. And if I die from it I go to be with Him.

If someone commits an injustice against me then they do something wrong but God does nothing wrong in allowing it to happen. On the human level I am a victim of injustice and have the right to cry out to God. God is angry with those who wrong to me and promises to vindicate me some day. The wrongs I suffer are of a horizonal sort. My relationship with Him is vertical and I never suffer injustice in terms of my vertical relationship with Him. God would be perfectly just to allow me to be thrown into prison for a crime I didn’t commit. I may be innocent before other people but I’m guilty before God. Whatever evil God allows to come to me He intends for good. God causes all things to work together for good for those that love Him. Even if I don’t know at the time why He would allow it.