How the Cross Blesses Unbelievers

The cross of Christ is the source of every blessing, even the blessings enjoyed by unbelievers. As Christians, we are quick to acknowledge that every gift enjoyed by the redeemed child of God is an act of grace linked to the cross of Christ, but we rarely think that the unbeliever is also receiving grace. When they experience delight in this life, if it is not grace, what is it? Merit?

Scripture says God makes the sun rise on the evil and the good and sends the rain to fall on the just and unjust alike (Matt. 5:45). In a non-agrarian culture, we usually associate the sun with good days and rain with bad ones, but rain and sun work together to grow the crops that feed us. Jesus is saying he blesses everyone in both ways indiscriminately, even if they are his enemies. We know this is what he means because, one verse earlier, he tells Christians to love our enemies, and who is the example we are to follow but the Father himself who blesses even his adversaries. But on what basis can he bless his enemies? It certainly cannot be merit, so it must be grace.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones put it this way. He says that every blessing the unbeliever experiences is due to the cross of Christ. This linking of every blessing to the cross is because, had the cross of Christ not been anticipated, the entire world would have been destroyed at the fall. To elaborate, he is saying that when Adam and Eve fell into sin, if redemption through the cross was not already a predestined event, there would have been only one option; send them immediately to eternal punishment. Without the cross, none of us would have had a chance to exist, or if we did, it would only be to punish us for our sins.

Thanks to the cross, the Lord deals patiently with humanity as he calls his children to himself, just as he has done since Adam and Eve transgressed against him in the garden. Just like in the church, the wheat and tares grow together in the garden of humanity, and as the Lord blesses the wheat with sun and rain, the tares also enjoy the same. Since it is all grace, when both the redeemed and those who live in enmity with God receive these blessings, we call it common grace because we deserve none of it.

If you are an unbeliever and experience delight and pleasure in this life, it is because of God’s patience with humanity due to his atoning work on the cross. As you consider this, realize that God is being gracious to you, but do not forget that just as there is common grace to all, there is also special grace received only by those who trust in Christ and his redeeming work.

Common grace will eventually end for non-Christians, and they will receive the wrath they deserve for their sins. However, if you trust in Christ and his death on the cross for your sins and his resurrection for your justification, you will be experiencing grace reserved only for his children. You will have the forgiveness of sin, and you will be declared righteous in Christ. He will bless you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3). The delight you experience that is common to man is only a small foretaste of what eternal life in Jesus is like, and the cross is the source of it all. Look to him and be saved.

-D. Eaton