GRACE, COMMON

“If you offered to give one dollar to a man whom you knew needed one hundred dollars and if he rejected your one dollar gift, you would doubtless consider his refusal sufficient grounds for declining to give him further assistance. If, on the other hand, the needy man accepted the one dollar gift gratefully, you might try to give him more. The dollar would be insufficient to meet his need, but if refused it would be sufficient to condemn him. That dollar is like common grace which is not able to save but which is able to condemn, if rejected” (Charles C. Ryrie, Holy Spirit [Chicago: Moody Press, 1965], p. 63).608