God announced the Covenant of Grace to humans as soon as we fell into sin.

There in the Garden, He told the great dragon … that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world (Revelation‬ ‭12‬:‭9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬): I will also put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall break thine head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15 1599 Geneva Bible).

The Covenant of Grace is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But in the Old Testament, it unfolded under several administrations, each with its own covenant.

These various administrations of the Covenant of Grace are not hermetically sealed off from one another, nor do they contradict each other. Rather, they build upon one another, all leading inviolably and inexorably to Christ.

God’s covenants with Abraham (Genesis 12 – 17); with Israel through Moses at Sinai (Exodus 20 – 24); and with King David (2 Samuel 7) are called the covenants of promise in Ephesians 2:12. They are specifically designed to form a people for God through whom the Christ would come. Thus Matthew 1:1 designates our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham (NKJV‬‬).

In this way, Matthew tells us from the beginning of His Gospel: This is the One who fulfills the Covenant of Grace. For He is the Seed of the Woman, the Serpent-Crusher, the One promised to Abraham and to David by covenants.

But before the covenants of promise, God had made a covenant with Noah that applied to all generations after him—believer and unbeliever, God’s people and not-God’s-people, alike; as well as the rest of creation. God said to Noah: behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth (Genesis‬ ‭9‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

All creatures—especially mankind—are heirs to this covenant, as long as the present heavens and earth endure. It is essential to sustaining the lives of God’s creatures in a fallen world. It’s also essential to the unfolding of history according to God’s purpose, including the coming of Christ and the spread of the gospel.

What God promises in this covenant, the theologians call common grace.

Genesis 8:21 – 9:13: The Noahic (Common Grace) Covenant

Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.
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So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.”

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.”

Genesis‬ ‭8:21b – 9:13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

We often think of this covenant, with the sign of the rainbow, strictly in terms of God promising to never send another worldwide deluge.

That’s obviously a major part of it, but it doesn’t come close to exhausting what God is actually promising by the covenant He made with Noah. God tells those who have departed from the Ark—just as He had told Adam and Eve—to: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth (cf. Genesis 1:28). To that end, God is promising to promote life—especially human life; to preserve life; and to protect life.

And by promising to do these things, God consigns Himself by oath to fulfill His eternal purpose, both by natural means, and providential ones.

Theologians call the commitments God makes to His creatures in this covenant common grace because it is common to all. It is distinct from saving grace, which is given in Christ alone. It is grace because it is God’s unmerited and undeserved kindness to sinners. It is by this covenant that God preserves both man and beast (Psalm 36:6) until the Day of Judgment.

God promotes life

God blesses humanity here, specifically with the promise of future generations: And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it (Genesis 9:7). This is God reestablishing the blessing He spoke at the creation of man: Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis‬ ‭1‬:‭28‬a NKJV‬‬).

In other words, He tells humans to form marriages and families and peoples and tribes and tongues. To spread across the earth building civilizations and cultures.

God is thereby blessing not only the fruitfulness of the womb, but also the fruitfulness of human labor and ingenuity. Promoting life also requires promoting technology, medicine, art, science, economy—and as we shall see later—law and government. For these are all necessary for sustaining and enhancing life.

But even as we focus on the human activity this blessing of fruitfulness produces, we cannot ignore the fact that God Himself is working providentially in all of it. For St. Paul says: he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him (Acts 17:26-27a ESV). Now, do not read this to mean God is simply hoping some of us will stumble upon Him. Given that He has predetermined the places, times, and circumstances in which we will be fruitful and multiply; He is certainly not waiting at the party hoping someone will show up!

Rather, He is moving history to its appointed conclusion, and this involves His moving men towards Himself. Thus, when the Apostle says: that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him, this means that, though men be blind to the true knowledge of God—for He can be truly seen only through the eyes of faith, and truly known only by the Holy Spirit regenerating the heart and renewing the mind—yet, his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made (Romans 1:20 ESV). The light of nature alone cannot yield saving faith. But it can show us that there is a God, and only one, who made all things. The pagan philosopher Plato got that far, and it is no wonder he was a sort of “gateway drug” into orthodox Christianity for ancient saints like Victorinus and Augustine. Yes, as Plato and Aristotle groped for God in the darkness and almost caught Him a few times; even in them, God was working providentially to prepare hearts and minds to receive Christ.

But God is not only active in moving the grand sweep of history towards the end He decreed from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). He is also working on the micro-level, for the Apostle goes on to proclaim: he is actually not far from each one of us, for “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27b-28a). We exist, we move about, we go here and there, according to His pleasure. And He sustains us—every breath we take, every comfort we enjoy—is from Him. This is just as true for the wicked unbeliever as it is for the pious saint.

This is why Christ can say: you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children (Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). Even those who do not know God can be good parents. A wicked man may still play beautiful music or paint beautiful pictures. An atheist may still be a good neighbor, citizen, or surgeon. The good gifts come from God (James 1:17), even if they pass to us through sinful hands. God is providentially working in all things to promote life.