John Frame on Common Grace as Common Love

I mentioned earlier that unregenerate people are totally depraved but not necessarily as bad as they could be. What keeps them from the worst sins is God's common grace. Common grace is any blessing of God that does not save a person from sin. Theologians distinguish common grace from special grace, or saving grace. I don't know of any place in English translations of Scripture where grace is used this way; that word almost always refers to redemptive blessing. So, I would prefer that this concept be called common love or common favor to avoid confusion. But common grace is the standard terminology at the moment.

God does restrain sinners, keeping them from doing all the evil that they would like to do (as in Gen. 4:15; 11:6; 20:6; 2 Kings 19:27-28; Job 1:12; 2:6). The result is that unbelievers, unregenerate people, often do things that are good in a sense (2 Kings 10:29, 31; 12:2; Luke 6:33; 11:13). This goodness is a relative goodness, compared with other things that these people might be doing. It is not good in the fullest sense, which involves the right goal, standard, and motive, but it is good in that the deed externally conforms to Scripture and is somehow helpful to society rather than harmful (hence the term civic righteousness). Scripture even speaks of gifts of the Holy Spirit given to people who are ultimately lost (Heb. 6:4-8). Judas preached Christ and worked miracles in his name (Matt. 10:1-42).

So, total depravity does not mean that unbelievers can do no good in any sense. What it does mean is that apart from grace they cannot please God (Rom. 8:8).

John M. Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006), 112–113.