The Kindness Of God

Read: Romans 1:18-2:29

Key Verse: Romans 2:4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and restraint and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

How much have you thought about how amazingly kind and gracious God is? Really?

In the first two Chapters of the Book of Romans, the apostle Paul lays out his case that man is without excuse. He shows us in 1:18-32 that mankind literally suppresses the truth that God put in us and exchanges it for lies. The verses show that no matter who you are, you are without excuse.

Then in Chapter 2, Paul lays out why even the Jewish people, we will call them the religious, are also without excuse. Religion doesn’t save us, and it can do a great job of making us prideful and arrogant, even excusing our own sins and creating double standards that we ourselves aren’t willing to keep.

Then comes Verse 4. A rhetorical question that has some very deep implications. Paul knows the answer to his question, and he basically accuses them of hypocrisy and unrepentance in the rest of Chapter 2. But let’s focus on the truth in the rhetorical.

God’s kindness, restraint, and patience, which I think is a great way of describing God’s mercy and grace, is what is supposed to lead us to repentance. So why doesn’t it?

Verse 5, “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God…”

Many times, throughout Scripture, the hardness of man’s heart seems to be our undoing. I can tell you personally that it is what has led me to sin many times throughout my life.

The contrast here that is painted, though, is beautiful. We have no excuse, any of us. Sin has ravaged those who reject God and those who want God. All of us need the mercy and grace of God. It’s because of the ugliness and destruction that sin brings that makes the mercy and grace of God so much more appealing. This view and reality should lead us straight to repentance and seek the forgiveness, mercy, and grace of God.

It’s been said before that without sin, our recognition of our real state, Christ, and our state of no excuse, His beautiful work of redemption would seem meaningless.

Praising God for His grace, mercy, and kindness toward us that we don’t deserve,

Pastor Mike


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