On
God’s side, we have God’s kindness, forbearance and patience described in terms
of their richness, and their intent. When we think of these attributes of God,
we are not to imagine them as thrift shop, flea-market, dollar store trinkets
that fall far short of what we really need. Nor are we to imagine that these
qualities or foreign to the concept of God, or even lacking in the divine
experience.
Rather,
when we think of how kind God is, we are to think of this in terms of the
wonderful riches his kindness contains, and the wonderful treasures of kindness
that make up the riches of the divine treasury.
When
we consider God’s forbearance, his habit of withholding his just demand that we
pay up what we owe him, we are not to imagine that this is a rare expression of
his divine heart. Rather, he is rich in his acts of forbearance. When we look at
how many sins we have committed, that each sin makes us guilty of the whole law
every time we do a sin, and how often God withholds expressing his justice
against us, we can only see this as the most incredible treasure.
God’s patience also must be understood in
terms of riches, not famine, drought, or poverty. There is no scarcity of his
patience towards lost sheep, sinners, transgressors, and even someone who “was a blasphemer,
persecutor, and insolent opponent.”[2]His patience with us even while we are sinning is so full of the
richness of divine love that it must be received as an awesome and humbling
treasure.
The intent of these attributes of God is very simple, to “lead you to repentance.” The point is,
instead of thinking that the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance, and
patience, means he must be okay with the sin in our lives, we are to see that
he surrounds us with the riches of his grace because he is working to change
our minds about our sin, to lead us out of our sin, to bring us into the
fullness of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.
At this point, something is very clear: from God’s side,
his attributes of grace are so lavish, so rich, so overwhelmingly priceless,
and so mercifully working to convert us, that we must pay close attention to
what we are doing with this.
Which brings us to the reader’s side. Our consideration of
the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience, raises a question: are
we receiving this revelation of God with the humility of heart that cries out, “Brothers, what shall we do?”[3] Or do we “presume”
on these riches of divine love?
When we hear that God is being kind to us, not because he
condones our sin, but he is giving us time to change our minds before we fall
under the judgment he has been saving up, do we flee to the cross of Christ as
our joyful hope of having all our sins forgiven, or do we continue in our sin
under the presumption that God’s kindness towards sinners will last forever?
In
a world that believes success is measured in material benefits, it is very
tempting to interpret good circumstances as expressions of God’s favor. However,
the point of this passage from Romans is that we are not to presume that God
graciously allowing us to carry on with reasonably comfortable lives means that
he approves of what we are doing. If there is sin in our lives, we must
consider the absence of immediate judgment to be an expression of God’s
kindness, forbearance and patience, giving us an opportunity to turn to God in
repentance and faith before the final judgment settles our accounts forever.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
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