Unlimited: The Purpose of the Kindness of God
May 11, 2022 1081
…not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4b)
Paul is hitting us with one astonishing thought after another. He has just told us that to pass judgment on another is to show contempt for the grace of God. Now he tells us that the purpose of God’s kindness isn’t to make you feel good, but actually to lead you to repentance.
The first essential component of repentance is to recognise your own sins and not the sins of another. Those who pass judgment on others are unable to repent of their own sins because they simply don’t recognise them. Jesus taught,
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (Matt. 7:1–3.)
The purpose of God’s kindness isn’t to make you feel good, but actually to lead you to repentance.
We are not to look around us, or even in our own lives, and think that God doesn’t care, and that sin is going unpunished. As the apostle, Peter later wrote,
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9.)
Spiritual Application
Are you experiencing the kindness of God right now? In what areas of your life is it leading you to repentance?
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