Tag: God's Patience

Lent 2019 | Day 8: The Patience of Grace

God’s loving-kindness is better than we realize, when we realize what could have been!

There is a quality of God’s grace that is often overlooked. Grace is a multifaceted diamond. Each face reveals a new wonder of God and the grace he gives to us. There are a couple of passages that highlight this attribute and expose a beauty in God that we do not rejoice in enough. I know that I don’t.

Let’s look at them both. The first is Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome.

21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26 ESV, emphasis added)

The second is found in the books of Acts.

30The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31 ESV, emphasis added)

What makes both of these passages so remarkable is that it explicitly makes the claim that God “passed over” and “overlooked” the sins of fallen men and women because it was not yet time to judge them. Now, I know that this time of overlooking culminated in Jesus. That the reason God did not execute justice on sinners was because God was waiting until he could unleash his wrath for all sin, for all time at the cross. So, I am not trying to split a hair or make a theological point contrary to the implications of the text.

My hope is to highlight that God has revealed that, in his grace, he does not smite sinners instantaneously for their sin so that they might come to know repentance and might have an opportunity for a restored relationship with God the Father. That God’s loving-kindness is better than we realize, when we realize what could have been!

As each day draws us closer to the celebration of God’s miraculous salvation of lost souls in Jesus, I hope we spend a little more time thinking about how good God’s grace really is.

Romans Series (Pt. 5) – Romans 2:1-11

God’s Reason in Being Patient (2:1-5)

After telling us in the second half of chapter one the depth of sin and its potential expression, Paul lets us know that because of this sinful inclination God’s judgment “rightly fall” [v.2] on us. The hypocrisy that we at times perform is only a small demonstration of our depravity. This hypocritical tendency should serve as a reminder of why God should and ultimately will judge the sinner. But Paul is not simply concerned with God’s judgment of sin.

Sometimes reading Paul can be difficult and we miss the little nuggets that are hidden in the letters. Here, even in the midst of laying the foundation of the Gospel, the grace of God is revealed. The Gospel at every turn and in every instance sheds the light of God’s grace in the midst of the darkness of our shortcomings. That is what is saying here.  Paul says that “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” [v. 4].  This is unbelievable.

God does not hit the reset button and unleashes his angelic hosts because He desires for sinners to repent! The sad reality that Paul throws back at the reader is that the reason some do not head the Gospel summons is because of their “hard and impenitent” [v. 5] hearts. And it is this persistent condition that is “storing up wrath” [v. 5] for us when God finally returns.

God’s Demonstration of Integrity (2:6-11)

The major thrust of this entire section is that God shows no favoritism to the sinner or the believer in His dispensation of justice. All are sinners and are worthy and even deserving of eternal punishment, but God has overshadowed the sins of those that have believed and confessed in Christ. God will reckon what is rightfully due to each one “according to his works” [v. 6].

The irony in this statement is that those that believe in Christ have no work by which we are to be judged!  The work of Salvation is the work of God in us. So the reward that we receive at the time of judgment rightfully belongs to God!  We are the beneficiaries of God’s love and grace in spite of our sins. Look at what Paul says in Ephesians 2:4-10.

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. [ESV, Emphasis Added]

Paul outlines how God will deal with all humanity. To those who live rightly and obey God’s commands and does good there will be reward and “glory and honor and peace” [v. 10]. But to those that chose their own way and chose “unrighteousness” [v. 8] and “does evil” there will be “tribulation and distress” [v. 9].

There is no partiality with God because he will not be swayed by sentimentality devoid of reason. God sees clearly and will dispense the just reward or penalty to all who will stand and kneel before His throne.

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