God's kindness leads us to repentance

 ³ Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and

yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?  Romans 2:3-4.

Former preacher Robert G. Lee had a famous sermon that he preached over 1000 times entitled “Payday Someday”.  Maybe you are familiar with the phrases that “your sins will surely find you out”, “you can run, but you can’t hide” or from the German legend “someday you will have to pay the Pied Piper”.  All of these statements point to having to give account for our actions, both right and wrong.

Paul is addressing another subject- deception and arrogance.  In the previous chapter he unfolded the depravity of man in his bent toward all types of sin when we reject honoring God.  Typically when there is a long list, we place value on the “worst” sin even though they are all equally unholy.  We may think, “I know that I am guilty of this sin, but I am not as bad as that person who has committed that sin.”  That statement p[laces us in the path of judging the other person.  Paul is showing that we will not escape judgment just because we have not committed the one sin that we feel is so wrong.  Our own sins make us guilty and especially judging others. 

We need to be very careful that our deception does not lead us to believe that in some way we will be exempt from standing before a holy God for judgment.  There will be no excuses, no one to blame, no place to hide, no shifting of blame, no more appeals that we did not know, no more presuming on God’s mercy.  We will have to give an account for all of our words, thoughts, and actions.  Nothing that we have done on this earth escapes God’s notice or His scrutiny.  We will ALL be found guilty.

What about God’s grace you say or since He is a God of love, surely He will forgive us?  His forgiveness is only found by those who honor Jesus as Lord of their lives.  Paul wants us to know that God’s mercy has been demonstrated throughout our lives.  Many times we should have been found guilty of a certain action, but we escape the penalty.  Maybe a person was driving home drunk and missed an oncoming car so no accident occurred.  That driver might think he escaped the accident and the police.  But God was orchestrating His grace.  This escaping the accident was meant for the person to realize that God was in control and not the driver.

Repentance is a change in thinking that leads to a change in behavior.  Just thinking that we  feel bad about our actions is only half of repentance.  It must include a change in our behavior.  This change is only possible when Jesus makes us born again.  We then would have the capacity to deny our own sinful patterns and start to follow God’s path for right living. 

Father, it is so easy for all of us to be deceived.  Pride makes us think we are better than others.  Pride shields us from walking in humility before you.  Pride shields our lives from developing a heart of compassion.  Pride rejects embracing thoughts like, “except for the grace of God, there go I”.  So Father, please expose pride in our lives.  Help us to recognize any deception in our way of thinking.  Thank yo that you want us to walk free.