The Magnificent Kindness of God

What a wonderful text!

Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (Rom 2:4)

We live in a culture that worships “nonjudgmentalism” and “tolerance” and “inclusivity” (all while judging, not tolerating, and excluding those who aren’t up to our standards of those things). So we love this “prooftext.” “See?” we say. “It’s not His wrath or judgment or any such thing that leads to repentance. It’s His kindness that makes people want to repent.” Right there in the Bible. But is that really what it’s saying? Before we can answer that question, we need to notice where Paul starts his entire discussion. The thought begins in the first chapter of Romans, where Paul says he’s not ashamed of the gospel because it puts God’s righteousness on display (Rom 1:16–17). And strikingly, the very first way Paul shows God’s righteousness is not through kindness but through wrath (Rom 1:18). So if it’s His kindness that leads us to repentance, what’s Paul doing? In the flow of thought, Paul lays out the sin decay of the human race (Rom 1:18–32). But Paul refuses to let his audience treat chapter 1 as a spectator sport. In chapter 2 he turns to the reader and says, essentially, “If you can see it, you’re guilty of it” (Rom 2:1–2). At this point Paul isn’t talking about kindness at all — he’s talking about guilt.

So what does Paul mean when he says that “the kindness of God leads you to repentance”? Only after establishing universal guilt does Paul explain what he means by “kindness.” He explains that God’s judgment “rightly falls on those who practice such things” (Rom 2:2) … and yet, we aren’t immediately judged. Paul refers to God’s “forbearance” (Rom 2:4). That is the kindness the verse refers to. Paul’s verb, ἄγει (“leads”), does not describe internal motivation but external opportunity. Once we understand “kindness” as forbearance, the whole passage snaps into focus.

If God did not practice forbearance for sin, we would all perish — and rightly so. Instead, He practices “kindness and tolerance and patience” — justice delayed. It is this kindness that gives us room to repent. It’s this kindness that leads us to repentance. This kindness isn’t what causes us to repent; it’s what gives us the opportunity at all. Remember, the topic is how the gospel puts God’s righteousness on display. He’s righteously angry at sin. We’ve righteously earned His wrath. He would be completely right in judging us immediately, but He is right to show forbearance and kindness, and that displays His grace and mercy — His further righteousness. It’s not about how God, being nice, is what makes us want to repent. Scripture certainly speaks elsewhere of God’s kindness softening the heart, but that is not Paul’s point in Romans 2. It’s about God’s righteousness giving us the opportunity to repent. That’s the kindness in view, and it is a magnificent kindness. Not kindness as sentiment, but kindness as suspended judgment. Not kindness that makes repentance easy, but kindness that makes repentance possible.