Kindness That Leads to Repentance
Have you ever sat and thought about what brought you to Christ? We often attribute our coming to an understanding of the saving knowledge of Jesus to someone or some event in our life. Many of you can remember the person that explained the Gospel to you. We often say of that person that they led me to Christ. We should all give thanks to God for those who took the time to tell us or teach us about the saving grace of Jesus Christ. They were a part of Gods plan.
Some of you can pinpoint an event in your life that inspired you to look to God and that eventually led to your salvation. Possibly it was a near death experience that brought you face to face with your own mortality and as a result you saw your need for Jesus. Maybe it was the death of loved one that pushed you to God. Often when someone we love dies, we consider the fact that we too will someday face death. Circumstances can be used by God to accomplish salvation in the lives of people.
God uses people and God uses circumstances to draw us to Himself but the truth of the matter is that it is the Spirit of God that draws us. Jesus said in John 6:44 that No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. It is the Father who draws us to himself. One thing in particular I would present for you consideration is the draw that comes as a result of the kindness of God. Romans 2:4 asks a rhetorical question so that we might think on the kindness of God …do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that Gods kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? It is easy to mistake God’s kindness of apathy. We think just because God does not punish every sin that a person commits that He is apathetic and that our sin does not really matter that much. Gods patience and kindness is not meant to give us a license to sin. Quite the contrary it is meant to lead us to repentance. When you look at Scripture you never see Jesus using coercion to bring people to Himself. He drew people to Himself through the love that He showed. He still does that today. If God did not exercise kindness and patience in dealing with our sin, we would all be damned to destruction through the wrath of God. God simply extends His kindness to us until there is a willing spirit in us that submits to His authority.
As you think of the kindness of it should cause great thankfulness to well up inside of you. God is not apathetic toward sin, but he exercises patience and show kindness to us so that we might see our sin in the way that He does. When that happens we will be convicted of that sin and see the need to repent. This is what draws us to God. As He extends His love to us it draws us to him. We become enthralled with His character and want to know Him more and more.
Yes, most of us can point to a person or a circumstance that created an interest in spiritual things, but we were all led to Jesus by God Himself. His kindness and love draws us to Him and leads us to repent.
I pray that you understand the kindness of God and allow it to lead you to a life of purpose and fulfillment found only it Jesus.