Romans Chapter Two                      Lesson   27

 

 

2. Delusion About the goodness of God; God’s mercy   v:4  Read

 

Instead of man responding to the riches of God’s goodness, His forbearance and His patience, man looks down upon them with contempt.

 

 

These terms denote divine restraint in dealing with man.

   kindness =  crhsto,thj  general word for kindness, goodness, generosity;

 

   forbearance = avnoch is seen in His toleration of man’s contempt for Him; word was used for a truce;

 

   patience  makroqumi,a  word for patience in dealing with people; the ability to bear long in the face of disappointment and opposition.

 

 

The objective of God’s goodness is NOT to approve of sinful choices man has made;  to indicate a divine okay on the course of life chosen but His goodness and patience is to give man an opportunity for repentance. 

 

 

The point is that His kindness has at its purpose to lead sinners to repentance.

***   God has suspended judgment temporarily, or put it on hold, in order to give man time for repentance.

 

Here what is the focus of repentance??  God, one’s conclusions about who and what He is.

 

The counterpart of repentance is faith.  Man must shed his false notions, his delusions about  God and establish as the basis of his thinking God’s vpt as given thru His revelation to us in the Word.

 

 

The standards of the judgment  2:5-6

2:5 Its according to His Heart.

In each of the verses from 3-5 there is a key word that expresses the flow and development of the context;

          Vs:3 focuses on the delusions of the S/R moralist; on what he supposes to be the case;

          Vs:4 focuses on what the moralist views lightly, thinks down on, despises; God’s kindness.

          Vs:5 focuses on what the moralist is storing up for themselves;

 

Now he shifts from those probing questions to direct indictment!

 

The indication of the moralists rejection of truth is seen in the reality of their stubbornness and unrepentant thinking; that’s the immediate impact in their life; but what is the long term impact.

What’s the principle here?  Accumulated guilt!

 

Man draws a false conclusion from the apparent silence of God with respect to judgment and this is not without serious consequences.

 

Here the focus on God’s wrath is on the day of wrath  GWTJ.  The final judgment of all those who have rejected the light of God and Jesus Christ as Savior.

 

Observations:  2:1-5

1. Notice that the riches of God’s goodness/kindness are revealed to man before executing His wrath.

 

 

Basic axiom:  Our conduct is always determined by our view of God!

 

 

2. Man must acknowledge his guilt before he can know grace!

 

 

3.  When man goes day after day, month after month, year after year of not recognizing God’s goodness it has consequences.

 

4. Delay in responding to God’s goodness by repentance leads to damnation and wrath.  [Vs:4]

 

 

5. There is a sense that God’s goodness is dangerous if it is misunderstood, misinterpreted.

 

6. What man does so often is to change the riches of God’s goodness into a treasure, a storehouse of God’s wrath.

 

In 2:6 the standard of Judgment will be according to His Works  2:6