“Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4 NET).
Authentic repentance comprises a prayerful commitment to abstain from sinful or inappropriate behaviors in favor of choices that are virtuous and pleasing to God.
To illustrate this idea, let’s take the example of a motorist who discovers that he or she is traveling in the wrong direction. Once our hypothetical driver realizes that he or she has made a navigational error, the best course of action is to stop, change direction, and return to the correct route.
In a similar manner, genuine repentance is best demonstrated through action, much like a motorist might execute a U-turn in order to change course. Jesus once used two real-world examples to underscore the importance of this idea…
“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them — do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish'” (Luke 13:1-5 NIV).
From the dawn of humanity, God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience have characterized His means of interacting with sinful human beings in seeking to lead them to repentance. For instance, consider the sequence of events that occurred in the Garden of Eden. Following Adam’s creation, God spoke to him and said, “…Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
Even though Adam’s transgression resulted in immediate spiritual death in the form of his separation from God, his physical life continued for many centuries. In fact, God was gracious enough to clothe Adam and his wife following their expulsion from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:21). These events thus serve as an object lesson: “…God’s goodness, which is not to show approval of people’s sins, but to extend to them further opportunities of repentance, and to persuade them by means of such goodness.” (1)
Image Attribution: Indian Roads Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
(1) Coffman, James Burton. “Commentary on Romans 2”. “Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible”. https://studylight.org/commentaries/eng/bcc/romans-2.html. Abilene Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.