The Goodness of God Part II

I am in awe and wonder over the phrasing of Romans 2:4.  What a tremendous truth to contemplate that the “Goodness of God leads you to repentance.”  To delight in the goodness of God is to delight in his merciful drawing of us closer and closer to repentance.  To despise the goodness of God is to ignore his mercy and grace and reject repentance.  How often the natural man has despised the goodness of God by scoffing at the plan of redemption, the gift of salvation.  In fact, verse 5 of this same chapter says that a hard unrelenting heart will treasure up for itself wrath against that day of wrath when God will reveal his righteous indignation and judment.  So here is the scenario-the natural man can repent of his sin and depraved way of thinking and cast himself fully on the goodness of God or can save up for himself wrath piled upon wrath.  Alas, the natural man will usually choose wrath over goodness. 

How much worse is it for the redeemed, the child of God who has bee adopted, who has been chosen and called, to accept the gift of salvation, calling upon the name of the Lord; to then despise the goodness of God in the work of sanctification.  God must and will chasten his child that dives back into the filth of the world having been given a new life and being a new creation.  But even in that chastening, it is still the goodness of God that would lead us back to the Savior’s side.  How wonderful and marvelous the great riches of God’s grace, that even when he must chasten his children, he does it out of goodness, that we might, because of his graceful goodness, be led back to this place of repentance (turning).  Surely the true believer must say, “God is good all the time, because it is his nature to be good.  He is good even when his hand is heavy.”