We are back to another installment in the series: things evangelicals think. I love evangelicals, I am one, and I love people who make these mistakes. I myself have made many of these mistakes, including this one. So in some ways, you can consider this as a retraction. Also, there are surely other mistakes evangelicals make that I am currently making without knowing it. I hope someone will write a blog post about it to point it out.
This one has been floating around the internet quite a bit lately for several different reasons, so I thought it would be a good one to talk about. It is usually stated as, "it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance." The implication is that kindness is the sole means God uses to bring about repentance. It is often quoted in response to someone who has spoken (or written) a hard word, to remind them that God instead uses kindness to bring about repentance. It is important to note that it is this specific use and understanding of this idea that I am objecting to.
Before moving on, it must be emphatically stated that all we have in Christ is the result of God's grace and mercy towards us. Our salvation is founded first to last on the rock of God's mercy, and we have no other hope. And further, in the practical living of the Christian life, God's kindness is incredibly powerful to lead to repentance. His smiling, forgiving face has tremendous power to melt our resistance to him. My point here today is that sometimes, in his grace and mercy, God afflicts us. Sometimes he warns, rebukes, instructs, and disciplines us to bring us to repentance. So while this is all done in mercy, it is too narrow to answer warnings, rebukes, and instructions by suggesting that they are out of place because only God's kindness leads to repentance.
The idea comes from a verse in Romans 2:4, which says in part, "God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" As always, context is important. Two immediate clues let us know something more is going on in this snippet. They are (1) the question mark that ends it, and (2) the phrase "is meant to." We might add the lack of the words "it is" to begin the statement. Let's look at these things one at a time to see how the common use of these words often results in a misunderstanding.
1. First, the question mark. The fact that it doesn't seem to belong means we don't have the complete sentence. Let's get Romans 2:3-5 in front of us now.
Do you suppose, O man--you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself--that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
What now becomes clear is that this statement is a rebuke to those who presume upon God's kindness by thinking God's patience means he isn't going to judge their sin. They should have known that his kindness and patience was designed to lead them to repentance. In this case, that wasn't happening. His kindness was instead leading them to presumption.
2. Second, the phrase "is meant to."
God's kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. Turning away from our sin is the proper response to God's patience with us. Sometimes instead, we presume upon it.
3. Third, the lack of the phrase "it is."
The reason we often add "it is" to the start of this is to narrow the point. When we say, "don't you know it is God's kindness that leads to repentance," we are implying that his kindness alone does this, as opposed to his rebukes, judgments, warnings, etc. But this is not at all the point of the saying in its context. What should jump off the page before our eyes is that the whole thing is a rebuke and warning. "Do you suppose you will escape the judgement of God?" "You are storing up wrath for yourself..." etc. God's kindness was supposed to lead them to repentance. They instead presumed upon it and thought it made them free to stay in their sin. So Paul rebuked and warned them. Why? I suppose to lead them to repentance. Because sometimes God's admonitions lead to repentance. Isn't that the goal of all the warnings in the book of Hebrews, for example? It seems that Paul's rebuke of Peter in Galatia worked like this. Peter seems to have repented. I can imagine someone taking Paul aside after he publicly rebuked Peter and saying "Paul, don't you remember that it is the kindness of God that leads to repentance?" I suspect Paul would have patiently asked them to go read the verse again.
God's patience and kindness are meant to lead to repentance. When they don't, rebuke may be necessary, though it too should be characterized with patience. But lets stop quoting Romans 2:4 at each other as though it means that the wounds of a friend are not faithful.
*Image credit: http://www.brokenfollower.com/one-defense-righteousness/
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