Or do you hold his priceless kindness, forbearance, and patience in low esteem, unaware that the kindness of God would lead you to repentance?
By your stubbornness and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself for the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God...
In his zeal to describe the great mercy of God Saint Paul pulls out all the stops to persuade his readers and hearers that they must willingly, freely receive this grace. God's mercy is not like your birthday or Christmas when you know you're going to get some presents. If you habitually give presents to others on their birthdays and at Christmas, you know they owe you! And they will come through!
God's mercy is not like that; God owes us nothing. Not even an apology for our creation (... if you happen to be one of those sad sacks who feel like that.) Our fashioning from mud might have been as much as the Lord chose to give but he elected to give his Only Begotten Son for our salvation -- more than anyone could ask, expect, or imagine.
So is it like winning the lottery? And all you have to do is buy a ticket; or in this case, believe in Jesus? Again, no. As Saint James said, "even the demons believe in God."
In his Letter to the Romans -- and the second chapter in particular -- Saint Paul must persuade us that we cannot be saved unless we receive his grace, and that can happen only as we recognize our truly desperate and wretchedly pathetic need for mercy. It's one thing to sit back and watch televised stories about victims of war, famine, and disease knowing that they need help and no help is coming.
It's quite another to recognize the Enormity of my sin and that I am among those televised wretches precisely because I cannot and will not help them. We're in this together -- as the pandemic is teaching us -- and my best efforts amount to no help at all.
True, the sins I am aware of don't amount to much. They seem harmless peccadilloes, hardly worth the eternal fires of hell. But I realize that the System works for me and it doesn't work for most people. And I tremble knowing that the System is entirely man-made.
Finally, my faith tells me that God's merciful and just kingdom will set things right. On That Day of righteousness, equality, and fair play I should expect that my properties, privileges, and entitlements will be redistributed and given as their just due to the needy.
How gracious will I be on That Day? Will I cling to my stuff as it's wrenched from me, and lose my hand in the process? Will I cling to my property as its cast into a fiery furnace, and me with it? Will I be like the citizen who was herded into the Nazi death camp, pleading, "...but I've done nothing wrong?"
Perhaps I will remember the words of Job, "The Lord gives; the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Perhaps I will admit that "All have sinned and are deprived of the Glory of God."
Perhaps I will remember that Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, clutched, or defended. It was, to him, so much rubbish.
For, in the end, God is my only possession, and I am owned by no one else.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.