Our design in preparing a short article each year under this title is threefold. First, to test Christian professors, for it is highly probable that some of our readers have been deceived by that ill-balanced preaching which is so rife, wherein the whole emphasis is laid upon “believing”―and nothing is said of repentance and reformation, and scarcely anything on the imperative necessity of bringing forth the fruits of righteousness in order to authenticate our claim to being Christians. Second, to help doubting souls by describing some of the features of the regenerate, so that the better they may recognize whether or no they have been divinely renewed. Not a few, because of the defective teaching they sit under, are needlessly kept languishing in “doubting Castle”; and we long to be used in delivering them from its dismal dungeons, and bringing them out into the sunshine of the Gospel. Third, to deepen the assurance of the saints, that they may be more firmly rooted and established in the truth, and know they have “passed from death unto life” (1Jo 3:14), so that their “joy may be full” (1Jo 1:4).
We turn now to point out another mark which distinguishes the regenerate from the unregenerate, basing our argument on those words, “not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance” (Rom 2:4). It should be pointed out that that verse is not speaking from the viewpoint of God’s eternal purpose, nor is its design to teach us (by implication) how repentance is effectually wrought in the elect. Quite otherwise. Since it occurs in a passage which is little understood, we will take this opportunity to offer a few remarks upon its general scope. Romans 2, particularly verses 1-16, is an expansion of the solemn truth made known in Rom 1:18. It sets forth those principles which at once commend themselves unto every quickened conscience. The first is, he who condemns in others what he does himself, thereby condemns himself (Rom 2:1). Second, God’s judgment will be according to the real state of the case, everything being taken into impartial consideration (Rom 2:2). Third, the special goodness of God―whether exercised toward a particular individual of a nation―forms no ground of exemption from merited punishment, but when unimproved, will only serve to aggravate their condemnation (Rom 2:3-5).
It was the expectation of the Jews that their descent from Abraham (Mat 3:9; Joh 8:33), and the special favours they enjoyed from Jehovah, would secure them from the doom that would overtake the Gentiles. In that, they erred fatally. Nor are they by any means alone in cherishing such a vain delusion. It is a very common assumption on the part of the children of disobedience that the showering of heaven’s providential bounties upon them is a sure sign there is nothing for them to fear. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecc 8:11). They make the very kindness of God a license to continue in sin and regard His longsuffering as indifference to their wickedness. Because their lives are spared and prolonged when many of their careless companions are cut off, or because they are given a larger portion than others of their fellows of what this world provides, they conclude that God will never deal severely with them. They err greatly, for after their
hardness and impenitent heart, they are but treasuring up unto themselves wrath “against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom 2:5).
“Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance” (Rom 2:4). The “goodness of God” is a general term for His benignity and munificence. The “riches” thereof import the high value and great abundance of them, and are thus termed to excite our wonderment. The principal reference is to God’s providential blessings and bounties unto the children of men, and which are “despised” by them when their hearts are unaffected by the same. The “riches of his goodness and forbearance” tells of the restraint which God exercises in not immediately executing His vengeance upon such base ingrates. The “riches of his…longsuffering” describes the amazing extent of His forbearance in delaying to punish those who so greatly abuse His mercies―a degree not yet completely exhausted. He still grants them “space to repent” (Rev 2:21). Present immunity from punishment by no means signifies that the sinner may continue to defy God with impunity. Far from it. Rather is the prolongation of his day of opportunity and the continuation of God’s mercies designed to lead him to repentance.
“Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” The apostle, then, is not speaking here of men’s ignorance of that gracious influence, which, in the day of God’s power, makes His people willing to throw down the weapons of their warfare against Him (2Co 10:4-5), but rather of their failure to perceive the design of His moral government. It is not the divine decree which is in view, but the moral tendency of God’s providential dispensations. It is what theologians rightly term the “external call,” addressed unto the responsibility of all, by the privileges they enjoy, and the advantages which are theirs (compare Pro 1:24; Isa 5:4!). Though the divine bounties bestowed upon the unregenerate do not soften their hearts, and though the wondrous patience of God with them does not move them to forsake their sins, yet such is the design or moral tendency of both the one and the other. That they do not so eventuate is solely the fault of their base recipients. They ought to produce repentance in all: if they do not, the impenitent are left “without excuse” (Rom 1:20), and their case is aggravated in proportion to the mercies they have abused.
“Not knowing”: such is the carnal stupidity and moral insensibility of the natural man. He fails to understand the gracious design of the One who is his daily Benefactor. He neither discerns the trend of God’s kindness, nor comprehends his own duty with reference thereto. He is either so filled with self-righteousness as to consider temporal blessings are his due, or so besotted as to draw an entirely false inference from them. The great majority insanely regard God’s goodness as a mark of indulgence, or as His indifference to their deplorable conduct. God’s very patience hardens their hearts and causes them to continue in sin, supposing that He will ever be tolerant with them, even though they go on defying Him unto the end of their days. “Not knowing” means in a practical way, not duly improving the same. Because divine justice lingers in its execution, the wicked assume it has no real existence and consists only of empty threats. Instead, God holds back the hand of His wrath to prolong man’s opportunity for repentance: “Let it alone this year…if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down” (Luk 13:7-9).
God is good and doeth good. It is true that “man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7), yet he is the recipient of much which relieves his misery, for the mercy of God is over all the works of His hands. He daily loadeth men with His benefits (Psa 68:19), but those benefits meet with a very varied reception. Many receive them with
callous unconcern: the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib, but multitudes of men and women refuse to recognize the hand that ministers so tenderly to them. The patience of God not only affords time and opportunity for repentance, but it furnishes motives and encouragement thereto―revealing our duty unto One so benevolent and affording ground to hope for His acceptance of us if we respond to His gracious overtures in the Gospel; only man’s depravity and perversity prevents the improvement of His forbearance. But, instead, the majority harden their hearts, as they did during the terrible air raids, closing their ears to God’s voice in them. A few appear thankful for His mercies, and verbally acknowledge God’s goodness; but there they stop―there is no repentance, no reformation of life.
But how different is it with the regenerate! God’s goodness does lead them “to repentance”! Even His temporal blessings affect their hearts, so that they are made to sincerely exclaim: “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant” (Gen 32:10). The divine blessings they receive, so far from hardening and causing them presumptuously to proceed with high-handed rebellion, melt them, and cause them gratefully to ask: “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?” (Psa 116:12). The more tokens of God’s goodness they receive, the more are they convicted of their undeservingness. Instead of abusing His forbearance, they are amazed at His patience with them.
It is no proof that you are a child of God because He has borne long with your waywardness, for God endures “with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” (Rom 9:22). Nor is it any proof that you are a Christian because God has ministered freely unto you in temporal mercies, for “he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mat 5:45). But it is an evidence that you are one of God’s children if His forbearance has touched your heart and moved you to marvel at His patience toward you. It is an evidence you are a quickened soul if the realization of God’s goodness has filled you with godly sorrow and led you to amend your life. Here, then, is one of the distinguishing marks between the regenerate and the unregenerate: the effects which God’s goodness has upon their hearts and the response which they make unto the same.
Arthur W. Pink, July 1947
