The PATIENCE of God.
Geoffrey R. Kirkland, Pastor
God is patient and slow to anger. God preached His own character and nature and said to Moses: “the Lord…slow to anger” (Ex 34:6). One of the repeated qualities of God all throughout the Bible is that God is “slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth” (Ps 103:8; Neh. 9:17; Num 14:18). For God to be patient means that He is marvelously long-tempered. He delays His wrath and His judgment. He doesn’t have to and nor does He always choose to do this the same way, but God wonderfully chooses to withhold wrath. History shows and demonstrates God’s profound patience with humanity.
The patience of God consists in a deliberate, perfect, gracious forbearance. He can do this because “the LORD is slow to anger and great in power” (Nahum 1.3). All sinners are called and summoned (by God Himself!) to repent and return to this God genuinely with a true heart because God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger (Joel 2.13).
It has rightly been called the “the majestic restraint of the Almighty.” In the face of human sin, rebellion, transgression, and great evil, God has marvelously delayed His wrath. God surely has all power to bring judgment on sin but He chooses, according to His wise and perfect designs, to delay and withhold His wrath for a time. Don’t mistake it: God does not overlook sin; rather, He delays His wrath. God is not apathetic toward sin; He simply delays the punishment.
God is a patient God not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3.9). We cannot think lightly (trivialize it, take advantage of it) of his patience (Rom 2.4) because it is meant to lead sinners to repentance! Sometimes, in the amazingly mysterious decrees and infinite sovereignty of God, He bears long with sinners and endures patiently with them as vessels of wrath who are prepared for destruction (Rom 9.22). But, the patience of God must serve as a mighty catalyst to run quickly, immediately, unhesitatingly, and humbly to Jesus Christ for salvation! Delay not! God’s patience may not continue till tomorrow. Repent, return to Him, and be saved now, while God has given you time.
Ah, but for the child of God, for the believer, the patience of God is so humbling because we remember how manifoldly we have slighted Him, and sinned against Him, and broken His Law, and dishonored His wondrous Name and yet He has so patiently delayed His wrath and rather He has summoned us to His own dear Son. Our blessed Christ took infinite and holy wrath in our place and in our room. The patience of God cannot ever lead us to presumption but to humiliation and obedience! God is patient with us because the Savior, Jesus, pleads in Heaven for us right now. Even when we sin, God remains patient because Christ has most wondrously paid for our sin and pleads for us in heaven to His Father.
Oh, let the patience of God toward you prompt you to be patient with others! Patience is a Spirit-given fruit to every believer. Patience is what fosters and nurtures unity (Ephesians 4:2). Every day, believers are to put on patience (Col. 3.12). Follow Jesus patiently, perseveringly, continually as one who will inherit the promises soon (Hebrews 6.12).
