Scandal: The Kindness of God

Have you ever received a good grade when you deserved a bad grade? Maybe your teacher graded on a curve or was feeling generous, you just knew you deserved a worse grade than you got.

One paper I wrote in seminary (school for Bible studies) I was particularly fond of. I won’t bore you with the title and topic as it was, or at least I thought it was, some deep theology. I spent well over 30 hours crafting this paper, I used more than 50 sources and it was over 30 pages long. I thought my professor was going to read it and be like, “this is the best paper ever!” Was I ever wrong.

When I received my paper back it became very evident that my professor didn’t not agree with my assessment. Instead, he marked up everywhere I was wrong. To this day, I still think he used all the ink in two red pens! It was awful. One look and I dreaded looking at the grade. Somewhere around half way through the paper he stopped grading and wrote, “well I think you got the point.” That point being that this was an inferior paper!

So, I turned to the last page expecting a failing grade, but I was surprised to see that I received a “B”! How is this possible? From the markups, I certainly deserved an “F”, so how did I get a “B”? His response was, “when I am forced to read inferior work, I go into conflict mode and I am mad at you for making me read this, so I markup everything. Then when I finish, I consider my emotions and have grace upon you.”

When we come to the end of Hosea, a book that is about God’s anger against sin where God points out the depths of Israel’s sin in the story of Gomer. If you skipped the story and just read the judgment against sin, you’d expect the final report card to be destruction. But chapter 14 reveals a different response than anticipated.

God calls out to Israel to return to Him, an invitation to repent, and find grace. The book paints the picture that they deserved judgement and hell. But God’s response is full of grace!

Allow me to paraphrase: “I will heal them, I will love them, my anger has turned away, I will refresh them, I will protect them…” God sees their unfaithfulness, their rebellion and their sins, and they were warned about the judgment, but He offers kindness, mercy and grace!

Paul tells us in Romans 2:4 that the “kindness of God leads us to repentance.” When we understand that we are sinners and we deserve judgment for our sins, but we hear about God’s demonstration of His love toward us, we are drawn to repentance because of His kindness and goodness. The truth is this, without the commandments of God and His declaration of judgment, we would not know the kindness of God that leads to repentance.

I thought my paper was good, well written and deserving of praise, until I saw my professor’s remarks. Then I felt like they were worthless and deserved a bad grade. Much like our lives, we think we are overall good and deserve good things, until we are confronted with the Law of God and the judgment on sin. You and I are underserving of God’s grace, we deserve just punishment for our sins, BUT God is gracious and kind and has made a provision for our sins. He turned away His wrath by sending His Son to take our place on the cross. Jesus’ sacrifice opened the doors for us to receive forgiveness of sins, healing to our brokenness, refreshment to our weariness and protection from the judgment to come!

When Gomer hit rock bottom, Hosea’s love appeared all the greater. When we see, and understand our brokenness, the kindness of God draws us to Himself. Our response is then repentance. Genuine repentance is simply a change of heart and mind that leads to a change of action.

Listen to the my paraphrase of their prayer of repentance: “God take away our sins, we will sacrifice bulls to demonstrate our seriousness, we know that Assyria cannot save us, we will stop trusting in them, we will stop worshiping gods of our own creation, for in You we will find mercy.”

For us, it would be more like: “God, please forgive my sins, I am trusting in you and I want my life to reflect my seriousness to follow you. I will stop trusting in human effort and my own control to save me. I will stop pursuing my sinful desires, for only in Your Son will I find mercy.”

Hear the story of Hosea’s love for Gomer, hear the story of God’s relentless pursuit of Israel, and know that He loves you so much! Allow the understanding of judgment on sin to magnify the kindness of God that will lead you to repentance. Turn from your sins and trust Him.

As you do that, remember the importance of telling others about God’s goodness and kindness toward sinners. I still to this day tell others of the kindness of my professor on me, how much more should I tell others of God’s kindness toward all unbelievers?