I t is out of God’s forbearance that the Lord Jesus is given as an appeasing sacrifice, so sinners may be reconciled. God is a forbearing God as that is His character. To forbear is to be patient, to tolerate and endure. With regards to sinful creatures who deserve righteous judgment, forbearance results in punishment being deferred for a time. In effect, God is restraining Himself from punishing the sinner at the very same moment that sin is committed. It does not mean God ignores it altogether. He is showing His willingness to delay His punishment for a time. The fact that He would purpose His own Son as a wrath-appeasing sacrifice shows that He still hates and judges sin. Because of God’s forbearance, righteousness and being gracious to save, the Lord Jesus is sent to save us from His wrath. God tolerates mankind’s sin for a time, suspending punishment for a while, in order that sinners have the opportunity to be spared by exercising faith in His Son’s atoning work in shedding His precious blood on Calvary’s Cross. He will then remit even their past sins because they are covered by the shed blood of His foreordained sacrifice. Such forbearance must never be mocked nor spurned. “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” [Acts 17:30-31]
LESSON
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. – 1 John 4:10
THOUGHT
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