For many, forbearance has made the difference between losing a home and being able to maintain through the treacherous financial difficulties brought about by the pandemic. Mortgage companies and government assistance have provided forbearance opportunities that forgave individuals inability to make payments that normally would have been required.
The meaning of the word forbearance is the refraining from the enforcement of something (such as a debt, right, or obligation) that is due. It is through the forbearance of God that our debt and obligation to pay for our sin has been covered.
“Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” Romans 2:4
Through the knowledge of God’s love and His plan of forgiveness of sin through the death of His Son as payment for our sin debt, we are brought to Him. When we see the goodness of God in contrast to who we are, we should all fall on our faces in acknowledgment of who He is and what He has done for us.
“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 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; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Romans 3:24-26
The forbearance of God is a beautiful gift, far greater than the forbearance experienced during the current pandemic. God’s forbearance is of eternal value, it has no end date.