Day 10 of 14
The Goodness and Severity of God
Two Sides of the Same Holiness
Scripture Readings
Today's Reading
Read Romans 11:22: "Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off."
Then read Psalm 145:8-9, 17: "The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made... The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works."
Reflection
Paul's command in Romans 11:22 is one of the most neglected instructions in the New Testament: "Note then the kindness and the severity of God." The word "note" (ide) means to look carefully, to observe deliberately. Paul is not describing two different gods. He is describing two aspects of the same God, and he insists that we hold them together.
Every generation of Christians is tempted to emphasize one at the expense of the other. Some emphasize severity — and produce a religion of terror, where God is always watching to punish and believers live in chronic anxiety. Others emphasize kindness — and produce a religion of sentimentality, where God is always smiling and nothing we do really matters. Both distortions are deadly.
Packer navigates between these extremes with care. God's goodness, he writes, "is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men." God is not grudging in His generosity. He gives rain and sunshine to the just and the unjust. He fills the world with beauty, pleasure, food, and friendship. His goodness is lavish and unrestrained.
But Packer also insists that God's severity is equally real. Severity is not cruelty. It is the necessary response of a holy God to persistent rebellion. God is patient — "slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love," as the Psalmist says. But His patience has a purpose: it is designed to lead to repentance (Romans 2:4). When patience is met with hardened impenitence, severity follows — not because God delights in punishment, but because His holiness demands it.
The Psalmist in Psalm 145 holds these truths together without strain. "The LORD is gracious and merciful" — there is the kindness. "The LORD is righteous in all his ways" — there is the severity, understood not as arbitrary harshness but as perfect justice. These are not in tension. They are both expressions of who God is.
Going Deeper
The challenge is not to figure out which one God "really" is. He is both. His kindness is not weakness. His severity is not malice. Both flow from His holiness — the absolute moral perfection that is the foundation of everything He does. Today, resist the temptation to edit God. Receive Him as He reveals Himself: overwhelmingly kind and unflinchingly severe, and trust that both are working for your good and His glory.
Key Quotes
“Paul speaks of both the 'kindness' and 'severity' of God (Romans 11:22). The one truth balances the other. God's severity towards those who fall away corresponds to God's kindness to those who continue in faith.”
“The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. It is God's goodness which moves Him to deal bountifully and generously with His creatures.”
Prayer Focus
Asking God to help you see both His kindness and His severity clearly — not softening one to accommodate the other, but holding both together as expressions of His perfect holiness
Meditation
Paul puts God's kindness and severity side by side in a single verse. Do you tend to emphasize one at the expense of the other? What might change if you held both in view?
Question for Discussion
Romans 11:22 says 'Note then the kindness and the severity of God.' Why does Paul insist that we consider both together? What happens to our faith and our obedience when we emphasize God's kindness at the expense of His severity — or His severity at the expense of His kindness?