When we read of God’s goodness, the inclination is for us to misunderstand his goodness because of the tendency we have to look at it from our limited natural point of view. That can be very misleading when viewing that or any attribute of God because God is infinitely different than we are:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa 55:8,9)
God also has set the highest value on the souls of mankind. The Lord Jesus said this:
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:36)
Since God doesn’t want anyone to perish (2 Pet. 3:9), he will do all he can to help man come to him through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus (Acts 20:21). For man to come to salvation (and eternal life), he must first repent, but that is brought on by godly sorrow:
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Cor 7:10)
That verse says godly sorrow brings repentance and Rom. 2:4 say God’s goodness leads you toward repentance. So it is God’s goodness which can aid repentance through godly sorrow. For the Prodigal Son, as a backslider, he got so low he longed to eat animal food but got none before he repented and returned to salvation! That was God’s goodness which led to his repentance. Being humbled to that degree worked in his case, but doesn’t with others! For example, Jehoram was a wicked king whom God afflicted with a painful and incurable bowel disease (2 Chron. 21:18-20), yet there is no evidence that he ever repented! That painful affliction from God was a manifestation of God’s goodness to him, but he rejected God’s goodness which could have led to his repentance and eternal life.
