Everyone needs a Judgment Day survival kit. And the first thing in that kit is God’s goodness. When we look at God’s goodness: his love, his tolerance, his patience; boy, don’t we abuse that? I know I do. I sin. I know God’s loves me, but I sin anyway. Sometimes we go and sin, we see that we don’t get punished for it, and we think to ourselves, “I got away with it!” But that’s just a lie. Or we think we can just go back and say we’re sorry later, God will forgive me. We put off our relationship with God, we start losing that connection to his Word. And it’s just excuse after excuse. And God is patient with us. But there will come a time when his patience will end. When you abuse God’s goodness, you are storing up God’s wrath for yourself.

This is why we need God’s goodness right now. We know God is good: we see how he takes care of us physically. But way beyond the physical is the spiritual. No matter how much sin, God forgives. No matter how many times we spurn him, he still loves us. Now is the time of his forgiveness. Now is the time of his love.

And when it comes to punishment for sin, God punishes his son instead. God doesn’t forsake you now because Jesus Christ was forsaken in your place. My sin and your sin of abusing God’s goodness was heaped upon the shoulders of our Savior and he died in our place.

And the Lord treats us patiently. He gives us time to grow as his children. We are all works-in-progress. And that is only by the grace of God.

God’s goodness is like a bandage. He takes our hearts broken with sin and binds them up with his love. He covers over the wounds of guilt and shame with the white bandage of Christ’s perfect life. And this goodness makes you ready for Judgment Day.