Romans 2: 5-11

"(5)But because of your stubborneness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. (6) God "will give to each person according to what he has done." (7) To those who by persistance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, he will give eternal life. (8) But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. (9) There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; (10) but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (11) For God does not show favoritism."

Paul starts off chapter 2 by talking about judging others and verse 4 ends by talking about how people that judge others will also face God's judgment, but God also has great kindness and leads us to repent for our sins, i.e. judging others and all the other sins he mentioned in Chapter 1. Verse 5 continues in the vein by saying that by not repenting (asking for forgiveness of our sins) we should expect some godly wrath when God's judgment is revealed.

About Repenting - theoretically asking for forgiveness should be easy, but I think in actuality it is hard. First we have to admit that we did something wrong and then verbalize it...horrors! But sometimes we don't think we deserve forgiveness, which can't be further from the truth. We all deserve second chances and God is in the business of giving people a million chances if that's what it takes to get them into heaven.

Okay, back to the verses. Paul talks a lot about how if you do good, you will recieve good from God. If you do evil, you will recieve wrath. Now when I first read this, it seemed contradictory. The Christian doctrine says to recieve eternal life you must believe in God and that Jesus died for your sins and invite them into your life, but Paul seems to be saying that by doing good you can get the same thing. That is not what Paul is saying. He's saying that if you believe in God and that Jesus died for your sins, that you'll WANT to do good things. And added incentive, if you do good things you recieve glory, honor and peace - who wouldn't want those things?