Longsuffering & Forgiveness of God

In Christ, the patience, forbearance and longsuffering of God towards sinners is full of love, sweetness, kindness and grace. A sinner out of Christ thinks that because God does not at once punish sin, God will never call him to account. So he perishes full of faith in God's forbearance. but in Christ, God is revealed as waiting to be gracious to sinners; waiting to show them love and kindness (Isa. 30:18). When the soul sees and is convinced that God, for Christ's sake, has overlooked his many sins, he is astonished that God should do this. He is amazed that God did not cast him out of his sight. Instead, the redeemed soul finds that with infinite wisdom God has delivered his soul from the power of the devil, dealt with his sins and brought his soul into fellowship with himself. God has made a way for the complete forgiveness of our sins through his forbearance, and this was is to be found only in Christ.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 84