³ And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:3–4)

There is no subtlety to Paul’s argument, especially as he is building to his crescendo (cf. 3:23); all humanity has failed to be faithful and has continually chosen sin over God (the Gentiles yes, but also the Jews who were supposed to be covenant-keepers). The Jews were not going to escape God’s wrath just because they possessed God’s covenants, since they did not keep them.

God was not patient for no reason. He was delaying judgment, because of His “kindness” (NASB), to give mankind time to repent. They were ignorant of this truth, however, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance. Although they were ignorant they were no less accountable (cf. Rom. 1:18-23). God never does anything without a purpose, His restraint is for a reason. God’s disposition towards creation ought to have caused the creature to return to its Creator. “Repentance” is not an exclusively NT concept as it trickles through the pages of the entire OT.

This idea naturally became associated with conversion, the person must ‘turn back,’ or ‘turn away from’ their former life and live a new life for God (cf. Rom. 6). As creation had turned its back on its Creator (as evident in Rom. 1:18-31), they must acknowledge the good disposition of God and come back to Him to live. There may be some similarities here and the way Paul views “from faith to faith” (Rom. 1:17); i.e., seeing the faithfulness of God should create faith in us. 

God is still delaying judgment in hopes that more will be saved (II Pet. 3:9). To borrow the opening line from the well-known hymn: “How good is the God we adore!”