Romans 2:5-10 :
But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God; who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:” to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life; but to those who are self-seeking, and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation, oppression and anguish, on every soul of man who works evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
But glory, honor, and peace go to every man who works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
God doesn’t forgive people by overlooking their sin anymore. He did that temporarily in the Old Testament, but that is unnecessary now. In the Old Testament, the sins of the Jews were overlooked because God accepted their sacrifices as a temporary replacement for the death of His own Son. There was no forgiveness without blood, however. Sounds pretty bad but God sees sin as very, very bad. It is wrong for us to act as if sin is “overlookable” without any punishment.
Not only does God not overlook our sin, He stores up wrath against us for a future day, the “day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God.”
God expects us to take the salvation being offered to us through Jesus Christ. If we refuse, we store up wrath for ourselves.
It is possible to misread God’s patience for acceptance. God is very patient, but He isn’t ignoring any of our sins at all. There is no reason to receive this wrath from God being stored up for ourselves. Jesus paid the price for us already and if we accept it, there is “glory, honor, and peace” for us.
God looks into “every soul of man.” He knows when the soul is disobeying because He understands the works of the soul. He isn’t talking about the works of the body, but the works of the soul here. Repentance is a change of mind and until that change of mind happens, a person is still in their sin and has an account of wrath to deal with upon retirement.