2 PETER 2 9, All come to repentance,
By Elder Mark Green
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” (2 Pet. 3.9).
The subject being addressed by the apostle is the scoffing claim by some wicked men in his day (and ours) that Christ’s promise to come again was vain and empty, since many years had passed (and many more to our day), and “all things continue as they were,” and the Lord had not returned.
Peter reminds us that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” for time is no limitation to Him. Peter then tells us why the world is “kept in store” or reserved against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. If there were no other consideration than wicked men, then there would be no reason to “keep in store” that judgment. If that were the only factor, then we could logically reason that the world and all in it would have been destroyed long since.
Peter then assures us that “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness.” Some men account that Jesus has been negligent concerning His promise to return, but they fail to take into account the longsuffering of God and His love toward His elect people. All sinners deserve in themselves to be destroyed, and they deserve to be destroyed immediately, but God’s longsuffering has been exercised toward mankind, not for the sake of the wicked, but for the sake of His elect. The world still stands, not because of the non-elect, but because of God’s faithfulness toward His people, for He is not willing that any of them should perish.
If a man were to die without being a partaker of the new birth, then he would perish eternally. “Ye must be born again,” the Savior said. Men are conceived in a perishing condition, and unless the power and grace of God are exercised toward them, they will continue in that condition. We were all by nature the children of wrath, and unless a man is created a new creature in Christ Jesus, then he will spend eternity in perdition, because he cannot go to heaven in a sinful condition.
Those who are born again have that gracious privilege because they are the chosen of God. All God’s elect and only the elect will be regenerated. We should note, however, that all men are not born at the same time, nor born again at the same time. Abel was born again centuries before those who are partakers of that gracious condition today. All the elect will be regenerated, but all have not yet been born again; and since they must be called into divine life before they can enter the portals of heaven – and they all will — therefore the world still stands.
God is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that “any” should perish. He does not mean “any of all mankind,” but “any of us,” any of His elect people, any of those for whom Christ died. God is not willing that any of those who were redeemed should perish eternally, and therefore the world stands until all the elect are born again.
The apostle uses the term “come to repentance” here to indicate the new birth. When a person is born of the Spirit he is made sorry for sin. He feels the guilt and burden of sin and feels that he “should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.”
The gospel is not necessary to bring a man into this condition, and indeed it cannot do it. Only God can quicken a sinner into life. Notice that our text says nothing of gospel repentance specifically, but merely repentance as a condition or state. All God’s elect will be brought to that blessed condition by the new birth. Not all will join the church (indeed, very few as a percentage); not all will repent gospelly; not all will live long enough to consciously repent of their sins in any sense; certainly not all will respond as they should to the promptings of the Spirit – but all the elect will be born of the Spirit and therefore brought to a state of being possessors of spiritual life and consequently of that godly sorrow which brings a feeling of remorse for our ungodly acts.
The Spirit of God is able to penetrate the heart of every child of God – wherever he may be, whenever he may have lived, however long he may have lived, no matter what his mental condition – and make his heart tender toward the things of God. This is not a matter of the gospel, but a matter of grace, a matter of the power of God toward all His people. All of God’s elect eventually will be brought into this blessed state, and therefore the world still stands, for God is not willing that any of His elect should perish. – Editor