Who is Peter talking to here?
"Any" of what?
Who are the "all" and who are the "any" Peter is here talking about?
Who are the "us" talked about?
"Perhaps the one passage which has presented the greatest difficulty to those who have seen that passage after passage in Holy Writ plainly reaches the election of a limited number unto salvation is
2 Peter 3:9 "
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance".
The first thing to be said upon the above passage is that, like all other scripture, it must be understood and interpreted in the light of its context. Surely it must be allowed by all that the first half of the verse needs to be taken into consideration. In order to establish what these words are supposed by many to mean, viz., that the words "any" and "all" are to be received without any qualification, it
must be shown that the
context is referring to
the whole human race! If this cannot be shown, if there is no
premise to justify this, then the
conclusion also must be unwarranted. Let us then ponder the first part of the verse.
"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise". Note "promise" in the singular number,
not "promises".
What promise is in view? The promise of
salvation? Where, in all Scripture, has God ever
promised to save the whole human race!! Where indeed? No, the "promise" here referred to is
not about
salvation. What then is it? The context tells us.
"Knowing this... (vv. 3, 4). The context then refers to God's promise
to send back His beloved Son. But many long centuries have passed, and this promise has not yet been fulfilled. True, but long as the delay may seem to
us, the interval is short in the reckoning of
God. As the proof of this we are reminded, "But, beloved.... (v.8) In God's reckoning of time, less than two days have passed since He promised to send back Christ.
But more, the "delay" in the Father sending back His beloved Son is not only due to no "slackness" on His part, but it is also occasioned by His "longsuffering". His longsuffering to whom? The verse we are now considering tells us: "but to longsuffering
to usward". And whom are the "usward"? - the human race, or God's own people? In the light of this context this is
not an open question upon which each of us is free to form an opinion. The Holy Spirit has defined it. The opening verse of the chapter says, "This second Epistle,
beloved, I now write unto you". And, again, the verse immediately preceding declares "But,
beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing etc" (v. 8). The "usward" then are the "beloved" of God. They to whom this Epistle is addressed are "them that have
obtained (not "exercised", but "obtained" as God's sovereign
gift) like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (
2Pe 1:11). Therefore we say there is no room for a doubt, a quibble or an argument - the "usward" are the elect of God.
Let us now quote the verse as a whole: "
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." (
2Pe 3:9) Could anything be clearer? The "any" that God is not willing should perish, are the "usward" to whom God is "longsuffering", the "beloved" of the previous verses.
2 Peter 3:9 means, then, that God will not send back His Son until "the fullness of the Gentiles be come in" (
Rom 11:25). God will not send back Christ till that "people" whom He is now "taking out of the Gentiles" (
Acts 15:14) are gathered in. God will not send back His Son till the Body of Christ is complete, and that will not be till the ones whom He has elected to be saved in this dispensation shall have been brought to Him. Thank God for His "longsuffering to us-ward". Had Christ come back twenty years ago the writer had been left behind to perish in His sins. But that
could not be, so God graciously delayed the Second Coming. For the same reason He is still delaying His Advent. His decreed purpose is that
all His elect will come to repentance, and repent they
shall. The present interval of grace will not end until the last of the "other sheep" of
John 10:16 are safely folded, -
then will Christ return.
A. W Pink
Arminians insist that in
2 Peter 3:9 the words "any" and "all" refer to all mankind without exception. But it is important first of all to see to whom those words were addressed. In the first verse of chapter 1, we find that the epistle is addressed not to mankind at larger, but to Christians: "...to them that have obtained a like precious faith with us." And in the preceding verse (3:1), Peter had addressed those to whom he was writing as "beloved." And when we look at the verse as a whole, and not merely at the last half, we find that it is not primarily a salvation verse at all, but a second coming verse! It begins by saying that "The Lord is not slacking concerning his promise" [singular]. What promise? Verse 4 tells us: "the promise of his coming." The reference is to His second coming, when He will come for judgement, and the wicked will perish in the lake of fire. The verse has reference to a limited group. It says that the Lord is "longsuffering to usward," His elect, many of whom had not yet been regenerated, and who therefore had not yet come to repentance. Hence we may quite properly read verse 9 as follows: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward, not willing that any
of us should perish, but that all
of us should come to repentance."
L Boettner
