John Gill answers Hard
Passages (Modern English)
God doesn’t want anyone to
perish
2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)
"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."
Peter begins by answering those who accused God of delaying His promise.
Some people believed that because Christ had not yet returned, God had failed to keep His word. They mistook God's patience for neglect. But Peter makes it clear that the Lord is never slow or forgetful. He always fulfills His promises exactly at the time He has appointed.
The promise mentioned here most likely refers either:
Christ's coming in judgment upon Jerusalem, which He foretold during His earthly ministry (Mark 9:1; John 21:22; Hebrews 10:37), or
His final return to judge the living and the dead, of which the destruction of Jerusalem served as a preview and foreshadowing.
Many early Christians expected Christ's return sooner than it occurred. As time passed, scoffers mocked God's promise and questioned whether Christ would ever come again.
Peter answers them by explaining that God's apparent delay is actually an expression of His mercy.
God has not postponed Christ's coming because He has changed His mind or forgotten His promise.
He has appointed a definite day when Christ will return to judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31). That day cannot be delayed or hastened.
Instead, God is patiently accomplishing His saving purpose.
Every moment before Christ returns is part of His sovereign plan to gather all whom He has chosen for salvation.
Peter says that God is "patient toward you."
The "you" cannot mean every individual without exception.
Throughout this chapter Peter clearly distinguishes between two groups:
the beloved believers to whom he writes (2 Peter 3:1, 8, 14, 17), and
the scoffers who mock Christ's return (2 Peter 3:3–4).
Therefore, God's patience is directed toward His own people.
Peter even says later:
"Count the patience of our Lord as salvation." (2 Peter 3:15)
His patience results in the salvation of those whom He has purposed to save.
The words "not wishing that any should perish" must be understood in their immediate context.
Peter is not teaching that God has decreed the salvation of every human being. If that were true, no one would perish. Yet Scripture plainly teaches that many die in unbelief and experience eternal judgment (Matthew 25:46; John 8:24).
Rather, "any" refers to those included among the "you"—God's beloved people.
These are the people whom God:
loved before the foundation of the world,
chose in Christ,
gave to His Son,
redeemed through Christ's death, and
will certainly bring safely to eternal glory.
Though they were lost in Adam and may at times fear they are perishing, none of them will ultimately be lost.
Jesus Himself declared:
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish." (John 10:27–28)
God's determination that none of His elect perish is seen throughout His work of redemption:
He chose them for salvation.
He included them in the everlasting covenant of grace.
Christ purchased them with His blood.
The Holy Spirit effectually calls them.
God preserves them by His power through faith until the end.
Not one of them will be missing when Christ returns.
Likewise, the word "all" refers to all of those whom God intends to save.
Repentance is not merely outward sorrow or legal fear of punishment.
It is evangelical repentance—a gracious work of God produced by the Holy Spirit.
Every one of God's elect must come to repentance because every one of them is a sinner.
Yet no one can produce true repentance by human effort.
God Himself grants it.
Scripture repeatedly teaches this truth:
Christ has been exalted "to give repentance" (Acts 5:31).
Repentance is God's gift (Acts 11:18).
God grants repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:25).
Through the Holy Spirit, God removes the heart of stone, gives a heart of flesh, and brings His people willingly to Christ.
Without this sovereign work of grace, no amount of time, warning, judgment, mercy, or preaching would produce genuine repentance.
The delay of Christ's return serves God's saving purpose.
Before Christ comes in final judgment, every person whom the Father has chosen must be effectually called into His kingdom.
For their sake, God continues to bear patiently with a sinful world filled with idolatry, false religion, unbelief, immorality, and rebellion.
But His patience is not endless.
When the final one of God's elect has been brought to faith, Christ will return suddenly and gloriously. He will judge the wicked, destroy evil forever, and gather all His redeemed into His eternal kingdom.
Peter's purpose is not to explain why every person is not saved, but why Christ's return appears delayed.
God is not slow.
He is patient.
His patience is directed toward His covenant people, ensuring that every one whom He has chosen will be brought to repentance and faith before Christ returns.
The verse therefore teaches the certainty of God's saving purpose rather than the uncertainty of man's free will.
Far from weakening the doctrine of sovereign grace, 2 Peter 3:9 beautifully displays it: the Lord delays His coming until every one of His redeemed has been safely gathered into His kingdom. Not one whom the Father has given to the Son will perish, and every one of them will, by God's grace, come to true repentance before the day of Christ.