God’s Word for You
2 Peter 3:9 God’s will for your soul
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, August 20, 2022
9 The Lord is not slow to keep his promises as some count slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Peter has been answering an attack on the church from unbelievers and skeptics, but now he turns to a question often raised within the church, where believers begin to wonder about why Judgment Day is taking so long? Some elderly believers in particular wonder about this, thinking more of their own lives than of the people who will come after them; the babies yet to be born, baptized, and saved.
God does not want anyone to perish in hell. This is especially the lesson here and in Jesus’ promise of eternal life to all who believe (John 3:16). God’s loving will is universal, it reaches out with both hands to all mankind. This is his call to us to believe in him.
The basis for this call is his mercy. He calls on account of our human misery, but his call is also based on the merits of Jesus Christ, and not on our merits or worthiness. He makes this call through specific means, which are expressed all through the Scriptures: the Gospel, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. We call these the Means of Grace. Paul asks: “How can they believe in the one they have not heard about? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14). And again: “He called you through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 2:14), to which Peter also reminds us of “this baptism that now saves you” (1 Peter 3:21).
We acknowledge that this call to faith and salvation is universal. “We call it universal (1) by reason of God’s intention, (2) by reason of Christ’s command… therefore as far as creation extends, so far does the preaching of the word extend, and (3) by reason of its public announcement. All people in the world are called (Mark 16:20; Romans 10:18).” The very fact that some believe and trust God’s call and others do not tells us that his call is effective, but it is not irresistible:
1, Some do not want to hear God’s Word at all. “You rejected me when I called” (Proverbs 1:24), and “you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:40).
2, Some do not want to pay attention or receive the Word that they hear. “But they refused to pay attention. They turned a stubborn shoulder and a deaf ear” (Zechariah 7:11).
3, Others not only refuse to receive the Word, but they also despise it. “The Pharisees and the legal experts rejected God’s purpose for themselves by not being baptized by John” (Luke 7:30). And again: “We had to speak the word of God to you Jews first, but since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46).
God’s will is clearly expressed, that he wants all to be saved, all to come to repentance and to turn to Christ for forgiveness. He does not have a hidden or secret will. He openly says that “he wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). This will of God does not change.
One more thing needs to be said about the will of God. The actions God takes do not run contrary to his will. He does not have a secret will which he has not revealed to us. This would diverge from his Word, it would even nullify his holy Word, and therefore the teaching that God has a hidden will for men’s souls apart from his revealed will is blasphemous and false.
Praise God for his patience, and his desire that you and I should be saved. This patience, slow-seeming to some, is salvation to others, including you and me. It is by grace we have been saved.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.