If God does not will, or is not willing, for any person to perish (2 Pet. 3:9) then why does anyone perish and find him- or herself in Hell upon death? Many answer: "The issue at 2 Peter 3:9 is not about God's sovereign will but God's holy desire that no one perish and find him- or herself in Hell upon death. God desires / wants / would like every person 'to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth' (1 Tim. 2:4). But God," so they say, "does not always get what He wants." Commentaries abound on these two passages and, in my opinion, there will never be an interpretation upon which the entire body of regenerate believers in Christ will agree. Why? Because agendas must prevail; because systematic theologies and "the truth of God's Word" must be defended; because the Gospel is at stake; because even the holy and just character of God is at stake--even to persons with opposing theological views--and all parties feel that their theological opponent distorts the character of God!
In Spring of 2022, I cared nothing for agendas, but only wanted the truth--no matter what that truth looked like or how it made me feel. From Calvin to Arminius, Pelagius to Augustine, from so-called Postmillennial Christian Nationalists to the Renegade Jesus of the Center / Left, I shut off all involved in the various hot-button discussions. I opened my Bible and wanted Christ to speak. I was frustrated and weary of agendas; I was exhausted by cultural and theological wars from religious-political zealots or one-trick-pony armchair theologians; I had had enough of genuine believers taking to their respective corners to argue and fight to the death regarding the latest interpretation that contradicted theirs. However, I am not naïve, either, and I know that I bring presuppositions to a reading of the inspired Text like everyone else, as is unavoidable. I may not convince you with what I believe the Word to be teaching on this subject. But this is how I see the inerrant passages of God's Word.
WORD OF GOD SPEAK
The award-winning song Word of God Speak by Mercy Me, which spent twenty-three weeks at the Number One position on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart, is my favorite song they sing, to the shock of those so enamored with their song, I Can Only Imagine (by the by, I also highly appreciate their song, Even If). Imagine is a truly great song, yes, but when a pop song can evoke a passion within the believer toward the Voice of God in His Word then that, I think, is quite an accomplishment! The apostle Paul writes to believers in Thessalonica: "For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe" (1 Thess. 2:13 NASB). The inerrant and unfailing Word of God is alive, active, and "sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16 ESV).
The apostle Peter attests to these truths when he writes: For we did not follow cleverly devised tales, when we made known to you the power
DOES GOD LOVE EVERYONE?
So, if we are to answer any theological or philosophical question, then we must turn to our one and only source of revelation: Scripture. How we answer the question "Does God love everyone?" is informed by our theology. For those who insist that God loves everyone without question or qualification, and loves them savingly, meaning that He wills / wants / wishes / desires them to be saved and He does not hate anyone, we ask them to respond to the following passages, without dismissing them as though they do not belong in the Bible. Here is a small sample:
Someone will clap back at me: "Have you never read John 3:16?" Yes, I have read that passage since childhood, but have you never read John 3:19? Or John 1:11, 12, 13? Or John 6:35, 37, 39, 44, 45, 63, 64, 65, 70? John writes: "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world [John 1:4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; 8:12], [but] men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). Evil people refuse to come to the Light. How then can they be saved if they refuse to come to the Light? Out of the love and grace and mercy of God, He has predetermined to have a people for Himself (Lev. 20:7, 8, 24)--"Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine" (Lev. 20:26 NASB)--and these people are those God has graciously deemed to love savingly (Eph. 1:4, 5, 6)--those upon whom He was determined to set His love (Deut. 7:6, 7, 8, 9, 10). We did not want Him. He wanted us. We wanted sin and we wanted the Devil as our lord. But God was determined to save, to rescue, to snatch from the Devil's camp people for Himself. He came to love and save some of His enemies.
THAT IS NOT FAIR
Upon reading those words, some of you just threw up your hands in anger, and are ready to click away from this horrible post and the distorted theology I am presenting. You are convinced that, if God does not offer each and every single person in the world the opportunity to believe in Christ and potentially be saved, then God is not fair. Tell me, friend, where is this written in Scripture? Where in the Bible do you see that, in order for God to be considered fair and just, He must first make certain that every person receives the opportunity to be saved? I fear that it is your theology that is not fair. First, what is not fair is that Jesus would be murdered for crimes He did not commit, and to assume for Himself all of the wrath of God that was supposed to be ours. That is not fair! But He did so in obedience to His Father; and God the Father did so in order to save some people from the god of this world, Satan (2 Cor. 4:4, 5, 6), and to rescue them from His coming wrath (1 Thess. 1:9, 10; 5:9). "He who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:36 MEV).
Second, there have been entire generations of people scattered about the whole earth who have never, not even once, heard of the particular God of Israel (YHWH), never heard the Gospel or heard of Christ Jesus. What of those people? Is that fair? Do those pagans get the opportunity to believe in Him and be saved? How? When? Is it possible that some pagan Gentiles could have known about God because He revealed Himself to them by His grace? Yes. Job is a case in point. Had the Book of Job never been written then we would have never known not only about his life but about his relationship with the only true and living God (Jer. 10:10; John 17:3; 1 Thess. 1:9). For when pagan Gentiles who "do not have the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law, these, not having the Law, are a Law unto themselves, who show the work of the Law written in their hearts [cf. Jer. 31:33], their conscience also bearing witness, while their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them, in the day when, according to my Gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ" (Rom. 2:14-16 MEV). But the fact that God intervened, that God appeared to such people by His grace and effectually worked within them a regenerating faith, is a testament not to Free Will, nor to "fairness," but to God's sovereign grace and just character. God is just. Everyone receives from God justice or mercy. No one receives injustice.
Third, we act and think as though God owes every person "the opportunity to be saved," but this is just not so. This may be the niceness of the God of sentimental evangelicalism or of nominal liberalism but not the God of the Bible. We are responsible to God for our sins whether or not we understand that eternal truth. God recognizes intentional and unintentional sins from us sinners (Lev. 4:1, 2, 27, 28; 5:1, 2, 3, 4, 14, 15). But He also says: "Now if a person sins and does any of the things which the LORD has commanded not to be done, though he was unaware, still he is guilty and shall bear his punishment" (Lev. 5:17). Ignorance cannot save us from our sins. God has publicly declared every single person born into the world a disobedient sinner in order that "He may show mercy to all" (Rom. 11:32). Does this mean that all will be saved? No (John 3:36). Does this mean that all deserve a chance to be saved? No (Rom. 5:17, 18, 19). What we deserve is death in Hell forever (Rom. 1:32). I realize I just lost a bunch of "nice" evangelicals and universalist and pluralistic liberals who saw that statement, and you are even angry that I just pointed this out, but the statement is biblically true regardless of your sensitive heart. I get it. I really do. I have walked in your shoes for years.
THE LOVE OF GOD
If God had chosen to save only one person from sin, death and Hell, would that one act of His love be sufficient? Would we still be awed by His mercy and grace if only one person were to be saved? Is the standard of God's love and grace measured by how many souls He saves? Many of us, not all but many, will admit that God would still be considered gracious and loving had He only chosen to save one person from sin. But then we betray our answer when we think that God isn't being fair when millions of people all over the planet--who have either never heard of God or of Christ Jesus or His Gospel--still end up separated from Him for all eternity. What God owes us is justice, not mercy, not grace nor love. But out of His great love (Eph. 1:4, 5, 6), He has chosen to save some of His enemies by grace (Rom. 5:10), through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8).
The oddity of this debate regarding the love of God and salvation from sin and the wrath of God is that it is only argued among Christians. Non-believers are never arguing over these issues. Why? Because they don't care! They are in a love affair with their sin, with their own egos, with their greed and lust and position in the culture. They don't care about spiritual issues (1 Cor. 2:14). If you think you are defending the good people of this world then I have some astounding news for you: there are no good people in this world (Rom. 3:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18). All are chiefs of sinners! All are enemies of God (Rom. 5:10)! You are not the hero of the non-elect! Jesus is the only true Hero for this world. Allow me to caution you from defending unregenerate sinners who hate the God you claim to love! Defend Him, not them, and not yourself.
We cannot fully comprehend the unimaginable depth, height, length and breadth of the love of God toward us in Christ Jesus our Lord, Savior, Messiah and King (Eph. 3:18). God the Father loves us, His redeemed and adopted children, just as He loves God the Son, Jesus Christ, as Jesus Himself confesses in His prayer (John 17:23). What about others? God displays His general love for every sinner in the world by every breath he or she takes. In Him we all "live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28 ESV). God even displays love for sinners who will never love Him. In Christ Jesus every molecule in the entire universe is being held together--and that includes every molecule of our being (Col. 1:16, 17). Even though we have made God our enemy (Rom. 5:10) still He gives us food to eat and water to drink (Matt. 5:45). God is not obligated to save every single person in order to be viewed by us as loving. God is love (1 John 4:8). This means that God does not merely have love but is love.
Again, however, this eternal truth of God's loving nature does not force His hand to save every single person--nor does it even force His hand to "effectually offer" salvation to every single person, meaning, to make sure that every single person is freed from his or her sin in order to freely trust in Christ and be saved. When Jesus says, "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed" (John 3:36), He is not suggesting that He sets every person free from the bondage of sin in order for them to then freely trust in Him for salvation. Someone who is a slave of sin cannot free himself of his own bondage. But if the Son sets that person free from his bondage to sin then that man truly is free; and Jesus does set some people free from bondage to sin and these people are free indeed by grace through faith. If Jesus set every single person free from their bondage to sin then everyone would trust in Him and be saved. "Why, then" you ask, "does He not do so: why does not He not save every person?"
WHY GOD DOES NOT SAVE EVERYONE
This is a very specific question that has a very specific answer. Paul asks by way of answer: "What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath [unbelievers] prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy [believers], which He previously prepared for glory, even us, whom He has called" (Rom. 9:22-23 MEV). If God predestined every person for glory then all would be saved; and if God effectually called every person then every person would be saved; but He has not chosen to do so. When we reflectively consider our saved state, and the unsaved state of others, we should be so awestruck at God's grace toward us that we realize our salvation is an absolute miracle: we should stand in awe of a holy God who would deign to love us, to purchase our freedom not only from sin but from the bondage of the Devil himself, and to save us from His own wrath. This is great love!
But what about the love of God for the unsaved? Is there any love of God for the unsaved? We know from God's own revelation, Scripture, that He does not take any delight in the [eternal] death of the wicked (Ezek. 18:32; 33:11). If they would trust in Jesus then God would save them. In this sense, then, God is willing to save anyone and everyone! The Gospel is for everyone: "Trust in Jesus and save yourself from the wrath of God." But God still displays His general care and love of wicked sinners every day of life. God has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath [cf. Prov. 16:4], those who defy Him every moment of every day, those who are dead in their sins, separated from a right relationship with and a right relation to God (Isa. 59:2), those who live their lives "according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience," living "in the lusts of [their] flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind," who are "by nature children of wrath" (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3), God sustains their wicked lives every moment of every day because of His love.
Sinners who defy a holy, just and loving God, obstinate and wicked sinners who "did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer," being "filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;" and "although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them"; these people God gave over "to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper" (Rom. 1:28-32). But this very group of people is every single one of us. If God is to have a people for Himself (Deut. 7:6, 7, 8, 9, 10), a people redeemed from all this wickedness, then He must take people from this group--a group belonging to the devil and, so, He steals from his camp (2 Cor. 4:4, 5, 6)--and redeem them, save them, justify them by the blood of Jesus, call them to come unto Himself, sanctify them and keep them saved unto the end (Rom. 3:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,1 4, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31; 4:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; 5:1, 2, 12, 15, 18, 19; 8:28, 29, 30; Eph. 1:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; Phil. 1:29; 2:12, 13; 3:9, 10; Titus 3:4, 5; 1 Pet. 1:1, 2; 2 Pet. 1:1; James 1:18; Jude 1:24, 25).
Someone may morbidly wonder if God is just to steal from the Devi's camp and save / redeem whomever He elects. The answer is Yes, He is just, for all souls are His (Ezek. 18:4). He created each person ever to exist (Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7; 5:1, 2; 9:6; Deut. 4:32; Job 4:17; 10:8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 31:15; 33:4; 34:19; Ps. 8:3, 4, 5, 6; 89:47; 95:6; 100:3; 104:30; 119:73, 74; 138:8; 139:13-16; Eccl. 3:11; 12:7; Isa. 17:7; 42:5; 43:7; 44:24; 49:5; 64:8; Jer. 1:5; 27:5; Zech. 12:1; Mal. 2:10; Matt. 19:4; John 1:3; Acts 17:26, 27, 28; 1 Cor. 8:6; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; 3:10; Heb. 3:4; James 3:9; Rev. 4:11) and, therefore, He has the right as Creator to take back what the Devil stole from Him through sin. So, God demonstrates His love for the unsaved every day of their lives by providing for them, and sustaining their very existence while they defy Him constantly. But God demonstrates His particular love for those whom He deems His "elect" by saving them. "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly ... But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us ... For if, while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Rom. 5:6, 8, 10).
PERSPECTIVE IS KING
No offense to King Jesus but the statement is quite true in our world: Perspective is king. Dr. D.A. Carson recalls a time in our culture when we believed more so in the justice of God than the love of God. "In generations when almost everyone believed in the justice of God, people sometimes found it difficult to believe in the love of God. The preaching of the love of God came as wonderful good news. Nowadays [however] if you tell people that God loves them, they are unlikely to be surprised."1 What they find surprising now is the justice of God: that God sends people to Hell. The idea is outright offensive to some. Such people have forgotten that God is holy. I suggest those individuals read Leviticus to gain a proper perspective. Dr. Carson rightly concludes: "The result, of course, is that the love of God in our culture has been purged of anything the culture finds uncomfortable."2 Some think that God owes us His love; others that God owes us salvation; and, still, others that, since Jesus came and died, salvation is what He brought to everyone regardless of personal faith in Him. That is not the Gospel. Nor is that genuine love.
Love includes the notion of justice. God would be most unloving if He did not bring about justice. If God had declared everyone saved, because of what Jesus accomplished, then why would any of the New Testament writers mention Hell (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 21:8), separation from God and existence in a state of unredeemed unsavedness (John 3:36; 2 Thess. 1:9), and the coming wrath of God (Matt. 10:28; John 3:36; Rom. 2:5; 2 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 14:10)? When John says that God loved the world (John 3:16), the world is a general sense of all sinners, and he elsewhere qualifies the statement when including "the whole world" (1 John 2:1); and, yet, God Himself also confesses that He has chosen to save some out of the whole world (John 15:19; Col. 1:13; 1 Pet. 2:9, 10)--not all but some. I think some people have tragically equated the love of God for the salvation of everyone. The former does not give birth to the latter. There is a peculiar love of God reserved not for every person but for certain persons.
My parents loved my friends when I was a child. They would love, care and provide for my friends, but their love for me was peculiar. Again, Dr. Carson rightly states, "There has always been an other-orientation to the love of God. All the manifestations of the love of God emerge out of this deeper, more fundamental reality: love is bound up in the very nature of God. God is love."3 If my parents had told me and my brother that they love our friends in the exact same way that they love us then we would have found that statement a bit odd. More to the point, though, they did not behave that way--they did not display the same kind of familial love, care and provision, for our friends as they do for us. We belong to them. Their love for us is family-oriented. God loves His own adopted children in a way that He does not love the unsaved. God's providential love for all people differs from His saving / redeeming love for His children (John 1:11, 12, 13). We have His redemptive promises (Eph. 1:4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; 2 Pet. 1:1, 2, 3) and we share in His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). He is working His loving and divine purposes within us (Ps. 33:11; Prov. 19:21; Isa. 14:24; Acts 13:36; Rom. 8:29, 30; Eph. 2:10; 3:20; Phil. 1:6; 2:12, 13; 2 Tim. 1:9), not in all other people, but only us.
NOT WILLING FOR ANY TO PERISH
I once responded to a post like this: "Sure, how easy must writing a post like this be, given that you are saved. You are safe. God unconditionally elected you, you won the divine lottery, and He will keep you safe. But what about the rest of humanity?" Again, I understand, because this is exactly how I once felt. But such a response neglects at least three biblical truths: 1) God is just: He will either grant someone grace or justice--no one receives injustice; 2) sinners are guilty: we all deserve justice, not grace, not saving love; and 3) no sinner is neutral: some Christians have the mindset that sinners are just poor unfortunate people who deserve to be saved--or at least the opportunity to be saved. No one is neutral. Everyone is guilty. We are even worse than guilty: we are evil, not neutral and not "basically good," but evil (Rom. 3:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23). No one wants to be saved (1 Cor. 2:14). Think on that for a bit! No one wants to be saved. God is an interruption into the sinners' love for his own sin, his own sinful purposes, his own sinful desires. How is God to save sinners who don't want to be saved?
He does so by the power of His grace. "But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us." How? By our asking for it first? No. We don't want to be saved: "not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy." How? By our asking first for mercy? No. By His doing (1 Cor. 1:30): "by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4-7 NASB). Here is how God saves a sinner who does not want to be saved: He does so by His kindness, His love and mercy, by the regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. He saves us by regenerating us. If He did this for every single person in the world then every single person in the world would be saved. So, God is at least willing that some perish, even the greater part of humanity (cf. the "few" and "many" statements of Jesus at Matthew 7:13, 14). If so then what does Peter mean that God is not willing for you / any / all to perish?
Peter addresses the objects of this letter: "to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness [or justice] of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:1); and these people who have been gifted faith in Jesus have also been gifted "everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence" according to His own "divine power" (2 Pet. 1:3); this gift includes God's "precious and magnificent promises," by which we "become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust" (2 Pet. 1:4). Peter wants us to build and develop our gifted faith (2 Pet. 1:5-9) so that we can be all the more diligent to make certain about God's calling and electing us for salvation (2 Pet. 1:10). So he wants us to always remember these truths (2 Pet. 1:12-15) so that we cling tightly to the Testimony of the Glory of Christ and the unfailing Word of God (2 Pet. 1:16-21). He warns us about the future appearing of false teachers in our midst (2 Pet. 2:1-22) while assuring us of God's protection of His redeemed children (2 Pet. 2:9).
Then Peter reminds us of the End Times, when mockers will come, mocking the Faith and the Second Coming of Christ for His own (2 Pet. 3:1-7). When they complain that so much time has passed, and Jesus has still not returned, Peter reminds us that God does not view time the way we do: "with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day" (2 Pet. 3:8). Keep in focus Peter's audience: believers. He keeps reminding us who believe not to listen to mockers in the Last Days, for, the Lord "is not slow about His promise" to return, as some understand the length of time from when He promised to return and His fulfilling that promise in His actual return, but He is being "patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9). If the you / any / all referred to here is everybody in general, meaning the entire world of unregenerate sinners, then Jesus will never return because there will always be sinners who have not yet been saved. So that interpretation is poor at best. But so is the notion that you / any / all refers to regenerate believers: they are already saved!
Paul says to the Christians in Rome, made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers (but perhaps predominantly Gentile), that a partial, spiritual hardening has come upon most of the Jewish people of that day, even to our day (2 Cor. 3:12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18), until "the full number of the Gentiles has come in" (Rom. 11:25). Given that Peter's audience in his first letter is Gentile (1 Pet. 1:1), we can appropriately assume his second letter is also, and the you / any / all can certainly refer to you / any / all Gentiles--Gentiles whom God has unconditionally elected by His own eternal foreordination (cf. 1 Pet. 1:20) for salvation "in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood" (1 Pet. 1:2 ESV). Is there a sense in which God wishes every sinner could be saved? He has already confessed that He takes no pleasure in the eternal death of any sinner (Ezek. 18:23; 33:11). Given that Peter mentions Paul's letters in this letter (2 Pet. 3:15-16), and that he is writing to a Gentile church, Peter could have the same notion in mind: that there is a fixed number of Gentiles who are elected by God for salvation and that the delay of Jesus' return includes, among other truths, that the you / any / all of the Gentile elect have not yet come in / been redeemed.
We can apply this same interpretive principle to Paul's letter to Timothy: "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all [people] to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:3-4 NASB). Paul calls for us who trust in Christ to pray on behalf of all people, qualifying the statement, "for kings and all who are in authority" (1 Tim. 2:1, 2). He certainly cannot mean to pray only for all Christian people, all Christian kings, or all Christians who are in authority. The general "all" here is universal. We are to do so in order to "lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity" (1 Tim. 2:2 NASB). For this is "good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior" (1 Tim. 2:3). We quickly return to the "all" category: God our Savior "desires all ... to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). If God, strictly, decreed / foreordained that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth then we would maintain a serious contradiction in Scripture. But God has not decreed / foreordained that all people be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth even if He desires such.
I have no issue with saying that, in some sense, God genuinely wishes that all sinners would trust in Christ and come to the knowledge of the truth; even though He Himself knows full well the impossibility of such a state because of the fallen and sinful state of humanity in bondage to sin and to the Devil (2 Cor. 4:4, 5, 6). Yet He is determined to save a people for Himself. But how? Even the Gospel Message itself is deemed as foolishness to those who are perishing: but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). The Gospel of Grace is the power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16, 17). But to whom? To the believer (1 Cor. 1:21). Jesus is a stumbling block to Jewish people and utter foolishness to Gentiles (1 Cor. 1:23). Who, then, can be saved? Paul answers: "but to those who are the called, [those who are the called among] both Jews and Gentiles, Christ [is] the power of God [for Jews seek signs of miracles and power] and the wisdom of God [for Gentiles seek philosophical wisdom]" (1 Cor. 1:24). God chooses / elects whom He will save (1 Cor. 1:26, 27, 28, 29). "It is because of Him," God the Father, "that you [who believe] are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30 NIV).
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1 D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2000), 11.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., 39.
In Spring of 2022, I cared nothing for agendas, but only wanted the truth--no matter what that truth looked like or how it made me feel. From Calvin to Arminius, Pelagius to Augustine, from so-called Postmillennial Christian Nationalists to the Renegade Jesus of the Center / Left, I shut off all involved in the various hot-button discussions. I opened my Bible and wanted Christ to speak. I was frustrated and weary of agendas; I was exhausted by cultural and theological wars from religious-political zealots or one-trick-pony armchair theologians; I had had enough of genuine believers taking to their respective corners to argue and fight to the death regarding the latest interpretation that contradicted theirs. However, I am not naïve, either, and I know that I bring presuppositions to a reading of the inspired Text like everyone else, as is unavoidable. I may not convince you with what I believe the Word to be teaching on this subject. But this is how I see the inerrant passages of God's Word.
WORD OF GOD SPEAK
The award-winning song Word of God Speak by Mercy Me, which spent twenty-three weeks at the Number One position on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart, is my favorite song they sing, to the shock of those so enamored with their song, I Can Only Imagine (by the by, I also highly appreciate their song, Even If). Imagine is a truly great song, yes, but when a pop song can evoke a passion within the believer toward the Voice of God in His Word then that, I think, is quite an accomplishment! The apostle Paul writes to believers in Thessalonica: "For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe" (1 Thess. 2:13 NASB). The inerrant and unfailing Word of God is alive, active, and "sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16 ESV).
The apostle Peter attests to these truths when he writes: For we did not follow cleverly devised tales, when we made known to you the power
and [the first] coming [appearance] of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty [Luke 9:28-36]. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, 'This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased'--and we ourselves heard this utterance made from Heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic Word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" (2 Pet. 1:16-21 NASB).In my opinion, Peter, as well as Paul, holds to a high view of Scripture as the unerring Word of God because Jesus holds to the same. Jesus' view of Scripture, from His own lips to the effect that Scripture "cannot be broken" (John 10:35), is that God's Word cannot err because its Author cannot err: "Jesus' argument," as we find in the NET Bible study note, "depended on the exact word used in the context of Psalm 82:6. If any other word for 'judge' had been used in the Psalm, His argument would have been meaningless. Since the scriptures do use this word in Psalm 82:6, the argument is binding, because they [the scriptures] cannot be 'broken' in the sense of being shown to be in error." If Jesus views God's Word as inerrant, Peter (2 Pet. 1:16-21) and Paul (1 Thes. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:16 ESV) overtly echoing the same view, then we should think likewise.
DOES GOD LOVE EVERYONE?
So, if we are to answer any theological or philosophical question, then we must turn to our one and only source of revelation: Scripture. How we answer the question "Does God love everyone?" is informed by our theology. For those who insist that God loves everyone without question or qualification, and loves them savingly, meaning that He wills / wants / wishes / desires them to be saved and He does not hate anyone, we ask them to respond to the following passages, without dismissing them as though they do not belong in the Bible. Here is a small sample:
- For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity (Ps. 5:4-5 NKJV)--notice the Text does not say that God hates the iniquity but He hates the individual who works iniquity;
- God is a just judge and God is angry with the wicked every day (Ps. 7:11 NKJV)--notice the Text does not say that God is angry with wickedness, in an abstract sense, but daily angry with the human beings who are wicked or who commit evil and commit acts of wickedness every single day;
- The LORD tests the righteous but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates (Ps. 11:5 NKJV);--notice the Text does not say that God's soul hates wickedness and violence but the actual people who work wickedness and with those who love and bring about violence; God is laser-focused on the human beings who sin, commit wickedness and violence, not merely on the abstract notion of sin, wickedness, and violence.
- For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity [bringing about judgment] of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me; but showing mercy to thousands [of] those who love Me and keep My commandments (Exod. 20:5-6 NKJV);
- You [the Jewish people] are therefore to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them ... Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I shall drive out before you, for they did all these [evil] things, and therefore I have abhorred them (Lev. 20:22, 23).
Someone will clap back at me: "Have you never read John 3:16?" Yes, I have read that passage since childhood, but have you never read John 3:19? Or John 1:11, 12, 13? Or John 6:35, 37, 39, 44, 45, 63, 64, 65, 70? John writes: "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world [John 1:4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; 8:12], [but] men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). Evil people refuse to come to the Light. How then can they be saved if they refuse to come to the Light? Out of the love and grace and mercy of God, He has predetermined to have a people for Himself (Lev. 20:7, 8, 24)--"Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine" (Lev. 20:26 NASB)--and these people are those God has graciously deemed to love savingly (Eph. 1:4, 5, 6)--those upon whom He was determined to set His love (Deut. 7:6, 7, 8, 9, 10). We did not want Him. He wanted us. We wanted sin and we wanted the Devil as our lord. But God was determined to save, to rescue, to snatch from the Devil's camp people for Himself. He came to love and save some of His enemies.
THAT IS NOT FAIR
Upon reading those words, some of you just threw up your hands in anger, and are ready to click away from this horrible post and the distorted theology I am presenting. You are convinced that, if God does not offer each and every single person in the world the opportunity to believe in Christ and potentially be saved, then God is not fair. Tell me, friend, where is this written in Scripture? Where in the Bible do you see that, in order for God to be considered fair and just, He must first make certain that every person receives the opportunity to be saved? I fear that it is your theology that is not fair. First, what is not fair is that Jesus would be murdered for crimes He did not commit, and to assume for Himself all of the wrath of God that was supposed to be ours. That is not fair! But He did so in obedience to His Father; and God the Father did so in order to save some people from the god of this world, Satan (2 Cor. 4:4, 5, 6), and to rescue them from His coming wrath (1 Thess. 1:9, 10; 5:9). "He who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:36 MEV).
Second, there have been entire generations of people scattered about the whole earth who have never, not even once, heard of the particular God of Israel (YHWH), never heard the Gospel or heard of Christ Jesus. What of those people? Is that fair? Do those pagans get the opportunity to believe in Him and be saved? How? When? Is it possible that some pagan Gentiles could have known about God because He revealed Himself to them by His grace? Yes. Job is a case in point. Had the Book of Job never been written then we would have never known not only about his life but about his relationship with the only true and living God (Jer. 10:10; John 17:3; 1 Thess. 1:9). For when pagan Gentiles who "do not have the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law, these, not having the Law, are a Law unto themselves, who show the work of the Law written in their hearts [cf. Jer. 31:33], their conscience also bearing witness, while their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them, in the day when, according to my Gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ" (Rom. 2:14-16 MEV). But the fact that God intervened, that God appeared to such people by His grace and effectually worked within them a regenerating faith, is a testament not to Free Will, nor to "fairness," but to God's sovereign grace and just character. God is just. Everyone receives from God justice or mercy. No one receives injustice.
Third, we act and think as though God owes every person "the opportunity to be saved," but this is just not so. This may be the niceness of the God of sentimental evangelicalism or of nominal liberalism but not the God of the Bible. We are responsible to God for our sins whether or not we understand that eternal truth. God recognizes intentional and unintentional sins from us sinners (Lev. 4:1, 2, 27, 28; 5:1, 2, 3, 4, 14, 15). But He also says: "Now if a person sins and does any of the things which the LORD has commanded not to be done, though he was unaware, still he is guilty and shall bear his punishment" (Lev. 5:17). Ignorance cannot save us from our sins. God has publicly declared every single person born into the world a disobedient sinner in order that "He may show mercy to all" (Rom. 11:32). Does this mean that all will be saved? No (John 3:36). Does this mean that all deserve a chance to be saved? No (Rom. 5:17, 18, 19). What we deserve is death in Hell forever (Rom. 1:32). I realize I just lost a bunch of "nice" evangelicals and universalist and pluralistic liberals who saw that statement, and you are even angry that I just pointed this out, but the statement is biblically true regardless of your sensitive heart. I get it. I really do. I have walked in your shoes for years.
THE LOVE OF GOD
If God had chosen to save only one person from sin, death and Hell, would that one act of His love be sufficient? Would we still be awed by His mercy and grace if only one person were to be saved? Is the standard of God's love and grace measured by how many souls He saves? Many of us, not all but many, will admit that God would still be considered gracious and loving had He only chosen to save one person from sin. But then we betray our answer when we think that God isn't being fair when millions of people all over the planet--who have either never heard of God or of Christ Jesus or His Gospel--still end up separated from Him for all eternity. What God owes us is justice, not mercy, not grace nor love. But out of His great love (Eph. 1:4, 5, 6), He has chosen to save some of His enemies by grace (Rom. 5:10), through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8).
The oddity of this debate regarding the love of God and salvation from sin and the wrath of God is that it is only argued among Christians. Non-believers are never arguing over these issues. Why? Because they don't care! They are in a love affair with their sin, with their own egos, with their greed and lust and position in the culture. They don't care about spiritual issues (1 Cor. 2:14). If you think you are defending the good people of this world then I have some astounding news for you: there are no good people in this world (Rom. 3:10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18). All are chiefs of sinners! All are enemies of God (Rom. 5:10)! You are not the hero of the non-elect! Jesus is the only true Hero for this world. Allow me to caution you from defending unregenerate sinners who hate the God you claim to love! Defend Him, not them, and not yourself.
We cannot fully comprehend the unimaginable depth, height, length and breadth of the love of God toward us in Christ Jesus our Lord, Savior, Messiah and King (Eph. 3:18). God the Father loves us, His redeemed and adopted children, just as He loves God the Son, Jesus Christ, as Jesus Himself confesses in His prayer (John 17:23). What about others? God displays His general love for every sinner in the world by every breath he or she takes. In Him we all "live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28 ESV). God even displays love for sinners who will never love Him. In Christ Jesus every molecule in the entire universe is being held together--and that includes every molecule of our being (Col. 1:16, 17). Even though we have made God our enemy (Rom. 5:10) still He gives us food to eat and water to drink (Matt. 5:45). God is not obligated to save every single person in order to be viewed by us as loving. God is love (1 John 4:8). This means that God does not merely have love but is love.
Again, however, this eternal truth of God's loving nature does not force His hand to save every single person--nor does it even force His hand to "effectually offer" salvation to every single person, meaning, to make sure that every single person is freed from his or her sin in order to freely trust in Christ and be saved. When Jesus says, "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed" (John 3:36), He is not suggesting that He sets every person free from the bondage of sin in order for them to then freely trust in Him for salvation. Someone who is a slave of sin cannot free himself of his own bondage. But if the Son sets that person free from his bondage to sin then that man truly is free; and Jesus does set some people free from bondage to sin and these people are free indeed by grace through faith. If Jesus set every single person free from their bondage to sin then everyone would trust in Him and be saved. "Why, then" you ask, "does He not do so: why does not He not save every person?"
WHY GOD DOES NOT SAVE EVERYONE
This is a very specific question that has a very specific answer. Paul asks by way of answer: "What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath [unbelievers] prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy [believers], which He previously prepared for glory, even us, whom He has called" (Rom. 9:22-23 MEV). If God predestined every person for glory then all would be saved; and if God effectually called every person then every person would be saved; but He has not chosen to do so. When we reflectively consider our saved state, and the unsaved state of others, we should be so awestruck at God's grace toward us that we realize our salvation is an absolute miracle: we should stand in awe of a holy God who would deign to love us, to purchase our freedom not only from sin but from the bondage of the Devil himself, and to save us from His own wrath. This is great love!
But what about the love of God for the unsaved? Is there any love of God for the unsaved? We know from God's own revelation, Scripture, that He does not take any delight in the [eternal] death of the wicked (Ezek. 18:32; 33:11). If they would trust in Jesus then God would save them. In this sense, then, God is willing to save anyone and everyone! The Gospel is for everyone: "Trust in Jesus and save yourself from the wrath of God." But God still displays His general care and love of wicked sinners every day of life. God has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath [cf. Prov. 16:4], those who defy Him every moment of every day, those who are dead in their sins, separated from a right relationship with and a right relation to God (Isa. 59:2), those who live their lives "according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience," living "in the lusts of [their] flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind," who are "by nature children of wrath" (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3), God sustains their wicked lives every moment of every day because of His love.
Sinners who defy a holy, just and loving God, obstinate and wicked sinners who "did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer," being "filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;" and "although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them"; these people God gave over "to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper" (Rom. 1:28-32). But this very group of people is every single one of us. If God is to have a people for Himself (Deut. 7:6, 7, 8, 9, 10), a people redeemed from all this wickedness, then He must take people from this group--a group belonging to the devil and, so, He steals from his camp (2 Cor. 4:4, 5, 6)--and redeem them, save them, justify them by the blood of Jesus, call them to come unto Himself, sanctify them and keep them saved unto the end (Rom. 3:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,1 4, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31; 4:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; 5:1, 2, 12, 15, 18, 19; 8:28, 29, 30; Eph. 1:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; Phil. 1:29; 2:12, 13; 3:9, 10; Titus 3:4, 5; 1 Pet. 1:1, 2; 2 Pet. 1:1; James 1:18; Jude 1:24, 25).
Someone may morbidly wonder if God is just to steal from the Devi's camp and save / redeem whomever He elects. The answer is Yes, He is just, for all souls are His (Ezek. 18:4). He created each person ever to exist (Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7; 5:1, 2; 9:6; Deut. 4:32; Job 4:17; 10:8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 31:15; 33:4; 34:19; Ps. 8:3, 4, 5, 6; 89:47; 95:6; 100:3; 104:30; 119:73, 74; 138:8; 139:13-16; Eccl. 3:11; 12:7; Isa. 17:7; 42:5; 43:7; 44:24; 49:5; 64:8; Jer. 1:5; 27:5; Zech. 12:1; Mal. 2:10; Matt. 19:4; John 1:3; Acts 17:26, 27, 28; 1 Cor. 8:6; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; 3:10; Heb. 3:4; James 3:9; Rev. 4:11) and, therefore, He has the right as Creator to take back what the Devil stole from Him through sin. So, God demonstrates His love for the unsaved every day of their lives by providing for them, and sustaining their very existence while they defy Him constantly. But God demonstrates His particular love for those whom He deems His "elect" by saving them. "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly ... But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us ... For if, while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Rom. 5:6, 8, 10).
PERSPECTIVE IS KING
No offense to King Jesus but the statement is quite true in our world: Perspective is king. Dr. D.A. Carson recalls a time in our culture when we believed more so in the justice of God than the love of God. "In generations when almost everyone believed in the justice of God, people sometimes found it difficult to believe in the love of God. The preaching of the love of God came as wonderful good news. Nowadays [however] if you tell people that God loves them, they are unlikely to be surprised."1 What they find surprising now is the justice of God: that God sends people to Hell. The idea is outright offensive to some. Such people have forgotten that God is holy. I suggest those individuals read Leviticus to gain a proper perspective. Dr. Carson rightly concludes: "The result, of course, is that the love of God in our culture has been purged of anything the culture finds uncomfortable."2 Some think that God owes us His love; others that God owes us salvation; and, still, others that, since Jesus came and died, salvation is what He brought to everyone regardless of personal faith in Him. That is not the Gospel. Nor is that genuine love.
Love includes the notion of justice. God would be most unloving if He did not bring about justice. If God had declared everyone saved, because of what Jesus accomplished, then why would any of the New Testament writers mention Hell (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 21:8), separation from God and existence in a state of unredeemed unsavedness (John 3:36; 2 Thess. 1:9), and the coming wrath of God (Matt. 10:28; John 3:36; Rom. 2:5; 2 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 14:10)? When John says that God loved the world (John 3:16), the world is a general sense of all sinners, and he elsewhere qualifies the statement when including "the whole world" (1 John 2:1); and, yet, God Himself also confesses that He has chosen to save some out of the whole world (John 15:19; Col. 1:13; 1 Pet. 2:9, 10)--not all but some. I think some people have tragically equated the love of God for the salvation of everyone. The former does not give birth to the latter. There is a peculiar love of God reserved not for every person but for certain persons.
My parents loved my friends when I was a child. They would love, care and provide for my friends, but their love for me was peculiar. Again, Dr. Carson rightly states, "There has always been an other-orientation to the love of God. All the manifestations of the love of God emerge out of this deeper, more fundamental reality: love is bound up in the very nature of God. God is love."3 If my parents had told me and my brother that they love our friends in the exact same way that they love us then we would have found that statement a bit odd. More to the point, though, they did not behave that way--they did not display the same kind of familial love, care and provision, for our friends as they do for us. We belong to them. Their love for us is family-oriented. God loves His own adopted children in a way that He does not love the unsaved. God's providential love for all people differs from His saving / redeeming love for His children (John 1:11, 12, 13). We have His redemptive promises (Eph. 1:4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; 2 Pet. 1:1, 2, 3) and we share in His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). He is working His loving and divine purposes within us (Ps. 33:11; Prov. 19:21; Isa. 14:24; Acts 13:36; Rom. 8:29, 30; Eph. 2:10; 3:20; Phil. 1:6; 2:12, 13; 2 Tim. 1:9), not in all other people, but only us.
NOT WILLING FOR ANY TO PERISH
I once responded to a post like this: "Sure, how easy must writing a post like this be, given that you are saved. You are safe. God unconditionally elected you, you won the divine lottery, and He will keep you safe. But what about the rest of humanity?" Again, I understand, because this is exactly how I once felt. But such a response neglects at least three biblical truths: 1) God is just: He will either grant someone grace or justice--no one receives injustice; 2) sinners are guilty: we all deserve justice, not grace, not saving love; and 3) no sinner is neutral: some Christians have the mindset that sinners are just poor unfortunate people who deserve to be saved--or at least the opportunity to be saved. No one is neutral. Everyone is guilty. We are even worse than guilty: we are evil, not neutral and not "basically good," but evil (Rom. 3:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23). No one wants to be saved (1 Cor. 2:14). Think on that for a bit! No one wants to be saved. God is an interruption into the sinners' love for his own sin, his own sinful purposes, his own sinful desires. How is God to save sinners who don't want to be saved?
He does so by the power of His grace. "But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us." How? By our asking for it first? No. We don't want to be saved: "not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy." How? By our asking first for mercy? No. By His doing (1 Cor. 1:30): "by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4-7 NASB). Here is how God saves a sinner who does not want to be saved: He does so by His kindness, His love and mercy, by the regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. He saves us by regenerating us. If He did this for every single person in the world then every single person in the world would be saved. So, God is at least willing that some perish, even the greater part of humanity (cf. the "few" and "many" statements of Jesus at Matthew 7:13, 14). If so then what does Peter mean that God is not willing for you / any / all to perish?
Peter addresses the objects of this letter: "to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness [or justice] of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:1); and these people who have been gifted faith in Jesus have also been gifted "everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence" according to His own "divine power" (2 Pet. 1:3); this gift includes God's "precious and magnificent promises," by which we "become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust" (2 Pet. 1:4). Peter wants us to build and develop our gifted faith (2 Pet. 1:5-9) so that we can be all the more diligent to make certain about God's calling and electing us for salvation (2 Pet. 1:10). So he wants us to always remember these truths (2 Pet. 1:12-15) so that we cling tightly to the Testimony of the Glory of Christ and the unfailing Word of God (2 Pet. 1:16-21). He warns us about the future appearing of false teachers in our midst (2 Pet. 2:1-22) while assuring us of God's protection of His redeemed children (2 Pet. 2:9).
Then Peter reminds us of the End Times, when mockers will come, mocking the Faith and the Second Coming of Christ for His own (2 Pet. 3:1-7). When they complain that so much time has passed, and Jesus has still not returned, Peter reminds us that God does not view time the way we do: "with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day" (2 Pet. 3:8). Keep in focus Peter's audience: believers. He keeps reminding us who believe not to listen to mockers in the Last Days, for, the Lord "is not slow about His promise" to return, as some understand the length of time from when He promised to return and His fulfilling that promise in His actual return, but He is being "patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9). If the you / any / all referred to here is everybody in general, meaning the entire world of unregenerate sinners, then Jesus will never return because there will always be sinners who have not yet been saved. So that interpretation is poor at best. But so is the notion that you / any / all refers to regenerate believers: they are already saved!
Paul says to the Christians in Rome, made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers (but perhaps predominantly Gentile), that a partial, spiritual hardening has come upon most of the Jewish people of that day, even to our day (2 Cor. 3:12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18), until "the full number of the Gentiles has come in" (Rom. 11:25). Given that Peter's audience in his first letter is Gentile (1 Pet. 1:1), we can appropriately assume his second letter is also, and the you / any / all can certainly refer to you / any / all Gentiles--Gentiles whom God has unconditionally elected by His own eternal foreordination (cf. 1 Pet. 1:20) for salvation "in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood" (1 Pet. 1:2 ESV). Is there a sense in which God wishes every sinner could be saved? He has already confessed that He takes no pleasure in the eternal death of any sinner (Ezek. 18:23; 33:11). Given that Peter mentions Paul's letters in this letter (2 Pet. 3:15-16), and that he is writing to a Gentile church, Peter could have the same notion in mind: that there is a fixed number of Gentiles who are elected by God for salvation and that the delay of Jesus' return includes, among other truths, that the you / any / all of the Gentile elect have not yet come in / been redeemed.
We can apply this same interpretive principle to Paul's letter to Timothy: "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all [people] to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:3-4 NASB). Paul calls for us who trust in Christ to pray on behalf of all people, qualifying the statement, "for kings and all who are in authority" (1 Tim. 2:1, 2). He certainly cannot mean to pray only for all Christian people, all Christian kings, or all Christians who are in authority. The general "all" here is universal. We are to do so in order to "lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity" (1 Tim. 2:2 NASB). For this is "good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior" (1 Tim. 2:3). We quickly return to the "all" category: God our Savior "desires all ... to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). If God, strictly, decreed / foreordained that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth then we would maintain a serious contradiction in Scripture. But God has not decreed / foreordained that all people be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth even if He desires such.
I have no issue with saying that, in some sense, God genuinely wishes that all sinners would trust in Christ and come to the knowledge of the truth; even though He Himself knows full well the impossibility of such a state because of the fallen and sinful state of humanity in bondage to sin and to the Devil (2 Cor. 4:4, 5, 6). Yet He is determined to save a people for Himself. But how? Even the Gospel Message itself is deemed as foolishness to those who are perishing: but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). The Gospel of Grace is the power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16, 17). But to whom? To the believer (1 Cor. 1:21). Jesus is a stumbling block to Jewish people and utter foolishness to Gentiles (1 Cor. 1:23). Who, then, can be saved? Paul answers: "but to those who are the called, [those who are the called among] both Jews and Gentiles, Christ [is] the power of God [for Jews seek signs of miracles and power] and the wisdom of God [for Gentiles seek philosophical wisdom]" (1 Cor. 1:24). God chooses / elects whom He will save (1 Cor. 1:26, 27, 28, 29). "It is because of Him," God the Father, "that you [who believe] are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30 NIV).
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1 D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2000), 11.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., 39.
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