“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.” — 2 Peter 3:9
Three things strike me about this verse. First, that “the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness…”. God’s timeline is much different than our own. This is evident in many places in the Scriptures.
The Israelites waited 400 years (10 generations) for deliverance from Egypt, probably wondering if God would ever fulfill his promise to Abraham. Then, all the sudden, God sends Moses and the time to go is now. Even after 400 years, the opportune time was so crucial that they didn’t even have time to let the bread rise or take the shoes off their feet!
During Paul’s life-time the church believed that Christ would return within their own lifetime and here we are, 2000+ years later, still awaiting the 2nd coming and the final fulfillment of the Kingdom of God.
The mystery of God’s timing is further accentuated by the the countless cases of individuals who have (wrongly) predicted the date of the second coming.
Also, Mary approached Jesus at the wedding of Cana with a request to do something about the shortage of wine. Jesus responds by telling her that his time has yet to come.
Example after example demonstrates that God’s timing is different than our own. This does not mean, however, that God is just up there doing what he pleases. We do, in fact, have a say in the matter. Thus it is the nature of the image of God in humanity.
We see this as Peter points out that God’s timing does correspond with human affairs. This the second thing that strikes me about this verse. Peter says, “…but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish…” (emphasis added). Peter seems to be implying that the fulfillment of God’s promise is at least partially determined by the repentance of believers and the ministerial activity of His church.
Often times, even though God’s timing is a mystery, his timing is simultaneously shaped by where we are in carrying out the work of the Kingdom.
The third thing that strikes me about this verse is the God wishes “that all should reach repentance”. What strikes me about this is that even though it is God’s will for all to be saved Jesus teaches that the gate to salvation is narrow. Jesus says in Matthew 7:13, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the destruction, and many enter through it.”
How can this be? God wills for all to be saved but it will not be many who will, in fact, reach salvation. This clearly implies that God’s will for human free will trumps his will for all to be saved. In other words, God would rather have people choose him than force them like a Tyrant into His Kingdom. God is not a Tyrant, He is a “let there be” God.
You’ll notice that this verse underlines the high view of humanity and human free will in particular in the context of salvation. First off, God’s timing is largely dependent on how human affairs on earth are shaping up. It’s crucial that we get a grasp on the fact that God created the earth to be governed by humanity in the image of God (Genesis 1:28). This means that human decisions carry a large degree of weight both in the spiritual and physical realms. What we do and decide makes a difference! Human choices shape the course of events in the world (as is evident in Genesis 3).
Second, there are no shotgun weddings in heaven. I’m using the nuptial metaphor for salvation here because this metaphor highlights the role of human free will in the love relationship that is salvation (for the nuptial metaphor of salvation see Rev 19:6–9). Even though God wills for all to be saved, he wills even more for people to choose Him.
Let me finish with these excerpts from our friend C.S. Lewis:
“When we are praying about the result, say, of a battle or a medical consultation the thought will often cross our minds that (if only we knew it) the event is already decided one way or the other. I believe this to be no good reason for ceasing our prayers. The event certainly has been decided—in a sense it was decided ‘before all worlds’. But one of the things taken into account in deciding it, and therefore one of the things that really cause it to happen, may be this very prayer that we are now offering.” — Miracles
“We must not picture destiny as a film unrolling for the most part on its own, but in which our prayers are sometimes allowed to insert additional items. On the contrary; what the film displays to us as it unrolls already contains the results of our prayers and of all of our other acts.” — Miracles.
