JEFF TURNER

Second Peter 3:9 says that God is not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance, and on the surface that verse seems to create a tension with the idea that God is all-powerful and always accomplishes what he wills. If God wants everyone to be saved and he has the power to make it happen, why is not everyone saved? The answer lies in paying close attention to who Peter is actually addressing in that passage.

Peter is writing to believers, referring to them as “beloved” in the verses surrounding that statement. When he says God is not willing for any to perish, the “any” and “all” he refers to are the same people he has been calling “us” throughout the passage. He is saying that God will not allow any of his people to be lost. Every person he has set his love on will come to repentance.

Isn’t this a promise that God will bring all of his elect safely home?

Everything that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I certainly will not cast out.

John 6:37