“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). Is Peter here saying that God wants every last person saved? To try to make the verse say that is to ignore its context in the rest of the letter. Peter is talking to believers, not unbelievers, and is wanting them to come to a change of mind, “metanoia”. This is a continuation of what he says in 1:5, and the rest of the book flowing after it. In short, Peter doesn’t mean here initial repentance, as we mean in our systematic theologies, but rather the complete renovation of mind that occurs over the course of a person’s life and only ends when his life is over. And he is saying God desires this for those already on the path of salvation, that is, Christians.
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