He is not willing II Peter 3.9 (Santamaria)

Second Peter 3:9 is one of those verses that people love to rip out of its habitat, stick under a microscope, and then announce, “Aha! I have discovered the author’s worldview.” But Peter didn’t write a fortune cookie. He wrote a pastoral warning to “beloved” saints living under scoffers, delay-anxiety, and the temptation to reinterpret God’s promises based on the clock.

Here’s the verse in Greek (one mainstream form), with a straightforward translation:

“Οὐ βραδύνει κύριος τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, ὥς τινες βραδύτητα ἡγοῦνται, ἀλλὰ μακροθυμεῖ εἰς ὑμᾶς, μὴ βουλόμενός τινας ἀπολέσθαι ἀλλὰ πάντας εἰς μετάνοιαν χωρῆσαι.” (Bible Hub)

“The Lord is not slow concerning the promise, as some consider slowness, but is longsuffering toward you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Right away, notice what the verse is actually about: not “the extent of the atonement” in the abstract, but the supposed “delay” of the Lord’s coming and judgment. Peter’s argument is: what scoffers call “slowness” is actually mercy and patience within God’s timetable.

Context is king here. The chapter opens by reminding the saints to remember prophetic and apostolic words (3:1–2). Then Peter says scoffers will arise saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (3:3–4). Peter answers by pointing backward to creation and the flood (3:5–6): the world has already experienced catastrophic judgment once, and those mockers are conveniently forgetting it. Then he points forward: the present heavens and earth are “stored up for fire” for the day of judgment (3:7). And then comes 3:8–9: God’s time scale is not ours; His “delay” is purposeful; His patience has an aim.

So 3:9 is not a free-floating universal statement. It is the moral explanation for why judgment has not fallen yet.

Now for the fun part: the Greek is doing more work than many English readers realize.

Peter says, “The Lord is not βραδύνει” (not delaying, not being slow). The issue is not whether God is able or whether He forgot. It’s timing. And he says the “promise” is not slow, as some ἡγοῦνται” (regard, consider) slowness. In other words, the problem is interpretation. Scoffers look at the calendar and judge God. Peter says the calendar is not the judge.

Then comes the key verb: “but He is μακροθυμεῖ.” That word is not mild. It’s “longsuffering,” “patient endurance,” the kind of patient restraint that can carry insult without snapping. It describes God holding back judgment that would be righteous to unleash immediately.

And then Peter adds the directional phrase that everybody argues about: “longsuffering εἰς ὑμᾶς” (“toward you”). (Bible Hub)

Here’s an important textual note: some Greek textual traditions read εἰς ἡμᾶς (“toward us”) instead of “toward you,” and some presentations show other minor variants (even a “for your sake” type rendering in some traditions). (Bible Hub) But whether the pronoun is “you” or “us,” the point stays local: Peter is speaking about the audience of the letter, the “beloved” he repeatedly addresses in this chapter (3:1, 3:8, 3:14, 3:17). The patience is described in relation to them, not in the abstract as a generalized divine attitude floating over all humanity without distinction.

That phrase “toward you” is a giant interpretive signpost for an Old School Baptist reading. It means the “any” and “all” in the next clause have to be read with their antecedent in mind.

Now look at the next phrase: “μὴ βουλόμενός τινας ἀπολέσθαι”—“not willing (or not intending) that any should perish.” The participle βουλόμενος comes from βούλομαι, a verb of willing that can mean desire, intention, resolve, or purpose. It is not automatically the same as God’s eternal decree in every context; it can express will in different senses depending on what God is doing in the passage. Here it is linked to His longsuffering: His patience is operating in harmony with His will that “any” not perish.

Then: “ἀλλὰ πάντας εἰς μετάνοιαν χωρῆσαι”—“but all to come to repentance.” The verb χωρῆσαι (from χωρέω) has the sense of making room, reaching a place, coming to, entering into. So Peter is not describing a casual wish. He is describing an outcome that God’s patience is securing: “all” reaching repentance.

Now the theological pressure point: who are “any” and “all”?

Many people hear, “not willing that any should perish… but that all should come to repentance,” and assume it means every human individual without exception. But that reading immediately collides with other things Scripture teaches just as explicitly: God’s electing purpose (Eph. 1), Christ laying down His life for His sheep (John 10), the reality of final judgment and perishing (Matt. 7:13; Rev. 20), and God’s sovereign hardening in judgment (Rom. 9). You can’t make Peter mean “God decrees the salvation of every individual” unless you’re prepared to say Scripture contradicts itself or the final judgment texts are theater.

So the honest question becomes: is Peter using “any” and “all” in an absolute, universal sense, or in a defined, contextual sense?

In ordinary language, “any” and “all” constantly take their meaning from the group in view. If I say, “I’m waiting because I don’t want anyone to miss the meeting; I want everyone to arrive,” I do not mean “every human on the planet.” I mean, everyone in the group I’m waiting for. That’s not theological trickery; it’s how words work.

In 2 Peter 3, the group in view is signaled again and again: “beloved,” “you,” the recipients of the apostolic reminder, the ones being threatened by scoffers and being urged to holy conduct as they wait for the day of God. Peter is explaining why the Lord hasn’t come in judgment yet: He is patient toward you/us, not willing that any of that “you/us” group perish, but that all of that group come to repentance.

That reading fits the chapter naturally, and it fits Old School Baptist categories cleanly: the “delay” of the Lord is not a failed plan; it is the outworking of God’s purpose to gather every one of His people before the day of final reckoning. The Judge is not late; He is completing the harvest.

But then comes the next objection: “Doesn’t it say repentance? Doesn’t that imply human choice as the decisive factor?”

Only if you smuggle in a modern assumption that repentance is primarily man’s independent contribution. Scripture often speaks of repentance as something God grants. Christ is exalted “to give repentance” (Acts 5:31). God “granted repentance unto life” to the Gentiles (Acts 11:18). Paul speaks of “if God perhaps will give them repentance” (2 Tim. 2:25). That does not make repentance fake; it makes repentance a gift that truly happens in the sinner, but happens because God works it.

So when Peter says the Lord is patient, “not willing that any perish, but that all come to repentance,” an Old School Baptist can read it as the certain success of God’s saving purpose: none of Christ’s people will be lost; all will be brought into repentance before the day arrives. The patience is not God hoping; it is God finishing what He intends.

That also harmonizes with the immediate context of judgment. Peter is not soothing the world with “God is trying to save everyone.” Peter is warning the world: judgment is real and coming, and the reason it hasn’t fallen yet is not because the Judge is toothless, but because the Judge is patient for His own redemptive purposes.

This is also why the flood analogy matters. Peter already said that the world “perished” in the flood (3:6), and yet humanity continued because God preserved Noah and his house. The flood is a historical object lesson in two truths at once: God judges the ungodly, and God preserves His chosen remnant through judgment. That same two-track reality runs through 3:9: perishing is real; repentance is real; patience is real; and God is sovereign over the timing.

So what about the broader biblical statements where God expresses no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11)? Old School Baptists typically distinguish between God’s revealed disposition in His commands and warnings (“turn ye, turn ye… why will ye die?”) and His sovereign decree in salvation and judgment. The Bible itself forces that distinction on you, because it shows God commanding what men refuse, warning what men despise, and yet accomplishing all His holy counsel (Acts 2:23; Acts 4:27–28) without being the author of sin. If you refuse that distinction, you end up either denying God’s sovereignty or denying the sincerity of God’s calls and warnings. Scripture refuses both denials.

Second Peter 3:9 is doing something similar: it grounds the delay of judgment in God’s patience and His will that none of the addressed group perish, but that all come to repentance. It does not say God has decreed the repentance of every individual. It does not say Christ died with equal saving intent for every person. It says the Lord’s timing is purposeful and merciful, and that His mercy has a definite aim that will be achieved.

There’s a pastoral sting and a pastoral comfort in that.

The sting is for scoffers: you are reading God’s patience as weakness. Peter says you are reading the story backward. The Judge is not absent; He is forbearing. And that forbearance is not permission to mock; it is time in which God gathers His people and in which sinners are summoned to repent before the door shuts.

The comfort is for the “beloved”: you are not waiting on a clock; you are waiting on a covenant. The promise will not fail. The Lord will lose none of His own. The delay is not negligence; it is long-suffering “toward you.” (Bible Hub)

And that gives the verse its real emotional weight. It is not meant to fuel speculative charts or universalist slogans. It is meant to steady trembling saints and silence arrogant mockers. It tells you that history is not random, and salvation is not precarious. The Lord is patient, not because He is unsure, but because He is merciful—and His mercy will not be outwitted by scoffers or outlasted by time.

If you want this verse to land where Peter aimed it, read the next line: “But the day of the Lord will come…” (3:10). Patience is real. Judgment is real. Repentance is necessary. And God is not slow.