2 Peter 3:9 - William Tant

2 Peter 3:9 "Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." This does not mean that the Lord is desirous that all Adam's children should be saved, and come to repentance; but Peter addresses these words to them " who have obtained precious faith," and says, he, " the Lord, is not slack concerning his promise" of deliverance, consolation, and glory, made to his people, " but is longsuffering to us-ward," whom he hath chosen to salvation, and as an evidence thereof has made us " partakers of the divine nature," not willing that any of us, to whom he has " given exceeding great and precious promises," should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance. No other people are understood, in these words, but those whom the apostle calls us, which us are, in his first epistle, iv. 7. called the " house of God." And Paul says, the "house of God is the church of the living God," I Tim. iii. 15. Therefore God is not willing that any part of his church should perish, but that all the members of his church should come to repentance.