God's period of grace
Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-9 CSB
As we saw in the three previous verses (5-7), the Lord is the creator of the universe, and therefore, has the ultimate say over what He wants to do with it. He is the ultimate judge and He is just. Continuing on that point, Peter reminds that God is also the creator of time itself. Because the Lord is eternal, His perspective on time can be completely different from humanity’s perspective, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” Joel 1:15 speaks on how the day of the Lord is coming soon, “Woe because of that day! For the day of the Lord is near and will come as devastation from the Almighty.” So, if this day is coming soon, but the Lord’s concept of time is different from ours, then why hasn’t the day of the Lord happened yet? Well, Peter explains that it is all because of God’s grace. “The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.” The Lord is delaying, not for His own sake, but for everyone’s sake. The Lord cares for all of His creation and wants everyone to have the opportunity to decide whether to reject Him or accept Him. Christian commentator Christopher Green wrote, “The plain meaning is that, although God wants all people to be saved, and although He has made provision for all to be accepted, some will exercise their free-will to exclude God. And this He cannot prevent unless He is to take away the very freedom of choice.” The Lord gives us the freedom to choose to perish or come to repentance, and He is prolonging for all of our benefit out of His grace, because He loves us all and does not want to see anyone perish (John 3:16). The return of the Lord is inevitable. He will appear at the appointed time. There is delay in His return for God is giving all those who continue to reject His offer of salvation to have an opportunity to repent. We are in the period of grace but the day of judgment will come when there will be no opportunity to repent. “What if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction?” (Romans 9:22).
Blessings,
Isaac De Guzman
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