But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (9) The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (10) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. (11) Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, (12) looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? (13) Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (14) Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless

Our verses today in this second letter from Peter were written to rebut false teachers who were publicly denying the second coming of Christ to judge those of this world. He is writing to the faithful who are charged to wait in certain hope – the day of the Lord seems long in coming because of the shortness of life. The day of resurrection does not depend on the present flow of time but on the purpose of God – our nature is impatient and we do not know the hidden will of God except as has been made known to us in the gospel. It does not matter when God gave His promise to return as He will remain faithful. It does not mean God operates in a timeless state; His relationship with time is different from ours because He is eternal but this does not negate the imminent return of the Lord. All of God’s time is different and equally present; time affects us but not God.

God is patient not wanting any to perish but all to repent; He is not slow but patient. Salvation implies deliverance from something to something – leads to a purpose that has been frustrated or interrupted and is not a purpose in itself. The final purpose of God is His own glory – neither salvation or damnation are the ultimate end but the means to an end.

God has done all He can do for sinners who won’t come to Christ of their free will. C.S. Lewis has illustrated this beautifully in his story ‘The Magician’s Nephew’: “When the Lion (Christ) had first begun singing, long ago when it was still quite dark, (Uncle Andrew) had realized that the noise was a song. And he had disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel. Then, when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a lion (“only a lion” as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to make believe that is wasn’t singing and never had been singing – only roaring as any lion might in a zoo in our world. “Of course it can’t really have been singing,” he thought, “I must have imagined it. I’ve been letting my nerves get out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing?” And the longer and more beautifully the lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring. Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon heard nothing but roaring in Aslan’s sing. Soon he couldn’t have heard anything else even if he had wanted to.”