2 Pet 3.1-13

the day of the lord

(2 Peter 3.1-13)

Jason Procopio

I’m going to tell you a story that will further cement my reputation as a massive geek (but I don’t care, I’ll own it; and even if you kind of roll your eyes at me, you’ll understand why I’m telling this story later on).

I grew up watching a lot of movies, but I had a particular affection for the films of Steven Spielberg, like many people of my generation. He’s probably the most famous film director (and one of the most well-respected) in the world.

Do you know how he got his start as a director? 

He loved movies as a kid, and when he was sixteen years old he found a way to sneak onto the backlot at Universal Studios (he got on the tram which took people on a tour of the studios, then when they stopped to go to the bathroom, he never came out of the bathroom; once everyone was gone, he just left on foot). He would walk around, hanging around movie sets, and everyone—directors, actors, crew members—assumed that he worked there as an intern or something, so they would talk to him. No one seemed to know who this kid was, but they loved his enthusiasm, so they let him hang around. And that’s where he spent all of his free time: on the backlot of Universal Studios. 

And when he was nineteen years old, after three years of doing this in the evenings and the summers, the president of Universal Television, Sid Sheinberg, asked him if he wanted to take a shot at directing an episode of a television show he was producing. 

He has been directing ever since.

Weirdly, Peter’s going to tell a similar kind of story in this final chapter of his letter.

In chapter 1, Peter reminded his readers that in Christ, God has given us everything we need for life and godliness—everything we need to live for him, everything we need to grow to be like Christ, we have it right now. So because we have everything we need, we are called to confirm our calling and election—to show by our lives the faith that God has given us.

He gives his readers reasons why they should believe what he and the other apostles have taught them—because they were eyewitnesses of Christ’s majesty, and saw with their own eyes the prophecies of the Old Testament fulfilled in him. 

By contrast, in chapter 2, he reminds his readers that false teachers will come into the church, preaching doctrines which are contrary to the gospel and which will do damage to the church. He is extremely explicit about why we should avoid such teachers, and at the same time, why we don’t need to worry about them: because God knows how to protect his church from being derailed by lies.

Now, in chapter 3, he’s going to circle back to the teaching of the true prophets and the apostles. He’s likely doing this to dispel a specific fear in the minds of his readers, brought on by some of the false teachers he mentioned just before. And in response to this fear, Peter is going to tell us what is actually true—and he’s going to reaffirm our very specific hope in the return of Christ.

God’s coming judgment (v. 1-7)

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder…

Now, Peter has already said this, in chapter 1. He keeps coming back to the same things over and over again because he wants the people who listen to him to remember the essential things he has taught them. In chapter 1, he gave us this massive overview of the gospel—of what Christ has done for us, and what he is doing in us. And now he’s giving us a very specific reminder of a very specific hope—something we can fix our minds on in moments of doubt.

 2 …that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles… 

So Peter wants his readers to specifically remember two things. Firstly, he wants us to remember the predictions of the holy prophets. Some of these prophecies, we’ve already seen—a few weeks ago we talked about the multiple prophecies which predicted the coming of Jesus Christ, and what he would do. These prophecies were fulfilled before Peter’s eyes and the eyes of the other apostles and many eyewitnesses. 

It’s really important that we never forget this—that what God said would happen DID happen. We don’t have time to go over it all again today, but if you’re wondering where you could go to see this, just remember Isaiah 53. It is probably the most complete and succinct prophecy of the Messiah, and even if you’ve never read it, if you know the basic story of the gospel it’s easy to see that Isaiah is speaking about Jesus, hundreds of years before Jesus ever came. These things happened, as God said they would.

But there are other prophecies also, which speak of things that haven’t happened yet—and it is those prophecies which are Peter’s focus in today’s passage.

The second thing Peter wants us to remember is the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Now, Jesus gave a lot of commandments himself, and the apostles communicated a lot of his commandments also. So which specific commandment is he speaking of?

It’s the commandment—the call of the gospel. At the end of Acts 2, after his magnificent sermon to the crowd, we read (Acts 2.37-39) :  

37 Now when they [the crowd] heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

The apostle Paul says it another way in his second letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 5.20-21) :  

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

So that is the commandment: repent, place your faith in Christ, and be reconciled to God.

Now the question is, why do we need to remember these things? Why do we need to remember this commandment which is of first importance, and why do we need to remember the predictions of the holy prophets? 

Because, he says in v. 3 : 

3 ...knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 

So these “scoffers” are likely those false teachers Peter described in chapter 2—those people who say things that are contrary to sound doctrine, and who live lives that are clearly not in accordance with what God commands. These people will come in spreading both misinformation and false pictures of what is true—they will twist the Scripture and follow their sin without restraint, and in so doing, they’ll entice other people to follow them in their sin, and they’ll convince other people to not believe what the Bible says. (That, in a nutshell, is what we saw in chapter 2.)

Now Peter gives an example of the kind of things these people will say—and this should surprise us, because it’s not anything shocking or awful. It is, in fact, the kind of thing we hear all the time. V. 4: 

4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 

Have you ever said something similar? If you’re honest, the answer is probably yes. You read the Bible, and you see Jesus say things like “Behold, I am coming soon” (Revelation 22.7), and you go—really? He said that two thousand years ago. How long is “soon” supposed to be? It looks to me as if everything just keeps going the way it always has.

This is a very hard argument to get over, because two thousand years is a long time. It is easy to look at history, and see the same cycles of violence and destruction, and imagine that God isn’t really interested in what happens in this world—that he created it, then left it, and that Jesus isn’t coming back, at least not in the way he said he would.

But this is why it is so important for us to remember the prophecies—that the things they predicted about Christ happened. Just because it seems long to us doesn’t mean it won’t come. V. 5: 

5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 

So Peter reminds us of the power of God’s word to accomplish God’s will. By his word, he created the world; by his word he judged the world in the flood, at the time of Noah. And in the same way, by this same word, he is preparing to judge those who reject him.

Charles Spurgeon warned against thinking that since it seems like God is taking so long to come to judge the world, he must not be coming. Spurgeon said, “We fall into the same error if we regard routine as security, and think that, because we have often done a thing, and have not suffered for it, therefore it will be always well with us.” That is the kind of thinking Peter is warning against here. Just because it seems like God’s taking his time doesn’t mean his time isn’t coming. 

The Bible is very clear about this. After his resurrection, Jesus Christ ascended into heaven in his body; and as the apostles were staring into heaven after his ascension, angels appeared to them and said (Acts 1.11):  

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” 

Jesus is coming back. We don’t know when, but he says he is coming back “soon” in Revelation 22 to remind us that it could be at any moment. And when he comes, he will execute the final judgment against sin. He will judge those who have rejected God, and condemn them to eternal punishment; and he will judge those who have accepted him and repented of their sin—and he will declare them “not guilty,” because their sin was dealt with on the cross, when he died for them.

No matter what it may seem like to us, no matter how long Christ seems to be taking to return, he is coming back. And we can be sure he is coming back, because he has already come once. God has already performed one great act to punish sin—and that is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He has already dealt with the sin of his children, throughout all of history. There is no reason to imagine that he will not finish the work he started in Christ. 

But still, it does feel like he’s taking his sweet time, doesn’t it? We look at all the horrors throughout human history—all the horrors still being committed today—and we think, Why would God let that keep going? Why doesn’t he come back sooner and stop it? It’s not as if he needs the extra time to get ready; he could prepare heaven for us with a single word: he’s God. So why does he wait? This is the question Peter answers in v. 8-9.

God’s present patience (v. 8-9)

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 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. 

So Peter’s answer to why God seems to be taking so long is that God doesn’t look at time the same way we do. It feels really long to us, but the eternal God, who is outside of time, doesn’t have that problem. For him, whether it’s a thousand years or a single day, it’s all the same.

But still, why? He knows the suffering of humanity. He knows the horrors perpetuated against him, and he knows the horrors perpetuated in his name. Even if it doesn’t seem long to him, why is he waiting?

The answer is breathtaking in its simplicity: God is patient. He is compassionate. And his desire is to give everyone who will come to him the time to come to him. 

Now, v. 8-9 bring up a sort of sticky theological point; we’ll just hit it really quickly. Some people argue that these verses teach what is called “universalism”. Universalism is a false doctrine which says that God won’t punish anyone for their sins, but that everyone will go to heaven—that either in this life or in the next, he will bring everyone to repentance. 

The Bible is clear that this is not the case—that after death, there is no second chance. (Hebrews 9.27 says, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment”.) But these people who say the contrary argue this way, in part, because of texts like this one. Peter says that God does not wish that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance—and does God desire anything that he can’t bring about? 

The answer is of course no—pretty much every Christian theologian agrees that whatever God wants to do, he can do. So if he desires for all men to come to repentance, but doesn’t do it, it’s because he wants something else more—because there’s something else that is more important to him. 

Some people think that this “something” that God wants more is the preservation of human freedom. He “doesn’t want robots,” they say, so even though he wants everyone to repent, he leaves them the ultimate freedom to determine their own destines—either to accept him, or to reject him.

Here at Connexion we don’t believe that's what the Bible says. What we see clearly stated, in the whole of the biblical story, is that God’s ultimate desire—the thing he wants “more”—is to display the full range of his glory. We can see this really clearly in Romans 9.15-18: God is glorified by saving those who place their faith in him, and he is glorified by showing his power in judging those who reject him. A lot of people don’t like that answer, but we do believe that is what the Bible clearly teaches.

However you slice it, Peter speaks of God’s desire that all come to repentance to remind us that God genuinely extends his invitation to repent and be saved to every human being; his “desire” that all men be saved is a true and honest expression of his “goodwill toward men,” as the angels sang at Jesus’s birth (Luke 2.14).

His point is this: as long as this present period of history is still going on, there is always an opportunity to come  to him. Everyone who will come, will certainly come—because God will give them the desire to come, and he will give them the time to come. 

So let me say something specifically to those of you who hear all these prophecies of Christ’s return and the coming judgment, and who are really afraid that your loved ones, your friends, your parents or your brothers and sisters, won’t have time to come to Christ. If that’s you, underline verses 8 and 9. Write them down. Print them out and hang them up on your wall. Memorize them.

Because Peter’s point here is that you don’t know what's going to happen in the rest of their lives. But you do know that God is patient. You know that he is taking his time, to give us time. So as long as we’re still here, in this life, there is still an opportunity.

Living Our Future Hope (v. 10-13)

Now, we saw that God is taking his time because in his patience, he is giving human beings time to repent and be saved. But God’s patience should not lull us into inactivity; it shouldn’t make us say, “Well, he’s not coming back anytime soon—so we can wait to actually begin living with him. Let me do the things I want to do first, and then I’ll come to Christ.”

Peter says (v. 10): 

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief [at a time when you’re not expecting it], and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 

Now this is a very difficult verse to translate. Some translations (including the Segond 21, which we use here) say that the earth and its works will be “burned up”. They say this because some Greek manuscripts have this wording. But the earliest and most reliable manuscripts we have say that the earth and the works that are done on it will be “found,” or “exposed.” 

So there are two schools of thought here, depending on which translation you prefer. Those who prefer “burned up” say that when Christ returns, he will destroy this earth and make a new one. Those who prefer “exposed” believe that when Christ returns, he will transform the earth, renewing it, in order to bring sin and all its effects to the surface, where they will be obliterated.

I won’t hold you in suspense any longer: that second reading is the better one—not just because the best and earliest manuscripts say that, but because the rest of the Bible goes in this direction. There are many Old Testament prophecies which speak of the earth being renewed rather than destroyed. In Romans 8.18-25, Paul speaks of the earth waiting for the day when it “will be SET FREE from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God”. Unless you’re suicidal, “freedom” does not mean being annihilated and letting something else take your place. Freedom means having our chains removed, and finally being able to live as we were made to live.

The continual pattern we see throughout Scripture is that God tends not to destroy and recreate, but to renew the parts of his creation that sin has touched. Now, sometimes he does that through destruction; but that destruction is never absolute. Think of the flood, when he punished human beings for their sin but preserved the earth and let it begin to flourish again. 

This is the testimony of the whole of Scripture says. Christ will return, he will renew the earth—that is, he will judge sin, and rid the earth of all of sin’s effects. 

Think about that for a minute. The effects of sin are multiple. It’s because of sin that there is death; that there is disease; that things rot; that things break. If you’ve ever watched a nature documentary on the Discovery Channel, you know: the earth is a brutal place. That is because of sin.

So imagine what the earth will be like when all of that brutality is removed. No more death. No more disease. No more violence. No more corruption. All we’ll be left with is the beauty of the earth, which we see around us every day. 

And just as the earth will be renewed, so will we. When Christ was raised from the dead, he was raised in the same physical body he had before…but it was a glorified body. His scars were still visible, but his wounds were healed. He was recognizable, but changed enough that people didn’t recognize him immediately. He was no longer subject to the same physical weaknesses and limits he had during his life. His body was glorified—it was made perfect.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that when Christ returns, we will rise from the dead just as Christ did, and our bodies will be like his body is now—freed from whatever ails us. Every weakness, every sickness.

Peter’s point in saying all this is that this will be a glorious day for God’s people…and a fearful one for those who reject him. When Christ returns, there will be nowhere to hide. Every single sin not covered by the blood of Christ will be visible and ready for judgment. 

And by the same token, we believe, not a corner of this earth which has been marred by sin wll not be renewed, freed from sin’s grip, and restored.

Now the question is, what difference does all of this make? A lot of people have a hard time when we start talking about heaven, about the eternal state, because they think, what could possibly be less important than things that will be happening ten trillion years from now? I’m not in heaven yet…so why does it matter?

Here’s why it matters. V. 11-12:  

11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 

So Peter tells us what we should do; and he gives two rationales for it.

He says that since this day is coming, we ought to live lives of holiness and godliness. We ought to put our sin to death and grow in our obedience to God. As he said in chapter 1, verses 5-7, we ought to  

make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

We ought to grow to be more like Christ—in his character, in his thoughts, in the way he lived his life. That is how we ought to grow and live.

And why should we live like this? Because that’s how we’re going to live forever! Freed from sin, able to enjoy God’s presence and glorify him forever, loving him and being like him. This is what our eternal lives will be like. 

So why on earth would we want to wait? 

You remember the story I told at the beginning about Steven Spielberg—how he wanted to be a director so badly that he snuck onto the backlot of Universal Studios and pretended he worked there, watching and learning, until people got to know him and finally gave him the chance to give it a shot.

It’s easy to see why Spielberg did this. He did it because he wanted to direct movies for a living, and because he knew that somehow, one day, that’s what he would do. So he didn’t wait for that day to come. He started living as if he were already there. As if this were already his job. So when he finally got the opportunity to direct, he was ready.

This is the kind of enthusiasm, and even proactivity, we are called to have in regards to becoming like Christ in our attitudes, in our thoughts, in our actions. We know where we’re going. We know where we’ll spend eternity. And it’s more glorious—more exciting, more stimulating—than anything we could possibly do during this life.

So why wouldn’t we want to get a jump on things?

That’s the first reason why we ought to live like this—because this is our hope. That one day, Christ will return and renew the earth, and renew us, and on this renewed earth, we will spend eternity.

Here’s the second reason. He says that we ought to live lives of holiness and godliness (v. 12), waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. Now we of course understand that we are waiting for his return—this is what we remember every Advent: we are waiting for the return of Christ.

But what does he mean when he says that as we live lives of holiness, we are hastening the coming of this day?Rather than trying to explain it myself, let me read you a lengthy quote from Doug Oss and Thomas Schreiner (this is from their commentary on this passage in the ESV Study Bible): 

“Hastening (Gk. speudō, “hurry [by extra effort]”) the coming of the day of God suggests that, by living holy lives, Christians can actually affect the time of the Lord’s return. That does not mean, of course, that the Lord has not foreknown and foreordained when Jesus will return (cf. Matt. 24:36; Acts 17:31). But when God set that day, he also ordained that it would happen after all of his purposes for saving believers and building his kingdom in this present age had been accomplished, and those purposes are accomplished when he works through his human agents to bring them about. Therefore, from a human perspective, when Christians share the gospel with others, and pray (cf. Matt. 6:10), and advance the kingdom of God in other ways, they do ‘hasten’ the fulfillment of God’s purposes, including Christ’s return.”

So you see, our waiting is active. This isn’t waiting like waiting to see the dentist. It’s like getting ready to have someone you really love finally come home. 

Now of course, there is an aspect of the day of Christ’s return that is kind of frightening. There is purification on that day, and judgment. But remember the goal. Remember Peter’s image from his first letter, of gold being purified in a fire? When he says (v. 12) that the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn, he’s not talking about destruction; he’s talking about purification. It’s normal that these images call up some fear in us; but if we remember why that purification is happening, we don’t see it as a threat, but a gift. 

And what is that gift? V. 13:  

But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 

Even if Peter encourages us to work in anticipation of his return, our hope is not found in our works, but in God’s promise. Our hope is not that God will judge the wicked, and sin, and its effects. Our ultimate hope is the promise that God will bring a new heavens and a new earth—our home, this earth, made new.

We called this series “Etrangers”—“sojourners”. Peter begins his first letter by saying he is writing to the “elect exiles” in churches in Asia Minor—Christians who are currently living in this earth, but who are not at home here. 

Brothers and sisters, this earth—as it is today—is not our home. Our home is this earth…as it will be. Freed from sin and its effects, made perfect and beautiful just as God created it.

So think about it—think about the best things about living on this earth. Think about the Alps. Think about gorgeous sunsets and sunrises. Think about the aurora borealis. Think about the Grand Canyon. 

Think about things that aren’t necessarily in nature… Really good stories. Really good music. Really good food. (And if I'm being honest, I’ll probably have to include sports there as well—at least some of them.) All of these things, enjoyed with the people you love the most.

Now think about all of these wonderful things, freed from sin and corruption and competition and selfishness—made perfect, things we can genuinely enjoy, not just for ourselves, but for others as well.

And then imagine (if we can) what these things will look like, in a renewed earth, made perfect, and fully inhabited by the glory of God, made manifest and visible everywhere we will look.  

This is heaven. All of these other things we just mentioned are wonderful, but they are not the reason why heaven is heaven.

Last summer my family and I were vacationing the Alps, on the French-Italian border. My favorite day of that trip is the day my son Jack (9) and I took a ski lift up to the top of the mountain, and walked all the way back down; it took all day. It was a gorgeous day, and the scenery was obviously extraordinary. But the thing I remember about that day is not the scenery; what I remember—the reason that memory is precious to me—is that I was seeing this scenery with him. Seeing it through his eyes, seeing him as happy in these things as I was, enjoying these things with my kid, was precious beyond belief.

The reason why heaven will be heaven is not because we’ll receive all of these wonderful gifts; it’s that he will be there, and we’ll be enjoying them with him, and for him. We’ll be able to look at this renewed earth, then turn our heads and actually look into the face of the Savior who created and renewed it. And we’ll enjoy the gifts more because we’ll enjoy them with the Giver, and for the glory of the Giver.

So try to hold all these things in your minds…and now imagine that they never end. That is the eternal life that is promised. Eternal life is not a prolongement of our lifespan. When we received Christ, we didn’t receive more time to live—everyone will live forever. What we received with Christ is the promise that we will live forever with him—it’s a question of the quality of our time, not the duration. What will make heaven heaven is that God will be there, and we will see him. And every other thing that we will see, that we will love, we will love more because they’ll allow us to see him more clearly, and love him more dearly.

Brothers and sisters, since all these things are coming, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God...