2 Peter 3 – Judgement Day

2 Peter 3 – Judgement Day

Do you ever think about why Jesus is taking so long to return? 

Has that question ever caused you to doubt the truth and reality of the Christian faith? 

Has that doubt ever led you to excuse your sin, because “maybe this all isn’t real anyway?”

Have you ever had a hard time knowing how to answer a friend or acquaintance who brought up these questions? 

In the final chapter of his second letter, Peter tackles this question as the primary objection that false teachers and scoffers are raising to upset the early church. So we see that this common question has been going on since at least 65 AD, and probably before that. Peter also gives us the answer to that question, and tells us how reflecting on the question and the realities that surround it can actually strengthen our faith and motivate us to live fruitful lives of godliness!

Let’s read today’s passage!

Scoffers overlook this

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, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 

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.” 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, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 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. 

2 Peter 3:1–7 (ESV)
  • v4: “Where is his coming? Everything has been happening the same way since the beginning of creation:
  • The one fact they are overlooking: That there have already been several changes to “all things as they were” since the beginning.
  • The heavens and the void (long ago) > The earth being formed out of the waters in creation (see Genesis 1) > Noah and the global flood
  • In fact the order of things has already changed because of a judgement day against the whole world accept those who were in Noah’s ark..

We are not to overlook this

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. 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. 

2 Peter 3:8-9 (ESV)
  • So when will he come back?
  • Time works differently for God, and he is very patient, and that is a good thing
  • 1000 years = 1 day = 1000 years
  • It’s been 2,000 years since Christ’s first coming
  • It might be 1,000 more years before his final coming.
  • Perfection patience vs. eternal patience. The patience will come to an end. 
  • Not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. He does not delight in the death of the wicked. 
    • Ezekiel 33:11 ESV: “…As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live, turn back turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die!?”
  • But this is not to say God does not get his way: this is not the only thing he wants. He wants righteousness and justice to be done. And that will happen. Perfect justice, and perfect mercy, perfect grace. These things can seem like a contradiction to us from our perspective. But that’s only the case because our perspective is limited, our justice is imperfect, our mercy is imperfect, our patience is imperfect.
  • Just as those who were in the ark were saved from judgement by a deluge of waters, so those who are in Christ will be saved from the destruction of fire.
  • We’re waiting for the day of judgement and salvation. The scoffers demand an explanation for when it will be, our answer is that we do not know, but we are told that it will happen, and it will happen suddenly, and we are to be ready.

Day of judgement

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, 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.  Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, 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, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 

2 Peter 3:10-12 ESV
  • a.ka. “The day of the Lord” / “The Day of God” / “The day of eternity”
  • What happens: Christ returns in his glorious second coming, we meet him in the air, and come back down to the earth with him, and judgement will happen.
  • There are many other passages in the old and new testament that describe this event. 
  • 2 Peter adds to the description, but is incomplete, because he is addressing a specific objection, not giving us a theology of the end times! 
  • His main point in this passage is the false teaching and the accusation of the scoffers that are in love with the world and the things of the world. With the power, and pleasure and treasure they can have in this world. His response: all that stuff will be destroyed on judgement day. 
  • During this time, the earth will be “burned up and dissolved.”
  • How much burning and dissolving? Malachi 4:1-2 seems to indicate there will be something left. 
  • This is a refining fire, a purifying fire
  • The parallel to the deluge during the days of Noah is apt, it did not utterly destroy everything, it purified it.
  • We see this further spelled out in verse 13:

We wait for a new heavens and new earth

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

2 Peter 3:13

What kind of new? This is a little tricky for us in english, because there are two greek words that we render with a single english word: “new” – neos, and kainos. Neos means “new in time or origin” – this is typically what we mean when we say “new”. Kainos means “new in nature, different from the usual, impressive, better than the old, superior in value” – which we would typically mean when we say “renew”.

While we wait, what are we to do?

14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

2 Peter 3:14-18:

One of the nice aspects of this passage is that Peter writes the application for me! 🙂 

In light of the coming day of the lord, when he will judge all creation according to their deeds, and bring about the renewal of the heavens and earth by a purifying, refining, blazing fire which will melt away and dissolve the old way of things, sending those who are not saved to their destruction and ushering an eternity of righteousness: an eternity of life with everything “just right”.  In light of that – who should we be now? 

Peter gives us three things:

  1. v11&14: “Lives of holiness and godliness” 
    1. Hearkening back to his exhortations in chapter 1.
    2. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved: 
      1. CT Studd: ”Only one life, ’twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
      2. John Piper: “That’s the point of verse 11: everything is going to be burned up but the fruits of holiness. A life lived for the world will go naked into judgment; a life lived for Christ will be laden with eternal riches.”
  2. v12&14: Waiting for and hastening the day, at peace
    1. Eyes on Christ’s return
    2. Working toward the preconditions of his return: “The gospel will be preached to all the nations” (Mark 13:10) and Romans 11:25 “the fullness of the number of gentiles come in” 
    3. So, we repent, and we preach
  3. v17&18 (and the whole letter) Take care that we are not carried away by error, but grow in grace and knowledge.
    1. Study hard
    2. Follow godly men and women whose lives line up with the teaching of the bible: (fruit of the spirit, or the virtues in chapter 1), and who can show you their teaching directly from the bible, and from the historic teachings of christians.
    3. The entire protestant reformation started because Martin Luther read and studied Romans in order to teach it, and found that the Roman church at that time was ignoring the clear teaching of the apostles found there, and twisting the harder teachings to lock up a religious power base among a political hierarchy – and were holding out salvation for financial gain. (That’s an all-too-brief summary.) The point is to illustrate the need for study and to pay attention to the clear teaching of the text, and not let someone use the unclear teaching of the text to allow you to ignore it.

Summary and conclusion

These final two verses are a great summary of the entire letter.

You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

2 Peter 3:17-18

Judgement day. A day of fire. It’s a frightening picture! Not one for polite conversation. 

But here’s the gospel. Those who know Jesus. Who know his grace and forgiveness. Who no him well enough to turn to him in repentance, for forgiveness, have nothing to fear from the flood, or from the fire. 

God’s people, those who know, trust, and follow Christ, will be saved on that day. This is one of the mega themes of the entire Bible.  All the way back to the ancient prophet Isaiah, who, even before Christ’s birth told God’s people of the coming rescuer:

But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
   he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Isaiah 43:1-3 ESV