Remember God’s Justice

2 Peter 2:3b-10a

Main Idea: Because God is just, believers are assured of his help for trials and his punishment of the enemies.

1. God Promises His Justice in the Future (2:3b).
2. God Proved His Justice in the Past (2:4-8).
   1. Example 1: Fallen angels (2:4)
   2. Example 2: Noah and the flood (2:5)
   3. Example 3: Sodom and Gomorrah (2:6-8)
3. God Provides His Justice in the Present (2:9-10a).
   1. He rescues the godly from trials (2:9a).
   2. He reserves the godless for torment (2:9b-10a).

The rapid growth in the number of terrorist attacks in our world during the last two decades, as well as the seemingly more frequent occurrence of natural disasters, are just a couple of the things that have caused our culture to question God’s integrity, if not his existence. “If God is loving,” many ask, “why does he allow innocent people to suffer?” Others pose simpler questions: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” or “Why is there so much suffering in the world?” While these questions aren’t new, they do reflect an increasing skepticism in our culture about the justice of God. If God exists, shouldn’t he be fair? Abraham himself appealed to this assumed quality when God announced his judgment on Sodom:

You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just? (Gen 18:25)

It’s a good question: If God is good and righteous, shouldn’t there be a difference between the way he treats the righteous and the wicked?

Peter’s Christian readers were wondering the same thing as their spiritual knees buckled under the weight of false teaching. One argument their opponents were making against final judgment was that it couldn’t involve both salvation and condemnation. It had to be either-or. Either the righteous would have to be condemned, or the wicked would have to be saved. And because they deemed neither to be morally acceptable, they concluded that judgment wasn’t coming (Davids, Letters, 228). So Peter responds by demonstrating that God is fair and just and that he does discriminate in his treatment of the righteous and the wicked. Peter even takes it a step farther to show the immediate, practical implications for the Christian life. The justice of God, he says, assures believers of strong help for their trials while at the same time guarantees that their enemies will be punished.

The structure and flow of 2:3b-10a is important and provides us with a helpful way to develop the text. In the second half of verse 3, Peter suggests that God is just because he promises to condemn the false teachers. Then, beginning with verse 4 and going through the first part of verse 10, he uses a long conditional statement to show that since God has proven his justice in history past (vv. 4-8), he will be faithful to provide it for believers now (vv. 9-10a). In other words, Peter gives us a past-present-future glimpse of God’s righteous judgment. He shows us that God will be just in the future because he has been just in the past. Consequently, he can be trusted to be just in the present in dealing with both believers and unbelievers.

God Promises His Justice in the Future

2 Peter 2:3b

Sometimes when I’m joking around with my wife and poking at her about something, she’ll retaliate by threatening, “You better sleep with one eye open tonight, buddy!” She recommends that I stay awake and alert. In 2:3, Peter essentially says the same thing about the condemnation that’s coming to the false teachers. He personifies God’s condemnation and says that it has always had one eye open! He says, “Their condemnation, . . . is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.” The latter phrase suggests drowsiness and—used here with the negative—indicates that God’s condemnation isn’t nodding off! It’s still in effect and has been hanging over their heads for a long time. Far from sleeping, it’s imminent (Davids, Letters, 224). The picture here is of “eternal damnation as if it were an executioner, who remains fully awake, ready to administer God’s just sentence of condemnation on those who falsify His Word” (MacArthur, 2 Peter, 83–84). God will keep his promise!

Peter no doubt is reiterating here his earlier contention that these false teachers “will bring swift destruction on themselves” (v. 1). But he’s also implying an attitude that he’ll flesh out more in chapter 3. There he will tell us,

Scoffers will come in the last days scoffing and following their own evil desires, saying, “Where is his ‘coming’ that he promised? Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.” (3:3-4)

In other words, they will sarcastically mock the idea that Christ is coming again to execute the judgment of God against the unrighteous. They will say that it’s been thousands of years already, and yet there is no sign of his appearing. Consequently, they will continue to justify their ungodly lifestyles and heretical beliefs.

The same is true of the unbelieving world in our day. People deny the return (and even existence!) of Christ. They dismiss the promise of God to bring about his righteous judgment. And they use their denial as a license for selfish and godless living. False teachers—who are to be counted among their ranks—lead the pack of those who operate as if God’s condemnation was dozing, if not already fully asleep. Even if they preach the second coming, they don’t believe it in their heart of hearts. If they did believe it, they would know that even if God’s condemnation appears to be sleeping, then it’s sleeping with one eye open. But neither God nor his condemnation sleeps (cf. Ps 121:3-4). He hasn’t forgotten his justice, and his righteous judgment is looming. He promises to be just by condemning the unrighteous.

God Proved His Justice in the Past

2 Peter 2:4-8

There’s not much I despise more than the barrage of political ads that floods the airways during election season. The character assassination, mudslinging, and name calling that cloud the real issues are a big turn-off for me. But one thing I find of interest in those ads is track records. Periodically, a candidate will rehearse how he or she (or an opponent) has typically voted on particular issues. Track records are important because they assert that how someone has acted in the past is usually a fairly good indicator of how they will act in the future. Peter thought God’s track record was important, so he rehearses it here to show that God can be trusted to be fair and just when it comes to his judgment.

Peter already has clearly asserted that the condemnation pronounced against these false teachers “long ago” (v. 3; cf. Jude 4) in the Old Testament is still pending and will eventually consume them. While our English Bibles include his words there as part of verse 3, they fit better as an introduction to what follows in 2:4-8. From the first pronouncement of judgment on the serpent in the garden (Gen 3:13-15), God consistently has condemned all who misrepresent his truth (cf. Isa 8:19-21; 28:15; Jer 9:6-9; 14:14-15; Zeph 3:1-8; Rev 21:8,27). So in 2:4-8 Peter illustrates this reality by offering three Old Testament examples of how God, throughout history, consistently has punished the unrighteous. He speaks of God’s condemnation of sinning angels (v. 4), of Noah’s generation (v. 5), and of Sodom and Gomorrah (vv. 6-8). In these examples he includes a new twist. Just as God’s justice has led him to punish the unrighteous, it has compelled him to preserve the righteous as well. Once again Peter’s words in this passage bear a striking resemblance to Jude’s letter (cf. Jude 5-7).

Example 1: Fallen Angels (2:4)

The first example Peter provides to verify God’s justice in the past is that he “didn’t spare the angels who sinned.” While he doesn’t tell us the specific sin of these fallen angels or a particular incident, it’s likely that he’s referring to the story in Genesis 6:1-4 where certain angels somehow crossed species lines and had sexual relations with women on earth. Their actions obviously involved both rebellion and sensual lust (cf. Jude 6), which is consistent with both Peter’s and Jude’s arguments. This sin moved God to “cast them into hell.” The phrase is one word in Greek, and it is only used here in the Bible. It means to “consign to Tartarus,” which in Greek mythology was the place of punishment of the spirits of the most wicked people (M. Green, 2 Peter, 122). Peter probably chose a familiar idiom to relate to the large number of converted pagans among his readers as well as to distinguish it from the place of final punishment often referred to with our English word hell.

The intended meaning of the word translated “chains” also is uncertain due to textual variations. Some manuscripts use a similar word that is translated “dungeons.” But what is clear (and most important!) is that these chains or dungeons provide the context in which these angels are being “kept for judgment.” Peter suggests that these unrighteous angels are being held in a place of temporary punishment until the day of final judgment.

No doubt many mysteries exist in Peter’s language here. He leaves us with lots of questions. What did these angels do to deserve this punishment? What exactly are the chains that are holding them? Are those chains literal or metaphorical? Where is this place they are being held? Why did Peter use a term from Greek mythology to designate it? In response, let me offer two observations. First, these are not the only unknowns with which the Bible leaves us when it comes to angels and their destiny. After all, Paul rhetorically asked of the Corinthians, “Don’t you know that we will judge angels?” (1 Cor 6:3). What in the world is that going to look like? We can’t expect to know and comprehend all the details of the angelic economy. Second, the answers to the questions above don’t have bearing on the major reason for this part of Peter’s example. His point is to argue from the greater to the lesser: If great and powerful angels can’t escape God’s judgment, how much less will mortal men like false teachers escape (Vaughn and Lea, 1, 2 Peter, 170)!

The other side of Peter’s argument—God’s justice for the ­righteous—can only be inferred here in Peter’s first example. He doesn’t directly address any innocent angels God preserved like he does the righteous individuals in the following two examples, namely Noah (v. 5) and Lot (vv. 7-8). This absence may be due to the author’s wanting to make a distinction between corporeal, earthly beings and those that are not. Peter may not have deemed it appropriate to say that angels were either righteous or unrighteous. At any rate, the subsequent examples would suggest that Peter wants us to conclude that other angels didn’t sin and, therefore, were preserved by God. Obviously, there are hosts of angels who actually did “keep their own position” and “proper dwelling” (Jude 6), and the context of the current paragraph implies that God was responsible for preserving them in that role (see Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 335). Conclusion: God has proven his justice from the beginning of time by discriminating in his judgment between angels that sinned and those that didn’t.

Example 2: Noah and the Flood (2:5)

Peter’s second example of God’s justice is drawn from the story of Noah and the flood that obliterated the vast majority of the earth’s inhabitants during his day (Gen 6–8). Jesus himself used this event and the subsequent one about Sodom and Gomorrah to warn about God’s sudden destruction of sensual people (Luke 17:26-29). Peter’s point here is best understood by considering the beginning and end of the verse together: “[God] didn’t spare the ancient world . . . when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly.” The words “didn’t spare” are repeated from the previous verse and emphasize two realities. First, judgment is indeed a reality. Second, any hope is eliminated that God might show mercy and change his mind about judging the world (Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 337–38). Peter is making the same point as before. Like the sinning angels, God didn’t spare an entire generation that rebelled against him but exercised his righteous judgment on them by flooding the earth.

In this example, however, Peter explicitly identifies the other side of God’s righteous judgment, that of protecting the righteous. In the midst of judging the unrighteous with the flood, God “protected Noah.” Three specific details are given that provide rich application regarding God’s protection of a righteous person. First, he “protected” him. This idea will be further unpacked in reference to Lot in 2:7-8, but here it foreshadows the gospel of grace and hope that only God can provide in Christ Jesus. Second, Noah was “a preacher of righteousness,” a designation that isn’t so much a reference to Noah’s being justified as it is to his service to God. The righteous person’s service to God will stand in obvious contrast to the rest of his or her generation. And it will always involve calling others to repentance. Third, God’s mercy wasn’t just extended to Noah but to Noah “and seven others.” The English phrase is a translation of a single word that encompassed Noah’s wife, his three sons, and their wives (cf. 1 Pet 3:20). The godly are most often in the minority. False teachers will usually attract a following, and that can become discouraging. But although the godly are often fewer in numbers, God is always faithful to preserve them (Moo, 2 Peter, 104).

The introduction of this other side to God’s justice had to be a comforting thought to Peter’s audience, as it should be to us. It is a refreshing drink of cold water in the midst of so much heated talk about judgment. Believers often can grow weary toeing the line of righteousness in a sinful world that stands in the crosshairs of God’s condemnation. Sometimes we grow weary of proclaiming the heaviness of judgment that awaits the unrepentant. At other times we grow impatient with Christ’s delayed return and find ourselves tempted to dabble in the world. The fact that God has been just in not only punishing the wicked but also in protecting the righteous ought to encourage us to stand by the truth of Scripture and resist the false teaching of the age.

Example 3: Sodom and Gomorrah (2:6-8)

The third and most lengthy example Peter gives of the proof of God’s justice involves the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the deliverance of Lot (cf. Gen 18:22–19:29). We’re told that when he “reduced the cities . . . to ashes,” he “condemned them to extinction” (v. 6). Basically, God torched them and burned them to the ground and sentenced them never to be rebuilt. Of the destruction Philo would later write,

Even to this day there are seen in Syria monuments of the unprecedented destruction that fell upon them, in the ruins, and ashes, and sulphur, and smoke, and the dusky flame which still is sent up from the ground as of a fire smouldering beneath. (Moses 2.56)

Peter specifies something in this example that’s only implied in the previous two. He highlights the fact that God exercised this condemnation in part as a warning to all who would follow after the way of the ungodly—“making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly” (v. 6). The perfect participle “making” indicates that the destruction of these cities serves as lasting evidence of what will happen to those who live godless lives (Vaughn and Lea, 1, 2 Peter, 172). And it’s clear from the parallel text in Jude 7 that the fiery physical punishment of these people was intended to prefigure eternal punishment in hell’s fire. Our present culture needs to heed this example.

There are curious parallels between our contemporary scene and Sodom, for that city was as famed for its affluence and softness as for its immorality—and, of course, like any men come of age, they thought they had outgrown the idea of God. They found out their mistake too late. (M. Green, 2 Peter, 123)

I pray it’s not too late for our generation.

As with the example of Noah, Peter then shows the proof of God’s justice to protect the righteous by explaining how God delivered Lot. Again, similar to Noah, Lot likely isn’t called “righteous” (v. 7) because he was completely upright but because he was a good man in comparison to the men of Sodom. He also may be categorized as such by virtue of his obedience to God’s instructions during the judgment (cf. Gen 19:1-22). Don’t forget that Peter’s purpose here is not to set these men up as examples of justification before God but to give evidence that God is perfectly able to punish the ungodly while at the same time saving the righteous.

Peter then adds another new component in this third example. He highlights the effect the unrighteous culture was having on Lot. He describes him as “distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral” (v. 7). The description suggests that his moral compass was “knocked about” by his exposure to his erotic atmosphere, to the point that he became dull to sin and apathetic about God’s standards. Lot’s waning faith is unpacked for us a bit more in verse 8: “For as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard.” What Lot saw and heard day in and day out took its toll on him. The exposure to the “lawless deeds” of the unprincipled people of his city literally tortured his spiritual nature. Lot was wearing down when God rescued him.

This commentary in 2:7b-8 about Lot’s weakening defense likely is included for a couple of reasons. First, Peter wants to warn his readers about passive exposure to wickedness, especially of the sexual nature (see 1 Thess 4:1-8).

The portrayal of Lot provides a warning to a generation of people who will view without protest television material that, a generation ago, they would never have considered seeing at a movie. (Vaughn and Lea, 1, 2 Peter, 173)

We’ll never completely be able to avoid hearing and seeing everything that’s evil. But the default response to that predicament is not to throw up our hands and welcome the world into our lives and homes. When that happens, we stop crying out to God for his deliverance. Instead, we need to run from godlessness (cf. 1 Cor 6:18; 10:14; 1 Tim 6:11; 2 Tim 2:22), partly because of its devastating effects on our spiritual sensitivity and defenses. We must avoid settling in to our cultural climate. The biggest danger many of us face as believers is not being martyred for our faith but having our faith dulled by exposure to wickedness.

Second, Peter knew his readers could identify with Lot because they were getting frustrated and discouraged by the need to resist the false teachers. Many of them were wearing down, just as we do in our sensual culture. Peter wanted to encourage them and us with a reminder that God has a spotless track record of protecting his people during such trials and temptations. So this description of Lot’s injured faith provides a perfect segue to what Peter says next.

God Provides His Justice in the Present

2 Peter 2:9-10a

I did my undergraduate degree in secondary education with a major in English and a minor in math. At the time, I was preparing to teach and coach in a public school. While I enjoy math, I have to be honest and say that the primary reason I went that route for my minor was because I felt it gave me the best chance of getting a job. But I did like grappling with all the axioms, theorems, postulates, corollaries, and hypotheses that guide the field. I especially liked the logic of rules that involved “if-then” statements, or conditional statements. My favorite was “If A=B and B=C, then A=C.” The part after the “if” (A=B and B=C) is called a hypothesis, and the part after the “then” (A=C) is called a conclusion. The conclusion (“then”) flows directly from the validity of the hypothesis (“if”).

In 2:9-10, Peter draws a conclusion to his long “if-then” statement that he began back in verse 4. Beginning there and going through verse 8, he basically says, “If God didn’t spare sinning angels, and if he didn’t spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, and if he obliterated Sodom and Gomorrah but rescued Lot, THEN . . .” And his conclusion, marked by “then” at the beginning of verse 9, flows directly from the validity of his hypothesis: Because God—in his justice—has both punished the wicked and preserved the righteous in the past, he can be trusted to do the same in the present. Peter knew his readers were getting frustrated and discouraged in their ongoing attempts to resist the false teachers, so he encouraged them by reminding them of God’s sovereign help for the righteous in times of trial and adversity. Today we have the same confidence. God will provide help to protect the righteous from trials, and at the same time he will continue to preserve the godless for torment.

He Rescues the Godly from Trials (2:9a)

The first part of Peter’s conclusion is that God’s track record proves he “knows how to rescue the godly from trials.” He picks up the word “rescue” from the discussion of Lot (v. 7), which carries the same idea as “protected” in reference to Noah (v. 5). Two particular explanations about the rest of the statement help us understand what it says. First, the “trials” here are external circumstances, not internal desires. Our internal desires for evil are the result of our sinful hearts (cf. Jas 1:14) and need to be crucified (cf. Col 3:5). But God uses external circumstances to mature our faith and develop our endurance (cf. Jas 1:2-4,12). Second, the preposition “from” (ek) is best understood to mean “out of” instead of “away from.” While God will never tempt anyone to sin (cf. Jas 1:13), he never promises to protect us from ever facing trials. In fact, he uses them to accomplish the purposes like the ones mentioned above. And he always protects us in the midst of these trials by providing grace sufficient for each one (cf. Jas 1:5; see also 1 Cor 10:13).

Equally as important as noticing what this statement says is noticing what it does not say. It does not say God always protects his children from harm and even death. Peter’s conclusion is that God’s track record proves that he “knows how” (v. 9) to rescue his children from trials, not that he always chooses to do so. In the New Testament the term trials most often refers to tests a believer experiences as a result of embracing the gospel of Christ and advancing his mission. Jesus actually viewed his entire life as being characterized by such trials (cf. Luke 22:28; cf. Jas 1:2; 1 Pet 1:6). He said his followers would experience the same, sometimes even to death (cf. Matt 10:17-18,21-22; 24:9; Mark 13:9,12-13; Luke 21:12,16,17; John 15:19-20; 16:2; Rev 2:10). While Christians aren’t immune to these trials, however, God does promise to give us everything necessary for us to emerge with our faith intact and our salvation untouched. Following Christ sometimes will bring physical harm, emotional stress, economic deprivation, and even physical death; but the sovereign, wise, and good God will always provide us with a “way out” so we can emerge in a better spiritual state (Moo, 2 Peter, 116).

Putting all this in context, Peter wants to encourage his readers amid the biggest danger in any time of trial, that of apostasy (Luke 8:13; 22:28). Noah and Lot passed this test with flying colors. When the dust settled, they alone stood among the scoffers. Peter wanted us to know that God is faithful and promises to protect his children when they face such temptation (cf. Rev 3:10). He obviously isn’t suggesting that God gives us a pass on facing any trials. He’s just finished talking about how both Noah and Lot lived among the wicked and were confronted by evil people. Neither is he trying to say that true believers (the “righteous”) never sin or that they never get killed along the way of righteous living. He simply wants to comfort us with the truth that God will protect his righteous ones from committing apostasy. When all is said and done, he won’t let us forsake him (Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 343–44).

Before leaving this section, let’s take a moment to behold the beautiful picture of the gospel we find in this text. Peter doesn’t use examples of self-made, sinless men who earned God’s protection. Like Abraham, these men weren’t free from sin (see Gen 9:18-28; 16:1-6; 19:1-38). Peter never says that God rescued Lot because he was a righteous man. In fact, Lot comes across as just the opposite—a man of the world who strayed a long way from the God of his fathers (see Gen 13:10-14; 19:16). He probably shouldn’t have even been in Sodom in the first place! Although he was hospitable while there, he was weak and morally depraved (Gen 19:6-8). He was so invested in the city that he had to be dragged out when God’s judgment fell (Gen 19:16). If that wasn’t enough, after he left he proved himself to be a drunk (Gen 19:33,35)! Suffice it to say that this brother isn’t a picture of what most of us think of when we think of righteousness!

Neither Noah nor Lot brought anything to the table by which they could rescue themselves or earn God’s favor to do it for them. Their rescue operations were entirely due to the unmerited favor of God, which he shows to men because of what he is, not because of what they are or do (M. Green, 2 Peter, 124; cf. Gen 19:16,19). Both Noah and Lot evidently received by faith God’s judgment and instructions (cf. Gen 15:6; Rom 4:3,20-24), and therefore his righteousness was credited to them. God imputed his own righteousness to them because they trusted him.

What a great picture of the gospel! Jesus doesn’t save us because we’re all cleaned up and deserve his salvation but because we simply act in faith on what he has done for us. So Noah and Lot—like Abraham—are Old Testament illustrations of justification by faith. Like the apostle Paul, they can be said to have been “found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith” (Phil 3:9). Peter wanted his readers to know that it would not be by virtue of their inherent goodness that God would deliver them from their present trials or from the condemnation that he will bring on the ungodly. Instead, it will be because of their “knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Pet 1:2).

He Reserves the Godless for Torment (2:9b-10a)

Protecting the righteous in the midst of trials isn’t the only thing God’s track record proves he can do. Peter concludes he’s also capable of keeping the unrighteous on track toward final judgment. God knows how “to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment” (v. 9). The verb in this phrase is a present participle and can be interpreted at least two ways. Some believe it suggests that those who die outside of God’s protection experience torment while they are waiting for the final judgment. In other words, they’re in the process of being punished as they await the “day of judgment,” or the final judgment at Christ’s coming (Vaughn and Lea, 1, 2 Peter, 174; cf. Luke 16:19-31). Others note that the present participle in Greek doesn’t always indicate current activity. So the statement could simply mean that God holds the unrighteous for the day of judgment, at which time they will be punished (Davids, Letters, 232). Theologically, the two interpretations aren’t mutually exclusive. Both can be true. God can be keeping the unrighteous for the day he will judge them in the end; in the meantime, he’s holding them in some kind of temporary torment.

Actually, a third consideration is possible, which also is compatible with the others. Peter could be referring to God’s judgment against sin in this life. Three times in Romans 1, Paul asserts that God “delivered over” sinful people to the consequences of their sin (Rom 1:24,26,28). Having turned from the true God to worship idols, they were handed over to sexual impurity, unnatural passions, and depraved thinking. Because these people chose their own way instead of God’s, he allowed them to continue down their own path to its disastrous end. Maybe Peter is thinking about this kind of present judgment. Sin always has terrible consequences for the health of mind and body, and that’s a form of punishment (Moo, 2 Peter, 113–14). Regardless of whether it’s one or more of these interpretations, the language here is terrifying. Those who reject God and his ways are doomed for torment.

Under the inspiration of the Spirit, Peter further specifies those who experience this “both now and then” torment. He says they are “those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority” (v. 10). To “follow” was to “go after the flesh” and had as its objects two particular sins. To lust after “polluting desires” is synonymous with sexual immorality; and to despise “authority” refers to rebelling against God, whether through rejecting the gospel, church leadership, or just God in general. Possibly the reason Peter includes these qualifications is to set his words in context and ensure his readers know he’s speaking of the false teachers in their midst. After all, the contexts of both Peter and Jude indicate that sensuality and rebellion were the dominating characteristics of these peddlers of destruction (see Jude 7-8).

The gospel of Christ shows up not only in God’s protection of his children but even here in this terrifying pronouncement of impending judgment. Peter doesn’t imply that the false teachers will be punished immediately. After all, the angels, the flood generation, and Sodom and Gomorrah weren’t condemned the moment they began to sin. They lived in their rebellion for various periods of time before they were punished. God never wants us to be discouraged or wonder if he is faithful simply because he allows the godless to prosper for a season. What he wants is for us to remember that he graciously gives people plenty of time to repent before their judgment (Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 344; cf. Gen 15:16; Exod 34:6; Ps 86:15; Rom 9:22; 1 Tim 1:16; 1 Pet 3:20). Peter will say as much later in his letter: “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” (3:9). The life, death, and resurrection of Christ are all clear demonstrations of God’s patient heartbeat for the lost to repent.

While Peter wanted his readers to know the destiny of the false teachers who were harassing them, the Holy Spirit wants us to remember what awaits all who reject the gospel. If God didn’t even spare sinning angels, what makes anyone think he will give a Get Out of Jail Free card to those who follow the company of false teachers today who deny a fixed and final judgment and whose lives and ministries are characterized by sensuality and greed (Helm, 1 & 2 Peter, 226–27)? The horror of Peter’s words compels us not only to stay the course of following the way of the prophets and apostles as recorded in the Bible, but his words also compel us to infiltrate every tribe and nation and tongue to warn them of God’s terrifying judgment and offer them his glorious gospel.

Conclusion

For most people in our culture today, the concept of eternal punishment is a tough pill to swallow. The British agnostic Bertrand Russell wrote,

There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that he believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. (Why I Am Not a Christian , 17)

Philosopher John Hick said hell attributed to God “an unappeasable vindictiveness and insatiable cruelty” (Death and Eternal Life, 200). Even professing Christians aren’t immune to the sentiment. Clark Pinnock, a supposed evangelical scholar, asked,

How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness whose ways include inflicting everlasting torture upon his creatures, however sinful they may have been? Surely a God who would do such a thing is more nearly like Satan than like God. (“The Destruction of the Finally Impenitent,” 246–47)

These are merely representative of the widespread rejection—both inside and outside the community of faith—of the doctrine of God’s wrath.

But like it or not, God’s condemnation is real and necessary because it’s rooted in his justice. It has rightly been said that the seriousness of a crime is measured not only by its inherent nature but also by the one offended. Our sin has offended the Creator of the universe who is eternal, almighty, glorious, and holy. Consequently, our punishment has to correspond to that offense. And God’s justice demands that he not let us off the hook. He “will not leave the guilty unpunished” (Exod 34:7) but will give the unrighteous exactly what they deserve (cf. Lev 26:27-28; Isa 3:11). As the righteous Judge, he will one day call every creature to account (Gen 18:25; Heb 9:27; 1 Pet 4:5; Rev 20:14). For Christians, Jesus Christ has incurred God’s wrath against sin and met his righteous requirement in our stead. When we remember God’s justice, we remember his gospel. So now as his redeemed we can find comfort and encouragement in his justice—justice that not only assures us that he’s executing a plan for punishing the wicked but that also gives us strong help in our struggle for Christlike living in a secular world.

Reflect and Discuss

1. As believers, what effect does forgetting the return and impending judgment of Christ have on our lives and ministries?
2. Why is it important to know deeply and remember often the righteous judgment of God? How can we consistently remember and apply the truth of God’s coming judgment to our ongoing ministries?
3. How do Peter’s examples of God’s past acts of punishment further his argument? Can we use the same argument today?
4. Is God’s “track record” of punishment an important part of the message of the gospel? How so?
5. How does the example of Lot, living in a godless environment, encourage us? How should it concern us?
6. In terms of cultural engagement, what is the balance between being “in the culture” but not “of the culture”?
7. How should we understand God’s ability to rescue from every trial and God’s choosing when to rescue from trial? In other words, will God rescue from every trial?
8. If God’s promise is not to rescue from every trial, what does he promise?
9. How does the gospel shine through Peter’s language of impending judgment? How should God’s patience spur us on?
10. While viewing our culture of godlessness, it is easy to become frustrated and discouraged. Why does God not judge immediately? How would it change our mentality if we viewed the lost world in the way that God does?