The Lord's Patience, Our Salvation
(2Pe 3:8-15)
God is love(1Jn 4:7).
For He loves, He sent His Son in the last days(He 1:2), and
For those whom He loves, He patiently waits for them to repent and return to Him.
Faith is knowing Him and turning back to Him, and
The life of this faith is repenting in order to appear spotless and blameless before Him(2Pe 3:14).
Those with the greatest patience in the world are parents as
They wait for their children to mature, for
Patience is an important attribute of love(1Co 13:4).
Though God decided to end the world during the time of Methuselah,
He waited for a thousand years(Ge 5:25-26).
While Noah prepared the ark,
God waited for decades to punish with water(1Pe 3:20).
Furthermore, though He was determined to burn the heavens and the earth,
God has kept them to this day because
It is His patience, not wanting anyone to perish but be saved(2Pe 3:7-9).
For about fifteen hundred years, from Moses to the coming of Jesus
God waited patiently and taught men that
They are sinners who need to repent through the Law and turn back(Rm 3:20).
The prophets warned them that if they did not turn back from evil
They would perish(Pr 1:23; Jer 44:5-6).
The temple where the name of God was
Showed the way for those who sinned and were
Taken as captives to the land of their enemies
To turn their way back from evil(1Ki 8:46-49).
Jesus said, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days(Jn 2:19), because
Through the death and the resurrection of the temple of His body,
He would become an eternal temple for sinners to return to,
For He is the Son of God who came to the world in the last days(He 1:2),
With the Father's name Yeshua(Jn 17:11).
As He died, Jesus said, "It is finished(Jn 19:30), declaring that He:
1. Laid down His life and revealed the Father's love(1Jn 4:9-10);
2. Condemned the origin of sin(Ge 3:4; 1Jn 3:8); and
3. With His blood redeemed all men and through His torn flesh and released them from the bondage of the devil(He 2:14-15).
He rose and
Entered the kingdom of the Son whom the Father loves(Col 1:13).
The Holy Spirit comes
To those who repent and turn back to Jesus(Ac 2:38) and
Lets them believe in the promise of His return.
The promise, however, has not been materialized to this day(2Pe 3:4, 2Pe 3:9)
Because the Lord is patiently waiting for:
1. One more unbeliever to repent and be saved; and
2. Believers to repent and turn from their ways of being fleshly, lazy, greedy, proud, disobedient and still being deceived by the devil and having their flesh belong to him.
The man of the Spirit knows that
The Lord's patience is his salvation and
He is moved by that love.
Therefore, he puts effort to repent in haste for
When the Lord appears a second time,
Not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him(He 9:28),
He longs to be found spotless, blameless and in peace.
O Lord,
Thank You for waiting patiently
For such immature and rebellious children as us
In spite of all our mistakes.
O Lord, please wait a little longer for us!
Let us all repent and repent so
We can become worthy of being Your children! Amen.
