God’s attitude towards the human race is clearly defined in 2 Peter 3:9. What is God’s attitude towards men and women? The answer is that He loves them and longs for their salvation.
2 Peter 3:9: “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.….”
This verse is the first emphatic statement of God’s promise to send a Redeemer. It was made by the Lord Himself in the Garden of Eden in the presence of Adam and Eve, who had sinned. Notice that immediately sin entered in through their disobedience and they became spiritually dead, and God at once promised to send the Savior. He could have banished Adam and Eve as he had with the fallen angelic host, but instead He promised to send the Lord Jesus. In Genesis 3:21 we read that after having made this promise of a Redeemer, God Himself provided a covering for His disobedient children. This is a type of the “garment of salvation”, the righteousness which all who trust Him as Savior wear. Here is our first proof that God longs for the salvation of souls.
Chapters 6 and 7 of Genesis record the account of God’s instructions to Noah to build an ark, a place of refuge, for those who would believe His word and be saved from judgment. We have a terrible statement in Genesis 6:5, but look at vv. 6-7, which prove that God longs for man’s salvation. God must punish sin because He is just and righteous, but He loves the sinner. He allowed Noah to go on preaching for 120 years before His judgment fell (1 Peter 3:20). Why did He wait so long? Because He longed for the salvation of souls.
Isaiah 53 is prophetic of the Savior’s death. Written 700 years before Christ came, we have a revelation of the fact, the significance and the purpose of Christ’s death. In the New Testament we have a confirmation that these words refer to the promised Messiah in Acts 8:26-40; notice vv. 32-35. Here is another proof of God’s longing for the salvation of souls, promising to send His Son to die, in order that He might be our Sin-bearer, Substitute and Savior.
Luke 15 contains 3 parables: the lost sheep who was stupidly lost, the lost silver which was carelessly lost, and the lost son who was willfully lost, and in each case we notice the attitude of the owner to that which was lost. The shepherd sought the sheep until he found it; the woman sought the silver until she found it; and the father waited patiently, lovingly, longingly until his son returned and was found. We have a picture of the Triune God – the Father, pictured in the father whose son went into the far country; the Son, pictured in the shepherd who went in search of the lost sheep; and the Holy Spirit, pictured in the woman who searched for her lost piece of silver. But look again at the Prodigal Son (v. 20): surely this one verse illustrates the longing of the father for his boy to return into fellowship, a beautiful illustration of God’s longing for the salvation of souls. This is how God feels towards men and women who have wandered from Him. He longs for them to return.
This verse tells us that God loves everyone and that He has made provision in the gift of His Son for “whoever” to escape the punishment of hell and to receive the gift of everlasting life. God indeed longs for the salvation of souls.
This verse centers attention upon the death by crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. See Him there dying in great agony. Remember, it is God’s Son who is dying. What further proof could we have of God’s love for all men than the fact that He sent His only Son to die for us, not to die an ordinary death, but he “became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:8; John 15:13).
Before John finished his writing he recorded the fact that God longed for the salvation of souls in this appealing invitation. God’s longing is for the salvation of your soul in particular “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).
