2 Peter 3:11-18: Awaiting Our Glorious Future

2 Peter 3:11-18: Awaiting Our Glorious Future

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of 2 Peter, and today the final passage we come to is 2 Peter 3:11-18. It says,

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! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 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. 17 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. 18 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. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we’re gathered around this text of Scripture today because we want to hear from you. And we want to hear from you because we want to know you more and love you more and be more conformed to your image. So, please, bless our efforts and glorify your name. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.The word “eschatology” refers to the study of the end times—what will happen at the end of this world as we know it. It comes from the Greek word ἔσχατος, which means “last” or “final.” And I think a lot of Christians tend to be a little standoffish when it comes to eschatology because, in their minds, it’s just so confusing. There are so many different interpretations about what exactly is going to happen in the end times and regarding the precise chronology of how everything’s going to unfold that a lot of Christians get rather discouraged and become ambivalent toward the whole subject of eschatology. 

Yet I believe that’s a huge mistake—because the entire Bible is fundamentally eschatological in nature. In other words, it’s fundamentally future-oriented. It’s pointing forward to what’s going to happen in the future. You might compare it to pregnancy. Even though I’ve never personally been pregnant, I do know that pregnancy is oriented around the very exciting and climactic event of a baby coming into this world. That’s what the expectant parents are looking forward to and preparing for throughout the pregnancy. They’re deciding on a name for their baby, getting the baby’s room ready, and—if it’s their first time having a baby—trying to learn how in the world to take care of a baby. Everything throughout the pregnancy revolves around the future event of that baby being born. 

Similarly, the Bible’s fundamentally future-oriented as well. You see, the Bible is essentially one big story—a story that encompasses everything in the history of the universe, from the very beginning to the very end. The story begins with God creating this world as a perfect and pristine paradise. However, it unfortunately didn’t stay that way. The first humans rebelled against God—an event that we typically call “the fall.” And the reason we call it that is because, as a result of that rebellion, all of creation was immediately plunged into a state of brokenness and dysfunction and sin. And that’s the problem we see God addressing throughout all the rest of the Bible. 

The way he addresses that problem is through Jesus. Even though Jesus existed from all eternity as God, he became a human just like us—though without sin—so that he could rescue us from our sins. Jesus accomplished that rescue by living a perfectly sinless life, dying on the cross to take the punishment for our sins, being raised from the dead three days later, and subsequently ascending back into heaven. 

However, that’s not the end of the story. In fact, I’m not even sure we can call it the climax. Because everything Jesus accomplished in his first coming was with a view toward his second coming—which we’re still waiting for today. The Bible teaches that Jesus will one day return to this earth not as a meek infant—as he came the first time—but rather as a conquering King in order to provide full and final rescue for his people. That involves punishing his enemies—those who have rejected him—and bringing about a perfect paradise known as the new creation—a new heavens and new earth. No longer will we have to suffer in this broken and sinful world. Instead, Jesus will make all things new. And the beauty of that new creation will surpass even that of the original creation. That’s the grand climax that everything else that happens throughout the Bible is building toward. 

So, that’s what I mean when I say that Bible’s fundamentally eschatological or future-oriented. If you take out the glorious completion and consummation of God’s redemptive plan at the end of the story, nothing else that happens before that in the story has any real significance. None of the rest of it really makes sense. So, the last thing we should want to do as Christians is to ignore eschatology or push it to the side or treat it like a peripheral issue. 

Also, just on a personal level—for those of us who are Christians—what do we really have to look forward to apart from the return of Jesus and the indescribable wonders of beholding his glory and being with him for all eternity? Two of the most central components of Christian life, according to the Bible, are joy and hope. Yet there would be no reason for us to have either joy or hope if not for the glorious future that we’re looking forward to. So, not only is the Bible a fundamentally future-oriented book, Christians are a fundamentally future-oriented people. 

All of this is, of course, in stark contrast to the prevailing mindset of modern-day secular culture, in which people almost universally live as if this world is all there is. Their lives revolve around enjoying the treasures and pleasures of this world to the maximum extent possible. After all, life is short, right? So, you have to live it up while you can. Make the most of it, because this is all you get. That’s the prevailing mindset. And it makes sense for people who have no hope for the future to have that mindset. If there’s nothing in the future to look forward to, the only thing you have is the present. 

And if we were to be totally honest, I think we’d have to say that it’s a present that’s devoid of any sense of transcendent purpose. The fact that most people have no substantive hope for the future means that they likewise have no real purpose in the present. For the most part, they’re just living aimlessly and chasing whatever seems to be the most desirable or pleasurable in the moment. In the terminology of Ecclesiastes, their lives are futile. 

Yet God calls Christians to a life that’s radically different than that. And our main passage this morning of 2 Peter 3:11-18 is a wonderful example. In this passage, we learn that Christians should live in eager anticipation of the coming Day of the Lord. That’s the main idea we encounter here. Christians should live in eager anticipation of the coming Day of the Lord. 

If you were here last week, you may remember that Peter’s been talking about a climactic day in the future that he calls “the day of the Lord.” He talks about it first in verse 7 and refers to it there as “the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” Peter then writes in verse 10 that “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.”

So, this day that’s coming is going to be a terrible day for many people. Everyone who’s living in a state of rebellion against God will be judged and destroyed. We learned last week that that doesn’t mean they’ll cease to exist but rather that they’ll come to complete and utter ruin. And that’s a profound tragedy—because the Bible teaches that God’s given us a way to escape the judgment he’ll pour out on that dreadful day—and that way, of course, is through Jesus. As we’ve already said, Jesus died in order to suffer the penalty for our sins. He endured God the Father’s judgment so we wouldn’t have to. As a result, if we’ll simply turn our lives over to Jesus and put our trust exclusively in him to rescue us, that’s exactly what he’ll do. He’ll forgive our sins, transform our hearts, and give us hope for the future—and not just a “wishful thinking” kind of hope but a substantive hope—the confident expectation of eternal life. So, for those of us who are Christians, the Day of the Lord isn’t a day of ruin or destruction but rather a day of rescue and rejoicing. 

Not only that, we’re called to live our lives presently in view of that day. And that’s what our main passage is all about. Last week, we primarily learned about what’s going to happen in the future. And this week, we’ll focus on how we should live in light of that. 

This focus comes straight from the biblical text at the beginning of verse 11. Peter writes, “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be…?” That’s the question that everything that follows in this passage is meant to answer. In light of the coming Day of the Lord, “what sort of people ought [we] to be…?” How should we live? How should we think? What kinds of things should we pursue? And again, I believe the main thrust of Peter’s answer is that Christians should live in eager anticipation of the coming Day of the Lord.

And we can observe that mentality of eager anticipation especially clearly in one word in particular that’s repeated three times in the passage—the word “waiting.” By the way, whenever you’re interpreting the Bible, one of the things you always want to do is pay careful attention to words that are repeated. And as I said, the word “waiting” is repeated three times. 

Look first at verse 11 through the beginning of verse 12. Peter says, 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…. So, we’re supposed to be “waiting for” that day. Yet, we might wonder, in what sense should we be waiting? Should we be waiting in a relatively bored or passive manner—kind of like someone might be waiting at the bus stop for the bus to come or perhaps waiting in the waiting room of a doctor’s office for the nurse to call them back? I don’t think so. Instead of waiting in a bored or passive manner, we should be waiting in a very eager and active manner—because notice how Peter pairs the phrase “waiting for” with the word “hastening.” We’re supposed to continually be “hastening the coming of the day of God,” which means that we’re supposed to be doing whatever we can to cause the day of God to come faster. We’ll talk more about what exactly I believe Peter means by that a little bit later. But for now, just note that the idea Peter’s seeking to communicate here is that we should be ever so eager for that day to come. We should be “waiting” for it with a deep sense of longing in our hearts. 

Peter then uses the word “waiting” again in verse 13. He writes, “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” So, the “new heavens” and “new earth” that Peter speaks of here will be a place “in which righteousness dwells.” No longer will we have to battle the wickedness that plagues our modern-day society and that seems to be increasingly pervasive just about everywhere we look. And no longer will we have to battle even the wickedness that plagues our own hearts. Instead, we’ll be able to dwell in a place of perfect “righteousness.” Both the sin of the world around us and the sin within our own hearts will be eradicated. We’ll finally be free from all sin and from all the misery that sin brings. That’s what we’re “waiting” for and is yet another reason why we’re “waiting” with such longing in our hearts. 

And then, moving on to verse 14, Peter mentions our “waiting” one more time. He writes, “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these [that is, the new heavens and new earth], be diligent to be found by him [by Jesus] without spot or blemish, and at peace.”

So, when it comes to the Day of the Lord and the glorious future we’ll enter into on that day, the disposition of our hearts should be one of “waiting” with joyful expectation and eager anticipation. Think of the way a young child waits for Christmas to come. Throughout the entire month of December—and perhaps beginning even earlier than that—they’re counting down the days until Christmas. It’s in their hearts and on their minds and comes up quite frequently in their discussions with others. They just can’t wait for December 25 to finally arrive. 

Similarly, Christians should be waiting with the deepest yearning and anticipation for Jesus to return. This yearning is expressed in a saying that was commonly used by the early Christians. Paul employs the saying in 1 Corinthians 16:22, when he exclaims, “Our Lord, come!” We also find a similar exclamation in Revelation 22:20: “Come, Lord Jesus!” If you’re a Christian, that should be the cry of your heart. 

And I really appreciate how that saying phrased in that particular way emphasizes the deeply personal nature of the longing we should have. More than anything else, our longing should be for Jesus himself. The various other blessings Jesus will bring will undoubtedly be great, but actually seeing Jesus and being with him for all eternity will be infinitely greater. So, perhaps an even better illustration than a child waiting for Christmas would be someone waiting for a loved one to come home after a long journey. Think of the way the spouse of a soldier might feel during that soldier’s deployment and the way they’d long to be reunited once again. That’s the way we should feel about Jesus coming back. 

I also appreciate the way Paul describes what our attitude should be in 2 Timothy 4:8. He states, “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” Notice, at the end of the verse, Paul doesn’t merely speak of those who have “believed” in Jesus’s appearing. Instead, he speaks of those “who have loved his appearing.” 

This is in stark contrast to what Paul writes just two verses after that in verse 10, where he states that “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” Demas, at one time, appeared to be a Christian and was even a close associate of Paul. Yet we read here that Demas ended up deserting Paul and thereby showing that he didn’t “love” the appearing of Jesus but was instead “in love with this present world.” And friends, those are the only two options. Your heart will either be set on the return of Jesus and the joy to be found in him or it’ll be set on the treasures and pleasures of this present world. You can’t love both—so, you’ll love either one or the other. And a Christian, by definition, is one who “loves” Jesus’s appearing. Again, we don’t just believe in his appearing—we “love” his appearing. That’s one of the distinguishing marks of every true Christian.  

And returning now to our main passage, we see that this love and longing for Jesus’s appearing should be manifested in our lives in some very practical ways. So, let’s just walk through this passage and see what those are. Eagerly anticipating the return of Jesus should make all the difference in the world for our lives in these ways. 

Looking once again at verse 11, Peter writes, “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness….” So, first of all, we should pursue “holiness and godliness.” If there’s anything in your life that you do that you’d be ashamed to be doing at the moment Jesus returns, stop doing it. 

I remember one time, way back when I was in high school, I told one of the adult leaders at our church’s youth group that I watched a certain show on television. It was “That 70’s Show” actually—which has a lot of very crude and inappropriate jokes. And I’ll never forget what that youth group leader said to me. She asked me, “Would you still watch that show if Jesus was sitting right beside you?” And that was a really tough question—not because I didn’t know the answer but because I didn’t like the answer. The answer was obviously “no,” I wouldn’t watch the show with Jesus right beside me, which clearly implied that I shouldn’t be watching the show. And I was really convicted by her asking me that question. 

Yet I think we can easily modify that question and ask ourselves, with regard to any behavior or habit in our lives, “Would I be in any way ashamed to be found engaging in that behavior or habit at the moment Jesus returns?” If the answer’s yes, don’t do it anymore. So, anticipating the Day of the Lord should lead us first of all to live lives of “holiness and godliness.” 

Then, moving on to verse 12, Peter continues his sentence, “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!” We’ve already touched on the word “hastening” very briefly, but just to elaborate on that a bit: We saw last week from verse 9 that the reason Jesus is delaying his return is because he’s waiting for more people to repent of their sins. Peter wrote in verse 9 that “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.” In addition, Jesus teaches in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” So, why hasn’t the end come yet? Because God’s sovereignly determined that the gospel has to saturate this world to a certain degree before he brings about the end of the world. 

So, returning to our main passage, if we want Jesus to come back sooner, we can actually “hasten” his coming, as it were, by devoting our lives to spreading the gospel. So, when a stay-at-home mom teaches her children about Jesus, she’s actually hastening the Lord’s coming. When someone who works out in the marketplace invites their coworker to come to a church event, they’re hastening the Lord’s coming. When you or I invite our neighbors over for dinner and seek to point them to Jesus, we’re hasting the Lord’s coming. Everything we do in an effort to spread the gospel hastens the return of Jesus to this earth. 

Peter then continues in verses 13-14: 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. So, according to Peter, since we’re waiting for the “new heavens and…new earth in which righteousness dwells,” we should be ever so diligent to be found by Jesus in a condition that’s suitable for the new heavens and new earth, such as being “without spot or blemish, and at peace.” In other words, we should treat this life as a dress rehearsal for eternity. We should pursue the kind of righteousness now that will characterize the new heavens and new earth then. 

After that, Peter writes in verses 15-16, 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. 

To “count the patience of our Lord as salvation,” as Peter says at the beginning of verse 15, means to count the Lord’s patience in delaying his return as an opportunity for more people to be saved. Just a few moments ago, I referenced verse 9, where Peter wrote that “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.” Jesus is delaying his return because he’s being “patient” toward those who aren’t yet Christians. And here in verse 15, Peter once again references the Lord’s “patience” and essentially says that we should count it as an opportunity to share the gospel so that more people can be saved. God’s judgment is coming, but it’s not here quite yet. So, we should labor with all diligence and with a very real sense of urgency to see the gospel advanced while there’s still time. That’s how we “count the patience of our Lord as salvation.”

Then, in the rest of verse 15 and verse 16, Peter talks about all of this being in full accord with what Paul wrote in his letters. Unfortunately, Peter says, there are some who twist what Paul wrote. And Peter then adds something very significant to the end of the sentence: “as they do the other Scriptures.” So, Peter talks about false teachers twisting the things Paul wrote “as they do the other Scriptures.” Do you see why that’s so significant? Peter’s referring to the things Paul wrote as “Scripture.” He’s not just referring to the writings of the Old Testament as Scripture but is actually referring to the writings of Paul—his contemporary—as Scripture as well. 

So, we see here that the idea that the writings of the apostles were to be regarded as Scripture wasn’t something that gradually developed over the course of a few centuries. It was an idea that was present from the very beginning of Christianity—as evidenced by this verse. And notice that Peter doesn’t even have to argue that Paul’s writings are Scripture. He just refers to it in a rather nonchalant way. And that seems to be an indication that the idea that the writings of the apostles belonged in the Bible was already widely accepted. There was already wide recognition among the first generation of Christians that the writings of the apostles were divinely inspired Scripture. By the way, another example of this is 1 Timothy 5:18, where Paul refers to a statement of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke as “Scripture” as well. 

Peter then concludes this passage and his entire letter in verses 17-18. He writes, 17 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. 18 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. So, instead of being carried away by false teaching, Peter urges his readers to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Because the reality is that if you’re not moving forward in your spiritual growth, you’re moving backward spiritually. So, make sure you keep moving forward. Don’t be satisfied with where you are now. Don’t be satisfied with yesterday’s gains. Instead, “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 

And that’s how you can do what Peter’s been encouraging us to do throughout this passage and live in eager anticipation of the coming Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is, of course, the reality that undergirds everything we’ve been talking about this morning. It’s the great hope we have as Christians and the motivation for our holiness and the reason for our joy. We’re looking forward to Jesus’s return—and that eager anticipation of his return touches every aspect of our lives.

And I just want to say that it’s especially important for us to keep Jesus’ return in mind in the midst of the seasons of suffering we’ll inevitably face in this life. You know, it’s not uncommon for Christians who are experiencing significant trials to struggle with the question of why God’s allowing them to experience such immense suffering and also how God could be loving while at the same time allowing his people to suffer as they sometimes do in this life. 

And, to be clear, there are numerous biblical truths that are very relevant in helping us understand the answers to these kinds of questions, but one of the most important truths to keep in mind is that this world is so temporary and that the things we experience in this world, difficult though they may be, will soon be eclipsed by the return of Jesus and the eternal and undiluted joy we’ll experience when we’re finally with him. When that day comes, all the suffering we once faced in this life will be nothing more than a faint and distant memory. 

In addition, keeping in mind the Lord’s return is also a great comfort to us in the midst of the moral and cultural battles that are currently taking place in our society. And I’m especially talking about things like abortion and the abuse of children by many LGBT activists and several other very disturbing evils as well. Sometimes, our struggle against these evils might feel a lot like the trench warfare of World War I, where any small territorial gains that were made were often offset by comparable territorial losses. And that seems to be what’s been happening over the past several decades in our society. In fact, I think we’ve probably lost far more ground than we’ve gained. But praise God that it won’t be like this forever. 

As Christians, we advocate for goodness and justice and righteousness in society with the confident expectation that—regardless of what things look like now—Jesus will one day return and eradicate all evil and institute perfect goodness and justice and righteousness for all eternity. So, we should draw incredible encouragement from the fact that we’re on the winning team. We’re on the real “right side of history.” And even as we see our society going the way it’s been going these past several decades, that should only make us long that much more for the Day of the Lord and say with the early Christians, “Come, Lord Jesus.”