Is there any scripture in the new testament that describes it this way?
It seems that, if God was not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), then repentance has to be available by free will to all unbelievers first. Right?
Read Ephesians 2:1-10.
Regarding "scriptures in the NT", it is sometimes claimed by dispensationalists that Scriptures in the OT regarding God taking out the heart of stone, and giving man a heart of flesh, are only applicable to Israelites at a future dispensation, however this is nonsense. It is talking about conversion in general.
And, it seems like those who say otherwise are simply trying to justify their own understanding of salvation.
I will quote from segments of a paper I did on salvation:
Here's the state of the fallen man:
The spiritual effects are the most important effect from the Fall so I will concentrate on them. Mankind was originally created in the image of God. He was meant to reflect God’s nature (Genesis 1:26-27). This image became tarnished by the Fall. He no longer fully reflects God’s image.
Due to unbelief, spiritual death entered into the world for all mankind (Genesis 5:12-14). Adam’s sin affects us personally.
The results of original sin include the following:
- The unsaved live in spiritual darkness (Acts 26:18, Ephesians 4:17-18, Colossians 1:13)
- The unsaved are spiritually dead and alienated from the life of God(Ephesians 2:1-2, 4:17-18, 5:8, Colossians 2:13)
- The unsaved hate God, are hostile toward him and his law and are under his wrath (Romans 1:30, 5:9, 8:7, Ephesians 2:1-3, 5:6, Colossians 1:21)
- The unsaved are slaves to sin (John 8:34, Romans 6:20)
- The unsaved reflect the character of Satan, and as such reject God’s authority over their lives (John 8:43-44, I John 3:8-10)
- The unsaved are spiritually deaf and blind and cannot understand the gospel message without God’s direct intervention (Isaiah 6:10, Jeremiah 6:10, Ezekiel 12:2, Mark 4:9-12, Luke 8:10, John 8:47, Deuteronomy 29:4, Matthew 13:13-15, John 12:37-40, Acts 28:26-27, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
Here's the segment about faith and repentance being spiritual gifts:
The amazing thing is that God himself gives us faith (Acts 16:14, Ephesians 2:8-9, 2 Peter 1:1, Philippians 1:29, Acts 3:16) and grants us repentance (Acts 11:18, 2 Timothy 2:25). Those who are saved have nothing to boast about whatsoever because of this; it is not about human works (Romans 3:20, 27-28, 4:5, 1 Corinthians 1:31, Galatians 2:16). Salvation is God’s work.
Here's the segment about regeneration, which precedes faith and repentance:
Scripture teaches about this new birth in John 3. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Pharisees, came to Jesus by night. Jesus told him that he needed to be born again in order to see the kingdom of God (v. 3). Jesus described this as being “born in the spirit”(v. 5). He described this event, using human birth as an analogy. Human birth is not something that we do ourselves; it is something that is initiated by another. So is the spiritual birth (John 1:12-13, Ephesians 2:8, 1 Peter 1:23); it is initiated by God himself.
As described previously, we are spiritually dead before salvation (Ephesians 2:1-3). Because we are spiritually dead, we need to be spiritually resurrected, or made alive again (John 5:24, Ephesians 2:1-5, 1 Peter 1:3, 1 John 3:14). It is a renewal (regeneration) that is caused by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). We become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Our heart of stone, insensitive to sin, is replaced with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Another metaphor is spiritual circumcision; God removes the foreskin of our hard heart and causes us to be spiritually sensitive to sin (Romans 2:28-29, Colossians 2:11).
Regarding this verse you referred to:
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
I would read this in light of the audience of the epistle. Who was the audience? The audience was elect believers. Some had not yet been called yet, but are part of the elect. God wants every single one of the elect to come to salvation, and they have not yet.
And, God really does not want the wicked to continue in their way and to suffer eternal punishment, but they will regardless because they need to be born again in order to respond to him. So does all mankind, by the way, and all mankind would perish if God did not save some by regenerating them.
It is similar to the days of Noah. All would have perished by their own merits. Noah and his family did not deserve to be delivered from the Flood. God extended grace on their behalf, and saved them, but he chose not to save the rest.
It is inescapable that God has an elect group of believers who will be saved, if one reads the Bible honestly. However, non-Reformed people simply clasp their hands over their eyes and deny this. They have been indoctrinated in Sunday School rhetoric which is basically some form of Pelagianism. It focuses on the alleged "free will" of man, and makes God their little puppet to control, rather than realizing that he is the sovereign Lord over all things, and he causes salvation.
When it gets right down to it, though, here's what it boils down to: a denial of the fallen nature of man and his moral inability. He can do nothing to correct his situation, and he doesn't even want to correct it, until God acts. He loves his sin. He doesn't want God intruding on his life. For those God chooses, he takes them by the shirt collar and yanks them out of the kingdom of darkness, and places them in the kingdom of light.
I've already phrased it this way hundreds of times here...the essence of the difference is this...
Free-willers claim the man, with a heart of stone, spiritually dead in sin, must produce faith and repentance in order to receive a heart of flesh that loves God and wants to please Him. Somehow he must dredge this response out of a heart that is incapable of rendering it. Reformed believers are convicted that God gives the fallen man, with a heart of stone and spiritually dead, a heart of flesh so that he can respond in faith and repentance. This corresponds with being "born again", spiritually circumcised, etcetera. This man, who has been given a new nature, freely responds in faith and repentance due to the new nature, and not from a stony heart. His stony heart could never have rendered faith and repentance.
All the dispensational claims that the Scriptures using this language pertain only to the Israelites is a ridiculous attempt to hang onto faulty theology regarding salvation. And, it is solely meant to deny God's sovereign grace. He extends grace to those he wants to extend it to. It's all over Scripture, and it really takes some intention to deny it. Claiming that God is limited by man's free will is pretty funny. to me (in fact I'm laughing right now over this, thinking about all the incidences in the Bible that deny it). Someone really has to be blind and indoctrinated to hold this dismal theology. For instance, thinking about Nebuchadnezzar eating grass like an animal for seven years in order to bring him to repentance is just one of many examples of God's sovereignty over those who think their will is the supreme, determining factor in their life course.
Yet, those indoctrinated by free-willer Sunday school rhetoric will stubbornly hang on to their theology, no matter what evidence is presented
It is amusing to me.
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