Ok, this portion of Scripture is speaking of Gentiles and Jews.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
So how does that fit into what you were saying?
It is speaking of Gentiles and Jews only in relation to being of the elect. The verses are stating that the elect through Christ,
become new people and are thereby reconciled to God.
No, I'm wondering why a God that says He wishes that none should perish would then create a people for destruction. It's not making sense to me.
Okay first, if I get your question correctly, maybe the confusion is that you misread two words of the verses, upon which
everything hangs. Look at the below verses closely. In v21, the word is "dishonor". In v22, it is "destruction".
These are different words with different meanings and intent. Those of one lump are to dishonour insofar as they are not of the lump of elect and so not justified by Christ (it is only by Christ that no dishonour is assessed). But... instead, by their violation of John 3:19, are they fitted to destruction. In other words, dishonour is not synonymous with destruction - different situations are being described. As I tried to say in my prior post, is that we should all be of the dishonour lump, but only by God's grace and mercy are any of us (the elect) of the other non-dishonour lump. Those of the dishonour lump remain "natural man" throughout their lives, and as such, by man's nature, place trust in their works for salvation instead of fully in Christ and His offering- it is that trust in their works that makes them fitted to destruction - but that was caused by Adam and Eve, not by God. It is just because God had not chosen to make them of the elect.
At least, for whatever it's worth, that's how I understand it.
[Rom 9:21-22 KJV]
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour, and another unto
dishonour?
22 [What] if God, willing to shew [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the
vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Second, to understand who Peter is addressing in 3:9 we need to look at the salutation of 1:1. If you read 1:1 below, we can
see he is addressing "them who have obtained like precious faith" through Jesus Christ - or, said another way, the us-ward of 3:9 are only the elect of 1:1, but not everyone, so God does not desire everyone to become saved or they would be.
[2Pe 1:1 KJV] 1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
[2Pe 3:9 KJV] 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering
to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
But that is not what those verses are talking about. That is taking them out of context.
Sorry, I don't follow your point with the above. Please clarify.
Anyway, hope that makes sense - it is not easy to explain and I'm not the best of writers. If it doesn't let me know
and I'll try to clarify.
