There is the further difficulty of reconciling the expressions of God’s desire for men with God’s absolute decree concerning man. It would seem clear that God wills with genuine desire when He does not will by executive purpose. This has led theologians to make use of the two terms, the decretive will and the preceptive will of God, or, His secret and His revealed will. For example, it is revealed that God would have all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, while He has not decreed universal salvation. Commenting on 2 Peter 3:9, Calvin says: “But it may be asked, If God wishes none to perish, why is it so many perish? To this my answer is, that no mention is here made of the hidden purpose of God according to which the reprobate are doomed to their own ruin, but only of His will as made known to us in the gospel. For God there stretches out His hand, without a difference, to all, but lays hold only of those, to lead them to Himself, whom He has chosen before the foundation of the world.”R. A. Finlayson, “John Calvin’s Doctrine of God,” in Puritan Papers: 1963–1964, ed. J. I. Packer, vol. 3 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2001), 136–37.
Thus it cannot be said that God merely desires the ultimate salvation of all men without also desiring their repentance and faith and sanctification: for, as Calvin says, that would mean “to renounce the difference between good and evil.” The position could thus be more clearly put as meaning that God desires all men to be righteous in character and life and to use the means He has appointed to that end. It is in harmony with the revealed will of God that without the use of the means appointed by Him the end shall not be attained. As a holy God, the Creator commands all His moral creatures to be holy, and He cannot be conceived as in any way obstructing their pursuit of holiness by His decree.
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