"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will happen to the ungodly and the sinner?"
Now, whether Peter intended to quote this passage, or repeated a common and a proverbial saying, (which seems to me more probable,) (51) the meaning is, that God’s judgment would be dreadful against the ungodly, since the way to salvation was so thorny and difficult to the elect. And this is said, lest we should securely indulge ourselves, but carefully proceed in our course, and lest we should also seek the smooth and easy road, the end of which is a terrible precipice. 