"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will happen to the ungodly and the sinner?"
Absurd, then, are those interpreters who think that we shall be hardly and with difficulty saved, when we shall come before God in judgment; for it is the present and not the future time that Peter refers to; nor does he speak of God’s strictness or rigour, but shews how many and what arduous difficulties must be surmounted by the Christian before he reaches the goal. Sinner here means a wicked man (52) and the righteous are not those who are altogether perfect in righteousness, but who strive to live righteously. 