I think the key lies in the fact that angels have a will of their own. In the post on Lucifer we took a look at how the ability to decide what to believe possibly played out in his mind. In the last post, The Fall, we saw the angels exercise their freewill and the consequences. Now let's look at the possible reasons behind all this.
God is not a dictator. God will never make somebody return the love He is giving. God says, "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). God loves all of creation equally. "God is no respecter of persons""For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Acts 10:34, Matthew 5:45).
Since God is not a dictator there had to be a choice. He allowed the angels a choice. Some had faith! Yes! Angels have faith! The angels have faith that Jesus is who He says He is. "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is" (Hebrews 11:6). The angels had a choice. Come to Jesus or go with Lucifer. I think this choice had to be made before the creation of our reality. Why? "To show that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him""So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth" (Psalm 92:15,58:11). We will be looking into the justice of God next post.
Besides the fact that God wanted the angels that remain in heaven to love Him, serve Him, and worship Him, by their own choice, He wants to show us something. What might that be? Well, I think it could be that God wants us to understand that no matter how close we get to Him if we are serving Him for any other reason than we love Him, were lost. Lucifer was the most high, top dog, most beautiful, closest to God and still fell. Sin was found in him and I think that is the biggest point, the most important, the one thing we must get out of this.....Lucifer, God's chosen angel couldn't make it on his own. The angels in heaven that followed Lucifer couldn't make it on their own. How much less can we? We will never make it to God on our own. Sin separates us. "Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is" (Hebrews 11:6). Do you know what the best part of Hebrews 11:6 is? It's that it continues, "and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him". Are you diligently seeking Him?
What exactly is it we "must believe that He is"? We must believe that He is our Redeemer. We must believe that we can't do it on our own. We must believe that God IS! We must believe this, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). He gave Himself for us to set us free from every sin and to cleanse us so that we can be His people, His children. (Titus 2:14). Do you believe this? If not
In the next post of this series we'll look into God's justice and I'll explain why I ended post 9, The Fall, with Genesis 1:1-2.
3 comments:
Michael, I can tell you have really been giving this a lot of thought.
I would like to suggest something for your consideration. I think it more accurate to say that angels have a free will than to say they have faith. Let me give you some reasons.
1. There is no mention in scripture of the angels possessing faith.
2. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1 The angels have seen God. It requires no faith for them to believe in Him.
3. If angels possess the capacity for faith, then it would be possible for them to be saved. There is no scriptural evidence of this ever occurring.
Angels are indeed free moral agents. Once they rebel, however, they are irrevocably condemned. (Jude discusses this at length)
The angels rebelled against the Son of God has they chose to follow Lucifer through pride.
Just some points to ponder.
I meant to say, "the angels rebelled against the Son of God as they chose to follow Lucifer through pride."
Thank you for these points. I have thought about the faith thing. Here is how I came to the conclusion that angels have faith in some form or another.
Lucifer questions if Jesus is God.
The angels that followed him must have questioned the same thing.
The angels that did not question, that did believe, must have believed in something not seen. That something being before they were created. Angels are not omnipresent. They are experiencing reality in a sequential order.
Lucifer and the angels that fell did not believe in what Jesus was telling them. They could not see before they were created and questioned it.
The evidence of things not seen is the angels that did not fall. They are the evidence. They can not see before their creation. In the moment of decision they accepted Jesus based on what? It had to be faith in some form.
They can not see the future. They only know what Jesus tells them and so they have hope too. They hope Jesus is who He says He is and that His plan will go as He says it will.
I am glad you made the points you make. I hope everything that is ever said here make's people run to their bibles. I hope nobody that reads me takes anything I say at face value or even worse, a doctrin.
It's all just stuff I think about.
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