Be sober, be vigilant; because
your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may
devour (1 Pet 5:8).
There is not a day that goes by that
we are not tempted by the devil. Do you concur with that? His classic
solicitations to us to commit evil by violating God’s standards of holiness is SSOP to
Satan – spiritual standard operating procedures (cf. 1 Jn 2:16). What is ironic
about this is that before Lucifer (Heb., Helel) succumbed to
arrogance (cf. Isa 14:12-14; cf. 1 Tim 3:6), as a cherub, he was assigned to
guard the very throne of God and protecting the holiness of God (Ezek 28:14;
cf. Gn 3:24; Ex 25:19, 22; 1 Kgs 6:27).
He is consistent, predictable,
passionately hateful, and opposes God and any and everyone related to Him. If
God said something, Satan, a.k.a., Lucifer, is going to twist or question it
(Gn 3:1) or contradict what God said (cf. Gn 3:4). Have you ever noticed that
he is always slithering to undermine God’s Word?
Our adversary is the antithesis
of Yahweh in every way. God is light; Satan is darkness. God is truth; Satan is
the father of lies. God is life; Satan is death. God is love; Satan is hatred,
God is holy; Satan is sinful, and so forth. After the fall of Lucifer, Yahweh
allowed Lucifer to retain considerable authority to scheme and deceive the
nations; he is currently the god of this world or age (2 Cor 4:4; cf. 1 Jn
5:19).
We never read in Scripture of
expressions of love by God toward Lucifer or any of the fallen angels referred
to as demons (cf. Mt 12:24). I want to be careful on this point concerning the
degree or lack thereof of God’s love toward angels, unfallen or fallen because
we never read of God’s love (agape) being extended to any angels in
Scripture (contrast Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8).
It is never said that the angels
were created in the image of God. This was reserved for Adam and his offspring.
The relationship between God and the good angels is not the same as between God
and the sons of Adam. This is not to say that God does not love the angels.
Would you have a problem with angels looking out for you? I am not even
remotely suggesting a love like for a pet; that would be degrading and
disrespectful to the unfallen angels. Could you not love them even though your
love for them would never reach the level of your love for Yahweh, and sensibly
so?
With that said, we are never
told to love the angels, only God and humans (cf. Mk 12:30-31), and we
certainly are not instructed to love Satan and his minions even though they are
enemies! The enemy God had in mind in loving is humans (Mt 5:44). Remember how
we show our love to and for God? Hint: Jn 14:15, in loving obedience to His
will. To obey our adversary, who is diametrically in opposition to God, is not
an expression of loving God!
Getting back to whether God
loves the good angels, I think that He does but not in a redemptive way, for
apparently from what we can glean is that redemption was never an option in the
angelic realm. When the angels crossed the Rubicon, that was it. It is as if
the will of the angels to obey and disobey was eternally sealed at some point
with the angelic rebellion.
Never could the good angels do
anything but good; and never could the bad angels do anything but bad! In other
words, we do not have to worry about good angels going rogue. Compare that to
the choice of a believer to obey or disobey Yahweh today! We do not lose our
salvation as genuine believers. God uses chastisement to address disobedience.
Free will is important to God.
Honestly, I don’t understand how that all works! There is simply not enough data to be conclusive concerning
angels. We pick up bits and pieces here and there from the Scriptures and
attempt to make a compelling doctrine. The problem is there are no experts in
angelology, only speculative ones!
The safest route is to stick to
the Bible though I have hypocritically conjectured here; at least I am admitting to it! What
has been revealed belongs to us (Deut 29:29). To go any further is to allow
silence to play havoc with the imagination, yes? We have a surer Word. The Word
of God is not about the angels but about God and us!
I must go apologetic in one
aspect concerning angels and man. Some erroneously maintain that angels are
eternal creatures but not man. The truth is that both were created (Heb., bara,
a verb only associated with God) to live eternally. What does that mean? Well,
it doesn't mean quite the same as God's attribute of aseity. To keep this
simple, God has no beginning or end; He is eternally self-existent, and self-sufficient. In other words, He has absolute autonomy. His existence is not
predicated on anyone or anything. He has always existed (Ex 3:14; Psa 90:2; Isa
46:9), and His existence and nature are eternally immutable (Mal 3:6; Jas
1:17).
We (angels and humans), on the
other hand, were created (bara, cf. Ezek 28:15; Gn 1:27), having a
point of origin. Once coming into existence, we will continue to exist forever.
Both angels and humans were susceptible to disobedience whereas God’s attribute
of absolute holiness is incapable of compromise.
Angels never physically die
because they are spiritual creatures, but the good angels will never experience
spiritual death, only Lucifer (the Satan) and his demon hordes (and other
critters reserved in chains in hell). Though the sons and daughters of Adam may
die physically (spirit and soul separate from the body), the spiritual aspect
of man continues.
Bear in mind that death in
Scripture never means cessation of conscious existence. Death refers to
separation, not annihilation. In the end, all evil angels are spiritually
separated from God in the lake of fire for eternity. All of those sons and
daughters of Adam who step out into eternity without Christ will experience not only a spiritual separation but also a physical separation from God in the lake of fire forever!
In the end, this is the
conclusion of the eternal nature of angels and man. Bad angels will exist in
the lake of fire, eternally separated from God forever; the good angels will
exist forever with God in glory; the sons and daughters of Adam who dies
without Christ will exist in the lake of fire, separated from God for an
eternity and the sons and daughters of Adam who die with Christ will forever
be with God in glory. Forgive the redundancy.
Right now, as I write, this can
be said of Satan,
Be sober [serious-minded], be vigilant [alert]; because your
adversary the devil [slanderer] walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may
devour (1 Pet 5:8).
You can ponder on Lucifer’s
motivation until the cows come home. It is a compelling hunger that actively
drives him to express his hatred of God and followers of Christ tirelessly. He
is determined, by all means necessary, whether by temptation, persecution,
discouragement, etc., to roam the earth seeking opportunities to gulp us down
entirely...
We know Satan is out there, we
are taking it seriously and on high alert. What do we do when he finds us?
Resist [to stand up against] him, steadfast [remaining
firm] in the faith, knowing that the
same sufferings [going through similar
trials from the same old lion] are
experienced by your brotherhood [brothers
and sisters] in the world (1 Pet 5:9).
This pain in the present from
our adversary is still under the umbrella of Rom 8:28 because nothing touches a
believer’s life unless God allows it to be so. And what would be the good here
to be under the lion’s attack?
But may the God of all grace,
who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a
while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you (1 Pet 5:10).
It reminds me of the eternal
weight of glory in the temporal moments of suffering. We, who are the called,
are we not called to suffer for Him – a while? To follow in His steps were
suffering steps, yes? Recall that the most emphatic promise of God is to never
leave us or forsake us (Heb 13:5). This means that God is in us and with us
before, during, and after the attack! This is never random chaos on what is
happening to us. Never forget that we are the apple of His eye; make no mistake
about that unchanging truth.
This ancient lion intends to
devour us, right? By acknowledging and taking this spiritual warfare seriously,
keeping on the alert, standing up against the lion, and remaining firm in the
faith, God is able to help us to withstand the lion’s attempt in making a meal out of us, too, “God working through our Christian struggles to produce strength of
character.” 1
God allowed the suffering so
that He can perfect, establish, strengthen,
and settle us to have the strength and
resolution of Jesus Christ.2 But not for us only, but for all the brothers
and sisters around the world. Rather than crying out, “Why?” or “Where are you,
Lord?” We can say like Peter,
To Him be the
glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen (1 Pet 5:11).
Peter died by crucifixion. His
last recorded words under inspiration were these,
To Him be the
glory both now add forever. Amen (2 Pet
3:18b). He knew about the ravenous lion. Paul said of this lion,
…lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices (2 Cor 2:11).
And neither should we be. There
is no let-up by the attacks of the lion and his pride.
No temptation has overtaken you
except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will
not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation
will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Cor 10:13).
What’s your plan when the lion
attacks? <><
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1. John
MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas
Nelson), 2005, 1922.
2. The
verbs here are future, not optative. They are expressing a promise, not a wish.
Peter is not praying that God may, but making an affirmation that God will, in
order to give his readers assurance. Alan M. Stibbs, The Tyndale New
Testament Commentaries, The First Epistle General of Peter, Grand Rapids:
The Tyndale Press, 1979), 173.
