WHAT DO
YOU KNOW ABOUT ANGELS? Hebrews 1:14
I
had a visit with my family doctor this morning. Before I left, he asked me, “What do you know about angels?” I
responded, “Not much.” Then, I proceeded to tell him what little I do know. The
following is basically what I told him.
The
word “angel” means “messenger.” An angel is essentially a messenger from God,
one created and sent of God. Without question, there is a specific order of
heavenly beings called “angels.” The fallen angels (Rev. 12::4), are commonly
referred to as “devils” or demons (James 2:19). Those fallen angels are
messengers of Satan, bent upon the destruction of our souls. Whereas the angels
of God are described as “ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.”
The Angel of The Covenant
The Lord Jesus Christ, the
eternal Son of God, is called “the
Messenger (Angel) of the covenant” (Mal.
3:1). Commonly, in the Old Testament, when we read of “the Angel of the Lord” appearing
to men, as he did to Abraham, Monoah and his wife, etc., the one appearing was
the Son of God himself. Those pre-incarnate manifestations of Christ were
preludes to the coming of our great Savior to accomplish the redemption of his
people. To say that Christ is “the Angel
of the Lord” does not, in any
way, contradict the fact of his eternal Deity. He is both Jehovah and Jehovah’s
Messenger. In his eternal Deity, our Savior is God himself, over all and
blessed forever. In his mediatoral capacity, as our Surety and Substitute, he
is “the Angel of the Lord.” As the Angel of the Lord, “the Messenger of the covenant,” the Son
of God comes to men to reveal and fulfil all the stipulations of the covenant
of grace for us (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:6-13), thereby securing our “eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). Having
fulfilled all the requirements of the covenant as our Substitute, our Savior
now sits upon the throne of universal monarchy, ruling all things according to
the purpose of God as our God-man Mediator, to give eternal life to his people
(John 17:2; Rev. 10:1-6). He and he alone is able to fulfil the book of God’s
decrees (Rev. 5:7). He who rules the universe is God in human flesh, our Savior
and Redeemer, “the Angel of the
covenant.” Rejoice!
The Angels of The Churches
In Revelation 1:20, and in
chapters two and three, the pastors of local churches are called “angels,” because faithful men, gifted
and called of God to the work of the ministry, are God’s messengers to his
people. Not all pastors are designated “angels;”
but all who are truly God’s messengers to the souls of men are to be
esteemed as such. Why? Because God has ordained the salvation of his elect by
the hearing of the gospel (Rom. 1:16-17; 10:17; 1 Co. 1:21-24; James 1:18; 1
Pet. 1:23-25). Let no one despise or lightly esteem the ministry of the Word.
Gospel preachers are essential to both the salvation of chosen, redeemed
sinners and the edification of his church (Eph. 4:11-16).
People
often say, “I follow the Lord. I will not follow a man.” Certainly, there is a
sense in which this is right. Every man is responsible for his own soul. Each
one must search the Scriptures, and make certain that the preachers he hears
are true to the Word of God. God’s servants are not inspired, infallible
instructors to be blindly followed, or
priests to whom you trust your
soul. Yet, if anyone follows
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Circumcised
“ACCORDING TO THE LAW”
Luke
2:21-24
Our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled all the law for us, from the beginning to the end of his manhood, that he might by his obedience unto death bring in everlasting righteousness for us and put away our sins forever, and that he might do so in a way that honors God.
Even as he was coming into the world, our Surety cried, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God!” He did the will of God as a man, all the days of his life. When he had done it completely, he cried, “It is finished,” and breathed out his life in triumphant death. It is by his obedience to the will of God for us as our Surety that we are “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ” (Heb. 10:7; John 19:30; Heb. 10:10).
In
Luke 2:21-24, we see our Savior, Mediator, Surety, and Substitute beginning to
fulfil the law of God in the room and stead of his people. When he was just a
baby, eight days old, he was circumcised “according
to the law”
Circumcision was instituted under the law as a symbol
of the new birth, that circumcision made without hands by the Spirit of God.
The cutting away the filth of the flesh showed the necessity of God’s elect
being purified by his grace (Phil. 3:3; Col. 2:10-12; Tit. 3:4-7). But Christ
had no sin. Why was he circumcised? The answer is obvious. He was circumcised
as our Surety.
Identification
Circumcision identified the Son of God as one with
Abraham’s seed whom he came to save (Heb. 2:16-17). He passed by the fallen
angels. He passed Adam’s seed. He took hold of Abraham’s seed, to save
Abraham’s seed, God’s elect, his covenant people.
Understand
this. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not come to save Adam’s race. He did not die to
redeem Adam’s race. He did not fulfil the law for Adam’s race. If he had,
Adam’s race would be saved. Christ took hold of Abraham’s seed, came to save,
died for, and fulfilled all the law for Abraham’s seed, God’s chosen race, his
elect nation, his own peculiar people.
Blood Shedding
Circumcision required the shedding of blood. Here the
God-man shed a few drops of blood by a painful act done to him by order of
God’s law, as a foreshadowing of the pouring out of his life’s blood unto
death, by the order of God’s law, in the most painful, ignominious manner
possible.
Debtor To Do The Whole Law
By submitting to this ordinance of the law, our
blessed Savior voluntarily made himself a debtor to do the whole law for us
(Gal. 5:3). Circumcision was the legally required pledge of every Israelite
that he was a debtor to keep the whole law. Our Lord Jesus Christ, “by being
circumcised,” wrote Thomas Goodwin,
“did as it were set his hand to being made sin for us.” Christ hereby obliged
himself to keep the whole law for us, and to offer, not the blood of bulls and
goats, but his own blood to satisfy the law’s penalty for our sins.
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“ACCORDING TO THE LAW” Luke
2:21-24
Everything our Savior did as a man he did “according to the law.” When the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save his people from their sins, he willingly put himself under the law and became voluntarily subject to the law in all things as a man. He did so because God cannot justify the guilty except upon the grounds of strict justice. Righteousness must be maintained and justice must be satisfied in the exercise of mercy, love, and grace. He who is our God and Savior is “a just God and a Savior” (Isa. 45:20). “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged” (Prov. 16:6).
Made Under The Law
Therefore,
“when the fulness of the time was come,
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). Now, since his
work is finished, since he has brought in an everlasting righteousness and made
an end of sin for his elect, Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled. “The LORD is well pleased for his
righteousness' sake,” to justify us and forgive our sins. Our Redeemer has
magnified the law and made it honorable (Isaiah 42:21). Though the yoke of the
law was a heavy yoke, and only a shadow of good things to come, if we would
have those good things, Christ must bear the law’s heavy yoke for us. And he
did it as our willing Substitute and Surety. Though the carnal ordinances of
the law were what the Holy Spirit calls, “weak
and beggarly elements,” and but the “rudiments
of the world,” our Lord Jesus Christ submitted to all the ordinances and
institutions of the law as a man, that he might fulfil the law for us and bring
it to an honorable end.
The End Of The Law
Having fulfilled all the law
in the room and stead of his people, “Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom.
10:4). He is the end of the law in every sense of the word. He is the end of
the law as its object. The law was given to point us to Christ, to shut us up
to Christ. Now that Christ has come, the law has no other purpose. He fulfilled
it. Christ is the end of the law’s curse. The curse of the law was spent on our
Substitute. Therefore, those who are redeemed by his blood have no fear of
being cursed by the law (Gal. 3:13). Our Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the
law’s power. Having slain our Substitute, all who are in him representatively
are now dead to the law (Rom. 7:4). He is also the end of the law’s rule. Being
made free from sin in Christ, all believer’s are free from the law’s rule. We
are now ruled, motivated, and governed by the grace of God in Christ, not the
law of God (Rom. 6:14-15).
The Law Established By Faith
God’s holy law requires from all men perfect righteousness and complete satisfaction. It will not bend. It will not accept sincerity, repentance, or the greatest, most costly sacrifices men can make. How, then, can fallen, guilty, depraved sinners meet the law’s demands? How can we escape the wrath of God? There is only one way. – “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Our faith in Christ does not satisfy the law’s demands; but Christ, the Object of our faith, does. Thus, when sinners, who can never meet the law’s demands, believe on Christ, “we establish the law” (Rom. 3:31).
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Christ, he must hear, heed, obey, and follow those
men who are the angels of God to their souls (Heb. 13:7, 17).
Such
faithful men are portrayed as “ beasts (living
creatures)” before the throne of God
(Rev. 4:6-11). By the gifts and grace of God the Holy Spirit, they are bold as
lions, strong as oxen, compassionate as men, and soar to heaven like eagles,
seeking a word from God for the souls of men. Like the seraphs described in
Isaiah 6, they are humble, conscious of their unworthiness, but swift to do the
will and work of God to which they are called. With their eyes always fixed on
the blood, they ever set forth the glorious holiness of God. By the unction of
God’s Spirit, when God speaks by his servants to the hearts of chosen sinners,
they expose the sins of men and bring the gospel like live coals from off the
altar, and proclaim to all who believe, “Thine
iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged!” Gospel preachers, the
angels of God to the souls of men, lead sinners in the worship of God, giving “glory and honor and thanks to him that sat
on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever.” Blessed are
those people to whom God has sent a faithful man, as an angel of God, to
minister to their souls.
Ministering Spirits
Then,
there are those heavenly, ministering spirits, who were created and sent forth
by our heavenly Father to minister to (serve the needs of) those who shall be
the heirs of salvation.
God almighty has an elect
people scattered through all the human race, through all parts of the earth,
who must and shall be saved. For every chosen sinner there is an appointed time
of love when he must be called by grace (Ezek. 16:6-8). It is the work of the
heavenly angels to preserve and protect chosen sinners until the time of their
calling. They are instruments of God in prevenient grace, whereby the elect are
kept, provided for, and secretly directed, through all the days of their
rebellion, until they are brought at last to the feet of the Savior.
Yet, the angels’ ministry to
God’s elect is not over once the chosen are called. The superstition regarding
each person having a guardian angel is
as foreign to the Scriptures as the idea that babies who die in infancy become
angels. God’s elect do not have a guardian angel. All God’s angels are our
guardians. None of us will ever know, this side of eternity, what wonders the
angels of God have done to protect and care for us during the time of our
sojourn on this earth. When our pilgrimage here is over, the angels of God
carry God’s Lazaruses away to glory.
The angels of God are highly
intelligent spirits, excellent in wisdom and power, and are the secret servants
of Emmanuel’s kingdom, ministering to all who shall be heirs of God’s
salvation. Could we see how they watch over us, how they guard us from countless
evils, did we but know how safely they keep us in the midst of countless foes,
we would like the prophet’s servant see the mountains around us full of horses
and chariots (2 Kings 6:17). If a single angel destroyed seventy thousand at
God’s command (2 Sam. 24:15), and a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians
who came against Israel (2 Kings 19:35), how safe God’s elect must be, who are
protected by the angels of God, kept by the power of God, and secure in the
hands of our omnipotent Savior! Only in eternity will the heirs of salvation
begin to discover what we owe to the perpetual ministry of these ministering
spirits! Well may the heirs of salvation rejoice with such heavenly protectors
surrounding them and ministering to them with unceasing joy.