Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
“These things I have written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life . . .”
1John 5:13
“Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but into us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them who have preached the gospel unto you with the holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into.”
1Peter 1:12
From a letter from a brother in Colorado.
I recently received a letter from a brother in Christ in which he made a statement that gave me pause. I will pass it on to you because it is thought-provoking. Brother Gino made the statement that angels do not have eternal life within them. By that, he did not mean that angels would die but that they do not have God’s kind of life within them.
There are different kinds of life. An animal’s kind of life certainly differs from that of a man, created in God’s own image. Evolutionists may designate humans as being in the “animal kingdom”, but in God’s scheme of things, we are far above the level of animals. In comparison to the holy life found in the Spirit of God, however, the life of humans on earth, though they still be living and breathing and walking about, is death, and Jesus spoke of people in just that way. After Paul was given this new kind of life in the holy Ghost, he spoke of ordinary human life as death, too (Eph. 2:1; 2:5; Col. 2:13). He explained to Timothy that any young woman who is immoral “is dead while she lives” (1Tim. 5:6).
So, if living human beings are considered dead even though they have a form of life, could that also apply to the kind of life which the angels have? Peter did say that the angels cannot understand the life we live in Christ any more than the Old Testament prophets could understand it (1Pet. 1:12). And Paul taught that creatures who have authority in heaven are educated in the ways of God by observing those who walk in the Spirit (Eph. 2:10). The angels, according to Hebrews 1:14, are servants to the saints of God, and Jesus told us that servants do not know what their masters are doing (Jn. 15:15). The world to come will not be governed by angels, but by those who have God’s eternal life dwelling within them ( Heb. 2:5-8). Presumably, this is because the angels would be incapable of ruling over the new earth, having no calling or anointing from God to do so.
Certainly, the angels live. They move between heaven and earth as God directs them. They speak; they sing; they carry out holy functions according to the anointing that each one has. They have a life, but what kind? Jesus said that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood have eternal life (Jn. 6:54). The angels have never eaten the flesh of Christ or drunk his blood. They do not have fellowship in the blood of Christ with the saints; otherwise, they would understand the gospel and partake of it. Jesus said that he would give his sheep eternal life (Jn. 10:28). The angels are never called God’s sheep; nor are they ever called the redeemed of the Lord or “joint-heirs with Christ”.
“Eternal life” is clearly more than mere length of days. It is a special, holy kind of life, God’s own life, and it is given only to those whom He chooses to become His children. It speaks to the greatness of God that He can not only create but He can create creatures that possess kinds of life different from His own. Surely, there is no end to His wisdom and power. There is nothing He cannot do. His understanding is infinite, and all His ways are “past finding out”. He is of such majesty that, although having eternal life, the saints on earth can see it but “through a glass darkly”. Someday, however, we will behold Him face to face and enjoy with Him to the fullest the eternal life that by His grace we share.