As Christians we know and take for granted that, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we become born again and the Holy Spirit comes to reside in us. But how many of us truly understand that it’s the most incredible thing God has ever done, and He’s done it to us. Before explaining, let’s look at the way it started.
God, being a Trinity God, IS a “Relationship” unto Himself. He does not need anyone or anything. However, since He Himself IS a Relationship, relationship is what brings Him His greatest pleasure. So what did He do? He Himself created each angel in heaven to have a relationship with Him and with each other in order to enjoy “relationships.”
Angels were created in heaven and created without sin; they received the BEST that God had to offer them in heaven. He loved them, and they loved Him back until Lucifer and one-third of the angels rebelled and sinned by rejecting what God offered; thus the first sin occurred. God then needed to create a place for them where He Himself does not dwell – in hell.
In eternity God is Light and Life; everything is good and pleasurable. Separated from God in hell means God is not there. Without God you get the opposite of Light, Life, good and pleasure. You get darkness and death – a separation from God, death and not annihilation – and everything is bad and is torment.
One-third of God’s angels who were saved in heaven became lost in heaven due to using their free will to reject God and what He had to offer. Obviously, God was very disappointed that this occurred, even though He knew it would since He knows all things.
At this time there is no physical universe and no “time” which a physical universe creates. God is in eternal heaven with two-thirds of His angels enjoying their relationship with Him. But then something very different occurs. God creates a physical universe that has “time” in it. Why did He do that? Eternal God does not need “time.” Time is temporary; it has a beginning and an end.
It appears from what has occurred that God may have thought, ‘Since I have created sinless angels to live in my presence and one-third of them rejected Me and the best I have to offer in heaven, I will do something different.’ He decides He is going to create a totally different type of sentient being, a being called mankind that He will create in His image. BUT He already knows they will fall when Adam disobeys Him and that ALL of humanity, from that point forward, will be directly created by sinful man through procreation.
This will mean that every human being will be born with a sin nature. God will be separated from them and invisible to them, and they will have to live their lives receiving the best THEY have to offer in a sinful universe vs. what God has to offer in eternal heaven. It is easy to look now and say why in the world would God do such a thing? He obviously knew what would happen, and yet He did it anyway.
All of us human beings who have a human father are born lost and destined for hell. It just doesn’t make sense, it seems. BUT one thing we know for sure—God is our Creator—and everything He creates He creates for His pleasure. Even though we are lost and destined for hell, God does NOT want that. He wants every one of us to come to know Him and to enter into a personal relationship with Him in order to go from being lost forever to being saved forever.
As we know, God sent His Son, Jesus, to Earth to die a horrible death on a cross in order to pay the ultimate price for our sins. He did not do this so that everyone gets a get-out-of-hell-free card. He did it so that NOW, through Jesus, we can put our faith and trust in His sacrifice on the cross to take away all of our sins. He did this for us so that, when we enter eternity, we enter with no sin and spend eternity with God in heaven.
What truly happens when we put our faith and trust in Jesus for our salvation? What happens is WHY God created us in the first place. God the Holy Spirit comes to indwell INSIDE of us, and we become “connected” to God.
Jesus said, “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20).
We become a “part of God.” This is HUGE. This is far, far greater than the relationship the angels have with God. They are not “connected” to God through the Holy Spirit.
A good example I used in an earlier article is this: Think of God as Windows and the angels as Mac. Mac is not part of Windows. It is separate from Windows but serves Windows. We Christians are a Windows “upgrade” and are a “part” of Windows. Does that compute? Sorry, couldn’t resist.
So why did God do it this way? Why did He connect Himself to us? For one simple reason – we all have a sinful nature, and that does not go away once we accept Christ. However, God wants us NOW to have a new “Godly” nature to replace our old sinful nature. When the Holy Spirit enters us, we receive God’s new nature in us to battle against our old sinful nature.
Who is it that knows the things of God? Only God Himself. And when God enters us through the Holy Spirit, He changes us. We become a new creature. We start understanding God’s direction and guidance, and even the Bible itself in a way we never did before. Why is that? It is because God Himself is revealing the truths in the Bible for us to know and live our lives by.
I did not come to know the Lord until I was 34 years old. I had only been to church a very few times growing up and did not even know the Bible had prophecy in it at that time. I came to know the Lord after reading Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late Great Planet Earth. And when I saw that approximately one-third of the Bible is prophecy—the future written in advance—I “instantly” understood the Bible; I knew that Jesus Christ and heaven and hell were TRUE. I did not want to go to hell, and invited the Lord into my life; it’s been a growing experience ever since.
A good example of how the Holy Spirit works is this: When I was in college I took a New Testament course because I heard it was an easy “A.” I needed an “A” at that time and took the course, read the New Testament, and made my “A.” But it meant nothing to me. Why? Because I did not have the Holy Spirit in me showing me the truths of God’s word. Once I started reading the Bible after being saved, the words almost jumped off the page in terms of me understanding them and seeing them in a way I never could have before.
This is why so many liberal theologians can study the Bible for 50 years and not believe in the virgin birth or the miracles in the Bible, because they don’t have the Holy Spirit to teach them and guide them. This is also why the Bible says that “the things of God are foolishness to the world.” Why is that? Because the world does not have God’s Holy Spirit to reveal their foolishness to them.
The good news is that God gives us His nature in order that we can enter into a personal relationship with Him now and forever, and to have Him guide and direct us in our journey here on Earth and to strengthen us to be able to please Him, serve Him, and have our new Godly nature overpower our old sin nature. It is also the reason God created a universe with TIME in it.
The main purpose of “time” is for each lost human being to have “time” to come to know God and enter into a relationship with Him.
Where we spend eternity is determined by where we are when we enter eternity, which is either in heaven when we enter with no sins through Christ, or in hell when we enter eternity with sins and without Christ. The fallen angels who fell from eternity stay lost in eternity and end up in hell. Being created in eternity, they do not have the benefit of time as we do.
Now is it becoming clearer why God created us?
It obviously is far easier for angels who are created saved in heaven and receiving God’s best –much easier for them to have a personal relationship with God than human beings. God and the angels enjoy their relationship. But it is a much bigger “deal” to God, if you will, when lost human beings who live in a sinful universe come to know Him through their faith and trust in Christ.
It is such a big deal that the Bible says the angels “rejoice” when anyone comes to know the Lord.
There is a lot of symmetry in the Bible. For example: When Moses came down the mountain and presented the LAW to the people, the Bible says 3,000 people died that day. And on the day of Pentecost when God presented GRACE and the Holy Spirit to the people, 3,000 were saved that day. As Paul says, the law kills and grace saves. Symmetry is in that example.
We know that one-third of the angels who were created saved ended up LOST, and so could it be that only one-third of mankind who are created lost will end up SAVED?
We do know that Jesus said the road to perdition is wide, and many go there. The road to salvation is narrow, and few go there. That seems to give some weight to the possibility of the one-third of angels lost compared to one-third of mankind saved; but only God knows for sure.
The absolute BEST PART of all of this is IN eternity. I used to be concerned about the possibility of me “goofing up” somehow in eternity and maybe committing some kind of sin like the angels did with their free will. We will still have free will; however, unlike the angels, it will be impossible for us to ever sin and fall, for one simple reason – we are a “part of God – connected to God.” As God would never sin, we will never sin. We will love like God loves.
I think our relationship with God and Jesus in eternity will be different from the angels’ relationship with God because of our connection to Him.
I used to wonder, with all of the billions of angels and saints in heaven in eternity, how in the world will we ever get to be with Jesus one on one? Do we have to make an appointment and wait our turn?
It just might be that because we are a part of God now, that – just as the Holy Spirit is everywhere and is invisible – maybe in eternity, if we want to be with Jesus, we just call on Him and He instantly appears to us. He could do the same with billions of saints at the same time through the Holy Spirit becoming visible as Jesus Himself.
Time will tell – OOPS, eternity will tell.
In the future when we look at God, it appears that (since we are a part of God) we will no longer say God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit but will say God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit and all His saints. THIS is what I was referring to when I said at the beginning that God has done the most incredible thing He has ever done, and He did it to us.
Because of everything we’ve gone through with our sinful nature, residing for our whole life in a sinful universe with an invisible God, God wants to reward us with becoming a part of Him. This helps explain how the joy God receives from the few of us that come to know Him now and forever is far greater than the sadness He must feel for the many that do not come to know Him now and forever.
How exciting! How amazing! How incredible!
The Bible does not go into a lot of detail concerning what all this means inside eternity, but has told us enough to get us excited about being God’s child now and forever. Hopefully, this encourages us to live each day in a way that pleases Him and serves Him until Jesus comes to bring us Home.
Maranatha, Lord Jesus.