S-16 - Shareholder of the Divine Nature & Heirs in the Kingdom
56Shareholder of the Divine Nature & Heirs in the Kingdom
Shareholder of the Divine Nature & Heirs in the Kingdom
This is our third session on better understanding the New Commandment that Jesus gave us. This morning I will be speaking to you on the essence of what it is to be a shareholder or partaker of the Divine Nature of God and why God chose us to be Heirs.
This message will challenge every religious mindset in order for you to come to that place where you fully embrace the fullness of Christ and the divine seed that he has deposited in you.
You are a carrier and a receptacle of the divine sperm of God. Does this affront you? Then my friend you have to deal with your religious mindset and study the WORD of God.
1Pe 1:23
(23) You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God.
1Jo 3:9
(9) No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God's nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God.
The question I am posting to you this morning is:
ARE YOU BORN AGAIN?
If you answer me and tell me YES.
I need to tell you that as a born again believer you are a shareholder and partaker of the divine nature of Christ.
To be born of God immediately implies that I am also a carrier of the very nature of God. Do we not see this very same principle in the natural. Your children carries the nature of their parents. It is in their genes. In the same way you carry the very nature of Christ in your spiritual genes.
To be a partaker of the divine nature means whatever the divine nature is, we who are born again are born of that very nature.
The question we are thus facing this morning is:
Who is God?
What is His nature?
To both of these question given our topic there is only one answer.
God is love and His nature is to love.
1Jo 4:8
(8) He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love.
Rom 5:8
(8) But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.
What we clearly see from this scripture is how God the Father, and Christ Jesus the Son collaborated in a particular manner to cause the expression of their nature to be fully on display, that is: that they loved “another” more than they loved themselves.
Through this action God defined in exactness the depths of what it means to love.
Joh 13:34
(34) I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another.
Mat 5:48
(48) You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect. [Leviticus 19:2, 18]
Both of these scriptures refers to love and to loving in a certain way. What is significant here is that The standard is the same for God as it is for man—the standard of love. To be perfect in love means to love as God loves.
The world system today and the world of psychology has defined love in different ways and flavors. People are using the terms of “tough love” and it’s attached to such concepts as being co-dependent, or being enablers. So love in the worldly system has been talked about in the alternatives of being “tough” or “tolerant” but these standards are irrelevant when applied to God.
The love of God is that which loves another more than God loves Himself.
What people do is they rush ahead to try to give expression to the meaning of loving another more than loving yourself. People of the psychology school of thought on “tolerance” would suggest this means that you should accept and tolerate everyone else no matter how bizarre their points of view might be because that’s what it means to love another more than you love yourself—or at least as much as you love yourself.
Those who are manipulators would consider loving by aggressively opposing others, in short, “tough love”; that is the appropriate standard.
According to the WORD neither standard is the standard of how God loves. Both standards are irrelevant and they constitute merely human popular psychological concepts.
We have to dig a lot deeper than that to understand what exactly it is to be a shareholder or partaker of the divine nature of love.
The first threshold is that you love another more than you love yourself.
There is no point at which this conflict becomes clearer and more apparent than the point at which your own life is at risk. If the choice is between your life and the life of another you can only love another “more” or “less” than you love yourself. You cannot love another equally if the choice is the life of another or your own life. If that is the balance there is no middle ground.
To apply in this concept in a practical way let me use an illustration. You had a hard day at work. You are tired. So are your mate. The children needs to be bathed. What do you do? If you step into the dimension of being a shareholder of the divine nature of God you will care for the children in spite of your own need for rest. You will sacrifice your own life to give life to your mate.
You cannot say that the answer is to love another as you love yourself because how do you resolve the question of giving up either your life or the life of another? How do you decide?
If you say that you love “less” then you’ll save your own life;
if you say you love “more” then you’ll give your own life
But when the issue is the forfeiture of your own life—there is no place for, “…as you love yourself.” That was the standard of the “old” commandment: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
Lev 19:18
(18) You shall not take revenge or bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. [Matthew 5:43-46; Romans 12:17, 19]
It was never probable that you would have to make a decision about whether you, yourself, would live or not. It was assumed that it was too much to ask of anyone that they would give their lives so it said, “Love as you love yourself.”
The love of God is not like that. The love of God is not, “…as you love yourself.”
The love of God is to love more than you love yourself.
On the cross, God on the cross called out to God the Father in heaven and asked that he be excused from this suffering. But God in heaven refused to hear the cry of God on the cross for relief and turned His back on Him.
Mat 27:46
(46) And about the ninth hour (three o'clock) Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?--that is, My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me [leaving Me helpless, forsaking and failing Me in My need]? [Psalms 22:1]
Why? Because of another… because of another; that “another” was us.
If God in heaven applied the standard of, “…as you love yourself,” to this situation then God in heaven would have a dilemma because God on the cross loved God in heaven perfectly. Therefore if the standard were, “Love me as I have loved you,” God in heaven would be obligated to save God on the cross. But that wasn’t the standard; the standard was to love another more than you love yourself. So God in heaven chose to reject the plea of God on the cross because there was “another’ whom He loved more than He loved Himself. YOU AND ME
You must understand that in all of the reality surrounding God this dilemma had never presented itself… not until now. It was normal for God to be in perfect fellowship with himself and the thought of rejecting himself—being estranged and alienated from himself—was inconceivable. The perfect harmony of God, God with God, on every matter for endless ages—for age upon age and for the age of man—all of the meanings of the term “eternal” was that God was in perfect harmony with God. So for God to accept separation from himself on the cross was for God to pay a price up to the present time or the time in question uncalled for and, arguably, unimaginable.
Now you will understand the cry of Jesus….. My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?
THE CROSS is where God prefer another (ME AND YOU) more than He preferred himself.
Why would Jesus say, “As I have loved you, so love one another” before the cross?
Jesus was already walking in this perfection of love before the cross and the cross of course represented the final act that definitively characterized the life of Jesus—one of loving us more than He loved himself.
Why would Jesus have said, prior to the cross in the John 13 and 15: “Love one another as I have loved you (past perfect tense). In all of my life previously there has been this consistency: I have always loved you more than I have loved myself.” Now that was before the cross and it doesn’t diminish the cross. The cross becomes then the final expression of this life of having preferred “the other” to himself.
It is a greater standard, a higher standard; it is to love another more than you love yourself.
The time that Jesus was dying on the cross God was choosing us over himself and over the Lord Jesus Christ—at that same time we hated God, we rejected God. We did not consider Jesus as God. Now with all these things being so, this is in fact the perfect expression of what “love” actually means because this is love.
So why is there this “new” commandment? What is behind it all? Why does God set a standard like this, that God loves us more than He loves himself, so that He puts himself at risk for us while at the time He does it, we hate God? Why does God accept separation from himself so that we—who are “the other”—might, in fact be benefited by the love of God?
What is going on here? I would like to suggest two very basic considerations: the first is that the creation of man was designed to test God’s capability of loving and the second is that the choice of man as God’s heirs is behind this standard. It’s behind why God loves us as God loves us and why we have to have the same standard of love as God has for us.
As we have been loved, so we are to love one another, which means that we are to lay down our lives for one another… or even the world; we’re to lay down our lives for the world, whether or not at the time the world loves us.
One of the things we said earlier was that in every generation it is necessary to teach again the foundations of the truth and when these foundations of the truth are taught it will not simply be the repeat of previous revelation but it will be the continuation of the unfolding of the plan and the purpose of God, together with the wisdom and revelation of the Spirit of God, complete with the knowledge and the understanding sufficient for every age. We will be building layer upon layer, precept upon precept. God is giving us this revelation of because He is preparing us for an inevitable conflict between the evil one and the Body of Christ and this is where our search for understanding needs to begin.
Now why is the standard of the “new” commandment —a similar standard for God as it is for man? The answer lies in God’s choice when God chose His heirs. God could have chosen either humans or angels. Instead of making the more likely choice of angels because angels are—by definition, they are a superior creation—instead of choosing angels as His heirs, God chose humans.
Now this choice was not uniformly approved by the angels because all of the angels immediately understood that in the choice of humans as the heirs of God that they would ultimately be destined to serving human beings. But God’s choice of humans as His heirs was a choice that would both test the nature of God to love and it would be the proper and appropriate choice if God were going to have children who, in kind and in nature, were like God.
We know that humans were created as triune beings with a spirit, a soul, were placed in a body in time and space. This body, in time and space, put us as humans at a substantial disadvantage in relationship to the angels because the angels were invisible creatures… at least when you consider their appearance within time and space. Sometimes angels can materialize but for the most part they do not. In this respect, the angels enjoy a substantial advantage over humans. They are stronger for example; they can move apart from the requirements of gravity so they have a sense of omnipresence when they are in time and space and in these things they enjoy an enormous advantage over humans.
Angels also come from the realms of heaven where they have knowledge of things that will affect the earth before people in the linear progression of time could possibly know about these things unless they are given some prophetic revelation or an experience that takes them out of “time”. Thus you will agree with me that the angels were far superior to humans as a created being.
Even the Scriptures refer to the comparison between angels and humans as, “humans being made a little lower than the angels.”
Psa 8:5
(5) Yet You have made him but a little lower than God [or heavenly beings], and You have crowned him with glory and honor.
A third of the angels revolted against God’s decision and they were put out of heaven when this occurred. Michael and his angels suppressed the rebellion of Satan and his angels. But the rebellion was over the question of whether or not God had chosen wisely.
Did God choose the right heirs?
Obviously, point of view of the angels who fell—led by Satan in their rebellion and subsequent fall and now ruled over by Satan and certain councils of the demonic, was that God had made an incredibly stupid mistake because they judged the matter purely on the basis of the competence of the angelic as compared to the competence of the human.
When weighed in that fashion they would appear to be right. But the distinction and the secret of God in the matter was this: God could not have chosen the angels because the angels were not created with the capacity to love. They were only created with the capacity to serve. Angels are ministering spirits; they have no capability of loving.
Humans simply are different from the angels because humans can love and were made to be able to love. There’s not a single incident, Old or New Testament that implies that the angels are capable of loving. For you to be a Son of God it was not a matter of your physical competence or your abilities and power. For anyone considered to be a Son of God, the mark of sonship was always going to be whether or not you could love as God loves.
This is the critical fact and on this point we must keep in mind on our journey.
The fact that God put down the rebellion against Him only proved that God was more powerful than the enemy. It did not prove whether or not He was right. Human beings are the proof of whether or not God was right. We will go here and we’ll see how it ties in with the “new” command and we will understand the inevitable conflict that is our destiny between the Children of God and the children of the evil one.
If we then come to a place of understanding that what makes you and me different from the angels is the ability and capacity to love as God loves. What an awesome thought.
If you truly grasps this revelation you begin to understand why the enemy is out to destroy you in your soul dimension. Why do you think so many seeds of discord, discontent, hate and unforgiveness are planted in your life?
The enemy knows that your ability to love and to be loved is what is going to be the turning factor in being an overcomer and a true son of God that will reflect Jesus in conduct and life. Both in image and likeness.
1Jo 4:16-18
(16) And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.
(17) In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him], because as He is, so are we in this world.
(18) There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love's complete perfection].
The Nature of God and Man
We must also study why the nature of God and man must be the same regarding this matter of love. As I said earlier, this goes back to the time that God had to made the choice as to who His heirs would be. His heirs would not simply be those who inherited things from Him but who would have the same nature as God himself. It’s interesting to keep in mind the fact that when God made humans he gave them a spirit by breathing from himself into them. It meant that the spirit of man is of the same kind and nature as God himself and represents an impartation from the very person of God into the being of man. That is the nature of the human spirit. We already know that as born again believers we carry within us the very same spirit as Jesus did.
We need to understand that there are different kinds of spirits. The angels, for example, are a different kind of spirit—they are spiritual beings but there is no indication that the angels were created by this form of being a God-breathed spirit.
It’s apparent that various beings can have a spirit, but the spirit of the human being is a specific and particular impartation from God himself and we know the reason why.
Rom 8:9-11
(9) But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you]. But if anyone does not possess the [Holy] Spirit of Christ, he is none of His [he does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God]. [Romans 8:14]
(10) But if Christ lives in you, [then although] your [natural] body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of [the] righteousness [that He imputes to you].
(11) And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.
From this scripture it is clear that the intent of God was to live in man and to fellowship with man spirit to spirit. So the fashion in which humans are meant to resemble God is that of the spirit of man being like God—hence we see the term “the spirits of just men made perfect”.
Heb 12:23
(23) And to the church (assembly) of the Firstborn who are registered [as citizens] in heaven, and to the God Who is Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous (the redeemed in heaven) who have been made perfect,
“…You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,” – Hebrews 12:23b)—the display of the work that God has accomplished when the sons of righteousness come to a state of being ready to be displayed following the work that God has done in them.
There are three heavens, as you know;
2Co 12:2
(2) I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows--was caught up to the third heaven.
There are three heavens;
- the highest of the heavens is the heavens of God,
- the second of the heavens is the seat or the situs of the demonic.
- We know that the third heavens are the heavens above the earth.
Eph 6:12
(12) For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.
Having, removed the rebellious angels by force, from the presence of God did not answer the question of whether or not, in His choice of heirs, God was right. It only proved that He was stronger, not necessarily that He was right. The justice of God precluded God from simply resorting to force and squashing the rebellion against Him concerning the matter of His choice.
How does God go about establishing justice? Well the proof has to be that these creatures, these humans—would have to end up being as the same “kind” and “nature” as God, to be like God in nature.
Let us take a moment and just establish from the Word that God did actually choose you and me to be His heirs.
Heb 1:4
(4) [Taking a place and rank by which] He Himself became as much superior to angels as the glorious Name (title) which He has inherited is different from and more excellent than theirs.
This scripture immediately suggests that there is a comparison between the Lord Jesus Christ, having come in the flesh,
Heb 1:1-2
(1) In many separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the Truth] and in different ways God spoke of old to [our] forefathers in and by the prophets,
(2) [But] in the last of these days He has spoken to us in [the person of a] Son, Whom He appointed Heir and lawful Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time [He made, produced, built, operated, and arranged them in order].
The reference here clearly is not to Jesus in His position before He came into the world but His position as He is in the world, which is that position of being clothed in His humanity. So He says that the Son was as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited (He inherited this name through His obedience) is superior to theirs.
Heb 1:5
(5) For to which of the angels did [God] ever say, You are My Son, today I have begotten You [established You in an official Sonship relation, with kingly dignity]? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He will be to Me a Son? [2 Samuel 7:14; Psalms 2:7]
Now this should strike you very oddly, shouldn’t it? All of a sudden the emphasis is a comparison between God calling a human His Son, and saying that He never called the angels His Son.
Why do you think God now bring the angels into the picture? Hebrews is not a book about angels or to angels; this is a book written to the Hebrews. Why is this, at the threshold, a comparison between the angelic and humans?
Heb 1:5: - I will be to Him a Father, and He will be to Me a Son?
Let us also look at another scripture:
Job 1:6
(6) Now there was a day when the sons (the angels) of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan (the adversary and accuser) also came among them. [Revelation 12:10]
So did God really ever say that the angels were not His sons? No but he never said that the angels were His heirs, It is that simple. The subject here is: being the heirs of God.
Now it is true that angels, like all other creation, may properly claim God as their Father if God indeed created them and since God is the creator of all things that are created, including the angelic, then it is appropriate to say that God is the Father of the angels.
Angels are an invisible creation and they are the prior creation… prior to the creation recorded in Genesis 1 and 2.
The emphasis here is not on being the Father by virtue of creation, the emphasis is on being the Father by virtue of this term: “To which of the angels did He ever say, ‘You are my Son; this day have I begotten thee’” (Inserted – actual verse—“For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? – Hebrews 1:5a). It’s about being the “begotten”. “For God so loved the world,” (John 3:16 says,) “that he gave his only begotten Son…”
To be “begotten” means to be born of God—not created, but born—born of God. That means that God issued you, as it were, from the very womb of God and that’s the term actually in Hebrews that we’re talking about here.
Heb 2:11
(11) For both He Who sanctifies [making men holy] and those who are sanctified all have one [Father]. For this reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren;
G80 - BROTHER
ἀδελφός - adelphos
Thayer Definition:
1) a brother, whether born of the same two parents or only of the same father or mother
2) having the same national ancestor, belonging to the same people, or countryman
3) his brothers by blood
If your siblings and you are born out of your mother then that is what makes you brothers. To be of the womb of God is what makes us brothers to the Lord Jesus Christ. This therefore is an inherent reference to being “born again” and not merely to have been created. So that’s what’s implied when the Scriptures say, “To which of the angels did God at any time say, ‘You are my Son; this day have I begotten you.’” No angel was born again of the nature and type of God.
Heb 1:6
(6) Moreover, when He brings the firstborn Son again into the habitable world, He says, Let all the angels of God worship Him.
This is one of the most fascinating passages of Scripture because the reference here is not to Jesus in His state before He came into the world.
John 1:1:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”
So Jesus’ existence as God predated His coming into the flesh but this reference is to Him coming into the world through the flesh and it says, “And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world”—that was the time in which He said—“Let all God’s angels worship him.” (Inserted - Hebrews 1:6)
A clear indication that the intent of God was—when Jesus as the Son of God was to be found in the form of human beings—the intention of God was to have the angels worship Him in His humanity.
Now the angels ordinarily worshipped Him in His divinity.
Joh 1:3
(3) All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being.
Prior to His coming into the world and after His departure out of the world, every knee will bow, as every knee has bowed to Him, of things in heaven—obviously the angelic—things on the earth, and every tongue will confess.”
Phi 2:9-11
(9) Therefore [because He stooped so low] God has highly exalted Him and has freely bestowed on Him the name that is above every name,
(10) That in (at) the name of Jesus every knee should (must) bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
(11) And every tongue [frankly and openly] confess and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This scripture is not a reference to His divine state prior to coming into the world but it is to be a reference to His state being found in the form of humans and it’s in that state that God required the angels to worship Him.
This is why Jesus would say, in Matthew 4, in the temptations of Jesus when Satan takes Him to the high mountain and says to Him, “If you will fall down and worship me I’ll give you the kingdoms of the world.”
The response of Jesus was —understanding - His purpose for being in the world and understanding His status with respect to this angel that was tempting Him—He responded by saying to this angel, “You will worship the Lord your God.”
Mat 4:8-10
(8) Again, the devil took Him up on a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory (the splendor, magnificence, preeminence, and excellence) of them.
(9) And he said to Him, These things, all taken together, I will give You, if You will prostrate Yourself before me and do homage and worship me.
(10) Then Jesus said to him, Begone, Satan! For it has been written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve. [Deuteronomy 6:13]
Jesus here is in human flesh. It was God’s design that when He would come into the world in human form that He would command all of God’s angels—fallen or unfallen—all of God’s angels were meant to worship Him when He was to be found in His humanity.
God describes the angels this way:
Heb 1:7
(7) Referring to the angels He says, [God] Who makes His angels winds and His ministering servants flames of fire; [Psalms 104:4]
So like the wind serves God and like fire serves God, so the angels serve God but they are not creatures of love, they are creatures of service. But about the Son, God says,
Heb 1:8-12
(8) But as to the Son, He says to Him, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever (to the ages of the ages), and the scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of absolute righteousness (of justice and straightforwardness).
(9) You have loved righteousness [You have delighted in integrity, virtue, and uprightness in purpose, thought, and action] and You have hated lawlessness (injustice and iniquity). Therefore God, [even] Your God (Godhead), has anointed You with the oil of exultant joy and gladness above and beyond Your companions. [Psalms 45:6-7]
(10) And [further], You, Lord, did lay the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the works of Your hands.
(11) They will perish, but You remain and continue permanently; they will all grow old and wear out like a garment.
(12) Like a mantle [thrown about one's self] You will roll them up, and they will be changed and replaced by others. But You remain the same, and Your years will never end nor come to failure. [Psalms 102:25-27]
And then He says—“To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’”
Heb 1:13-14
(13) Besides, to which of the angels has He ever said, Sit at My right hand [associated with Me in My royal dignity] till I make your enemies a stool for your feet? [Psalms 110:1]
(14) Are not the angels all ministering spirits (servants) sent out in the service [of God for the assistance] of those who are to inherit salvation?
Heb 2:1-3
(1) Since all this is true, we ought to pay much closer attention than ever to the truths that we have heard, lest in any way we drift past [them] and slip away.
(2) For if the message given through angels [the Law spoken by them to Moses] was authentic and proved sure, and every violation and disobedience received an appropriate (just and adequate) penalty,
(3) How shall we escape [appropriate retribution] if we neglect and refuse to pay attention to such a great salvation [as is now offered to us, letting it drift past us forever]? For it was declared at first by the Lord [Himself], and it was confirmed to us and proved to be real and genuine by those who personally heard [Him speak].
Heb 2:5-9
(5) For it was not to angels that God subjected the habitable world of the future, of which we are speaking.
(6) It has been solemnly and earnestly said in a certain place, What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You graciously and helpfully care for and visit and look after him?
(7) For some little time You have ranked him lower than and inferior to the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of Your hands, [Psalms 8:4-6]
(8) For You have put everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to man, He left nothing outside [of man's] control. But at present we do not yet see all things subjected to him [man].
(9) But we are able to see Jesus, Who was ranked lower than the angels for a little while, crowned with glory and honor because of His having suffered death, in order that by the grace (unmerited favor) of God [to us sinners] He might experience death for every individual person.
Amazing! verse 5 simply says that God subjected the world to come—not the present world, because the writer is writing from his place in the present world—but in the world to come which has to do with the inheritance of God’s children, the world to come has been subject to God’s children. This is their inherited right, this is what He gives them; He gives them the world to come, so we are clearly speaking about His heirs.
God did not subject the world to come to angels. Why not? Because they were not His choice as heirs. But He subjected the world to come to humans. Why would He do that? Because they are His heirs.
Jesus was here in all of his humanity together with being here in all of his divinity, but Jesus was here in the realm of being lower than the angels and in the form that was also lower than the angels. But now, where is Jesus?
He is risen and he is clothed with divine authority and seated at the right hand of God where all of God’s angels continue to worship Him. That’s our proof that we now, who are the sons like Jesus the Son was lower than the angels—we now are lower than the angels—but His state will be our estate.
Where He is now will be given to us for it has been given to us to be seated on our Father’s throne at His right hand. Jesus said, “It has been given to me to sit down at my Father’s throne”
Rev 3:21
(21) He who overcomes (is victorious), I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne, as I Myself overcame (was victorious) and sat down beside My Father on His throne.
(Revelation 3:21) and we who are in Christ are the heirs of God; we also will be seated at the Father’s throne…indeed, in spirit we are already seated there in heavenly realms, as Paul speaks to it and as John spoke about it.
From these Scriptures it is very clear that we are the heirs and that the angels were the alternative possibility but God did not choose the angels. He chose man and in answer to the question, “What is man?” although he is lower than the angels in his status in creation, what is man that God would have chosen him over the angels as His heirs? And the answer is: the angels are ministering servants and their service will include serving those who will receive salvation, but it was never in God’s intention as He created the angels to make them to be His children because He did not create them with the capability of loving as He had created humans with the capability of loving.
It is in the matter of loving that we are clearly meant to be like God. Therefore, the “new commandment” that requires this standard: “Love one another as I have loved you.”—the same standard for God as it is for man—is not an inappropriate command. Indeed it is the only command that could be issued to the children of God because anything short of that would be to accept that God’s children would fail to arrive at the status of being of the same kind and nature as God himself, and that would be for you to have children who have no possibility of being like you.
God is very serious about having heirs and the standard for His heirs is that they be appropriate to the one who is their Father. To be children of God has to mean more than simply being created. In that sense, if all it meant was to be created, we would be like the angels.
It had to mean that we were like God in nature and the nature in which we were meant to be exactly like God is the nature of love: “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Inserted – actual verse—“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” – John 13:34)
Now needless to say, the early rebellion of the angels presented for us the future of this drama: that the angels who had lost their estate would seek to destroy humans. That’s why there is an inevitable conflict between the fallen angels and the sons of God. How did God manage to pull this all off? The angels being so superior to humans, how is it that God managed to pull this all off? And in the end will God be proven to be right?
The answer of course is yes, God will be proven to be right.
Source:
Dr Sam Soleyn - 2003 Series
