Good News
Creative writing from an angel’s perspective.
It all began in heaven, when Lucifer began to question God’s leadership. Lucifer was among the best of the best angels, he was one of the covering cherubs! (Ezekiel 28:14) But he was not content to be just one of us angels, he wanted to be like God. (Isaiah 14:14)
When I first heard of this I thought it was crazy talk. We all knew that we were created by God, and no one would ever dare confront God. God could destroy us with little to no effort. Powerful as we are as angels, God’s power is on a whole new level, I can’t even imagine a limit to God’s power. If you had seen what I have seen you would begin to grasp what I am saying.
I expected God to destroy Lucifer right away. After all, Lucifer only existed because God had created him and God made him perfect! (Ezekiel 28:15) Lucifer could only rebel because God had given him the freedom to do so. God could have made all of us angels so that we could never disobey Him. This is something I think about as I wonder how much easier life would be if God had just made it so we could never disobey Him. But that would go against His character. God does not force or coerce. God invites and guides, leaving us to make our choices. God gives us the freedom to love and obey Him, which also means that we are free to hate and disobey Him. (Joshua 24:14)
Lucifer was spreading his lies around heaven but his rebellion was not confined to heaven, it eventually spilled over to Earth (Job 1:6; Revelation 12:4, 7-9; John 14:30; Matthew 4:8-9). Of course, Satan could not resist once he knew that you humans were created. Although you are a little lower than us angels (Psalm 8:5; Hebrews 2:7) you were created in the image of God! (Genesis 1:26-27)
Once again, God could have made it so that humanity would never have an opportunity to rebel against Him. He could have made it so that the only options available would be in accordance with His will for your lives. But Lucifer would have accused God of being a tyrant. Lucifer could have said to the other angels
—“See what God is like? He creates humans but does not give them any real freedom. They are trapped in paradise, doomed to live forever without real options to know any other way of life.”
Maybe this was the reason God allowed Lucifer one tree, in the middle of the garden. God even warned Adam not to eat from it. (Genesis 2:17) Eve was aware of the prohibition (Genesis 3:3) but it did not keep her from approaching the tree, maybe she was just curious. Once she was close enough Lucifer spoke to her. Of course, he did not show up as his true self. He appeared as a serpent. Angels can be crafty, and we don’t have some of the limitations you humans have.
Lucifer used the same lie he had been using all along. Essentially, that God is a tyrant and is keeping good things from us. He says it in different ways but the essence of the lie remains the same.
—“There are good things on the other side of God’s will.”
or
—“You will be happier if you disobey God.”
Lucifer tempted Eve with the same thoughts that caused pride to swell in his heart.
—“You can become like God!” (Genesis 3:5)
Whenever we disobey God, that is what we are doing, we are placing ourselves above God. We believe that lie, that God’s laws are not for our own good, that He does not love us or want what is best for us. Lucifer is very good at making us think that God is keeping good things from us.
How often have you thought that if you disobeyed you would have more fun? That life would be better without God’s laws and guidelines? Those thoughts indicate we think we know better than God and we believe that God doesn’t want what is best for us. And when we disobey God we place ourselves above Him, making ourselves gods.
You probably know how the story goes. Eve ate the forbidden fruit and so did Adam. In a way, they became like God, because once they only knew happiness and pleasure, and now they discovered, fear, shame, and pain. God had indeed kept those things from them, but it was for their own good. Now that Earth had rebelled against God, by choosing to listen to Lucifer’s lies, what would God do?
What would you do? If the planet you had just created and made perfect rebelled against you? Imagine making everything perfect and having your creation rebel against you. How would you react?
What would you do?
God could have easily wiped humans out and started fresh.
But this would mean that God only loves those who obey Him.
God could have loosened His law a bit and said that the consequence of disobedience would not really be death.
But this would mean that God’s law was imperfect and His rules were too strict and essentially Lucifer would have been right to question God’s government. If God’s laws were not good then we might as well follow Lucifer or our own desires.
This was a difficult problem to solve. How could God uphold His law as good and perfect, which would mean that humanity had to die, and yet be loving and merciful towards humanity and giving them an opportunity to live?
I was not ready for the plan that God had. God decided that He would die in the place of humanity and offer eternal life to anyone who wanted it. In other words, humans sin and deserve to die because of their sins (Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:22), but God came and was born as a human baby (John 1:14, 34; John 10:15; Luke 1:35) lived a perfect life among sinful humans and died for your sins. (1 Peter 2:22; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:5)
Jesus should not have died because He did not sin. He was innocent and when He died He paid the penalty for your sins. (1 John 2:2; Isaiah 53:5) And that is why He can give you eternal life. He died the death that you deserve and He offers you the life that He deserves.
Jesus had to die (Matthew 26:39; Romans 6:10; 2 Corinthians 5:15) because God’s law was clear that the penalty for sin is death (Genesis 2:17; 3:3; Romans 6:23; James 1:15; Romans 5:14-15; I Corinthians 15:21). This way the law of God remains intact, the problem was not the law, the problem was human disobedience. God rescued humanity by sending Jesus to die in your place. Jesus was perfect in every way, yet He freely chose to die that you might live.
The eternal life that is freely offered to you cost God His one and only Son.
That is the part that blows my mind. God loves you that much. Jesus would rather be born as a baby and experience all the discomforts that come with being a human, than to just let you die for your sins with no hope of salvation. Jesus experienced being hungry, tired, and lonely, (Mark 11:12; John 4:6-7; Matthew 21:19-19; Isaiah 53:3; Mark 14:50) and He did not have to do any of that, but He freely chose to so that He could be your perfect example, so that you could know how to best live your lives.
That is the part that we angels could barely believe. We know that God is love, but we had not seen love demonstrated to this degree. When we witnessed Jesus being crucified, we wanted to go and save Him. It would have been easy for us to deliver Jesus and wipe out all who had caused Him any pain. But we were held back. We were not allowed to save Jesus because if we saved Him from dying on the cross it would mean that all of you humans would be forever lost. We angels had to stand back and watch Jesus die. It was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do, and I have been around for a very long time.
That is not even the best part of the good news. The best part is that not only did Jesus rise from the dead on the third day, He ascended to heaven and promised to come again. (John 14:1-3; Matthew 16:27; 24:30-31; Hebrews 9:28; Revelation 1:7; 22:20;)
When He comes again all of us angels will join Him. (Matthew 16:27; 25:31) It will be a great celebration.
