Saturday, April 30, 2011

Enemies and Footstools

But to which of the angels has He ever said: “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? (Hebrews 01:13-14, NKJV).

This first chapter of Hebrews draws to a close with a quote from Psalm 110, the gloriously prophetic Messianic Psalm and a source of several other quotes later in this Book. It then ends with a final rhetorical question to nail down the argument of Christ's superiority to angels.

It is not angels who will rule the ages to come, but Christ. It is not angels whose enemies will be crushed but Christ's, and note, please, it is the Father who promises to do the crushing on behalf of the Son, whom He beckons to take His place at the Father's right hand. This is the position of shared sovereignty on the Throne of the Universe. 

And this divine bequest had been recorded by David a 1000 years before Jesus was born. It held much weight as an inspired confirmation of Messiah's Deity, making it impossible for anyone who accepted the Old Testament as the Word of God to view Christ on the same level as mere angels.

Nevertheless, the temptation for early Jewish Christians in the face of persecution from their countrymen was to retreat into the old, accepted ways, and to treat Christ not as coequal with God, but as an angel. Throughout the millennia of Hebrew tradition, angels were venerated, and the lure was to try to honor Christ, while seeming not to blaspheme by worshiping Him as God.

On the surface, it was theological hair-splitting that would enable these Jewish followers to have Christ and Judaism - to remain in the past while seeming to embrace the future. The writer of Hebrews would have none of that, as we shall see as we proceed, but here he is simply and effectively providing the capstone of his polemic that demanded that angels be put in their proper place - as created beings, not the preexistent, eternal Son of God.

The writer goes further and delineates the primary mission of the angels, which is to minister, or serve, those who will inherit salvation. 

Don't pass over this lightly. 

These powerful, immortal, superbly intelligent creatures are meant to be ministers to the only beings capable of receiving the inheritance of God, the salvation he bequeaths to His sons and daughters by faith in Christ. We are deemed, in fact, coheirs with Christ, since He became human in order to be our Savior and Brother, and to usher us into the Family of God. 

Messiah gave no such aid to angels. Those who fell with Satan have no chance of redemption. Their doom is sealed for all eternity.

The image of enemies and footstools is derived from a very ancient custom, perhaps from even before the Flood, of a conquering King placing his foot on the back of the neck of a vanquished ruler. This was seen as the ultimate declaration of victory for the one, and humiliating defeat for the other. It was usually a precursor to ignominious and public execution of the loser.

This is the fate decreed for all the enemies of God and His Messiah. On that day of final battle, Satan and His demons, along with all unbelieving mortals, will be utterly defeated and cast into the Lake of Fire in Outer Darkness, where they will remain in torment and agony forever.

There are no gray areas of nuanced salvation.

The metric is nakedly simple - you have either declared for Christ in this life and, through that faith, attain eternal life in the New Heaven and the New Earth.

Or you have died as a congenital sinner, without availing yourself of the only way of escape.

You will either rule and reign with Christ, or you will be one of those enemies made His footstool.

Acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior, Creator God and Gracious Redeemer, or suffer the judgment that will result in an eternal sentence of punishment.

There is no middle ground in Redemption.