In What Way Will Christians Judge Angels?
00:00:00.000 | A podcast listener named Brooke has today's question. It's short and to the point. Hello,
00:00:09.440 | Pastor John, and thank you for this podcast. My question for you is simply, what does the
00:00:13.600 | Apostle Paul mean when he says that we are to judge angels in 1 Corinthians 6.3? Can
00:00:21.080 | you explain this text and its context?
00:00:24.520 | The context of the question is whether Christians should use law courts, secular law courts,
00:00:34.520 | to settle matters with each other, whether they should sue each other in secular court.
00:00:39.880 | Let me read it to you, 1 Corinthians 6.1-3, "When one of you has a grievance against another,
00:00:47.160 | does he dare to go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know
00:00:53.520 | that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you
00:00:59.600 | incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much
00:01:08.200 | more than matters pertaining to this life?"
00:01:12.520 | The first commentary I glanced at on this said this, "But exactly how we shall judge
00:01:21.660 | angels is not revealed to us." Now that's true, but we're not left without any help
00:01:30.680 | in Scripture. This is pointing to something absolutely mind-boggling when he says we will
00:01:39.000 | judge angels. And we would do well to reflect on it, which is what I enjoy doing, getting
00:01:46.180 | ready to answer this.
00:01:48.520 | Scholars disagree about whether the angels here are good angels or bad angels, angels
00:01:54.600 | who haven't fallen and are sinless, and angels who have fallen and are in the category
00:02:00.400 | of demons now. But it does seem strange to me that this would be a reference here to
00:02:08.760 | absolutely sinless angels, since the context has to do with sorting out what is right and
00:02:15.480 | wrong among Christians who have sinned against each other and are going to law to get it
00:02:21.400 | sorted out. That's not the sort of thing you would need if you were dealing with sinless
00:02:26.760 | angels, it seems like.
00:02:30.080 | So perhaps the reference is to judging angels, namely demonic spirits who had played a role
00:02:42.540 | in your life and had tempted you and battered you, and you can become a witness at their
00:02:52.880 | final condemnation by saying, "This is how I experienced demonic assault," so that you
00:03:02.080 | are a witness to their increasing guilt. That's a possibility. But I think greater things
00:03:11.160 | are being pointed to in this verse, and it's the greater thing that I want to mention especially.
00:03:17.680 | Remember, Jesus said, "God has given him, son of man, all authority," or authority,
00:03:26.160 | "to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man," John 5:27. In other words, if we
00:03:33.240 | have any role in judgment at all, we humans, it will be a participation in the rights and
00:03:40.520 | the authority of Jesus, the Son of Man, who has supreme authority as the judge of all
00:03:46.240 | things in this universe, because God has imparted it to him. And that is the most stupendous
00:03:52.200 | thing about this text, and others like it. Whatever the specifics are, the implication
00:03:58.320 | is we are being elevated to a status and a role in the coming ages that surpasses our
00:04:08.480 | present nature like the ocean surpasses a thimble full of water. Here's what I mean.
00:04:15.520 | In Revelation 3:21, Jesus says to the saints, "The one who overcomes, I will grant him
00:04:20.880 | to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat with my Father on his throne." Sit
00:04:31.880 | with Jesus on the throne of God who rules the universe? Try to let that sink in. And
00:04:42.680 | in Revelation 2:26, Jesus gives a specific example with the promise, "The one who conquers,
00:04:50.520 | who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations." Paul
00:04:57.600 | puts it like this in 2 Timothy 2:12, "If we endure with him, we will reign with him."
00:05:08.280 | So the spectacular thing about being told that we will judge angels is not mainly the
00:05:16.820 | specific ways that that will take place, but the inexpressible greatness of the status,
00:05:25.960 | the position given to ordinary people like you and me, ordinary people of God to actually
00:05:33.600 | share in the functions of the judge of the universe.
00:05:39.240 | Now I think this really sheds light on a very puzzling couple of verses in Ephesians 1.
00:05:46.880 | At least they used to puzzle me a lot, and I don't presume to have everything right
00:05:51.880 | and clear and full about them, but consider this. This is verses 22 and 23 of Ephesians
00:05:59.840 | 1. It says, "And God put all things under Jesus' feet and gave him as head over all
00:06:09.040 | things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." So
00:06:22.960 | the first thing he says is that all things are under the feet of Jesus. He's the absolute
00:06:29.320 | judge, absolute ruler over all things. And then, as such, it says that Jesus is given
00:06:38.200 | as head to the church—head, that is, in the sense that the church is the rest of his
00:06:45.840 | body. So he's got a head and he's got a body attached to his head, so he's not whole.
00:06:53.400 | So now you have a head with all authority over all things, possessing a body, which
00:06:59.240 | is the church of millions of believers, and then he says, "This body is the fullness
00:07:08.120 | of him who fills all in all." Now what could that possibly mean? That the church, as the
00:07:16.000 | body of the ruler of the universe, fills it all. My suggestion is that the way Jesus fills
00:07:26.560 | the universe is with his rule and his control and his judgment, and he does this by means
00:07:34.800 | of his body, who share in that rule and control and judgment, sitting on the very throne with
00:07:43.480 | Jesus. So the fullness of the influence and the presence of the Son of Man filling the
00:07:50.800 | universe is the presence and the action and the judgment of his people, positioned perfectly
00:07:59.960 | in every way for their greatest joy and his greatest glory.
00:08:05.400 | So my answer to Brooke is that even though I may not know the specifics of how we will
00:08:11.800 | judge angels, the truth of this text is a breathtaking exaltation of ordinary believers
00:08:20.400 | that should fill us with a continual sense of wonder and awe and hope and joy and confident
00:08:29.760 | engagement in helping others live this way, especially believers who are in conflict with
00:08:38.740 | each other and are being tempted to settle that conflict with worldly means rather than
00:08:45.800 | Spirit-filled Christians.
00:08:48.120 | Glories upon glories upon glories here, just speechless listening to you expound all of
00:08:53.000 | them. Thank you, Pastor John, for this answer. And Brooke, thank you for getting us here
00:08:56.800 | by sending us your question, we really appreciate it. And to all of you who are listening, thank
00:09:01.360 | you. You can stay current with our episodes on your phone or your device by subscribing
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00:09:11.120 | in our archive and you can send us an email of your own through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:09:19.240 | Well every once in a while we get emails in the inbox that just leave me just speechless,
00:09:23.840 | dumbfounded, because they arrive with not only a pointed question, but with very real
00:09:28.440 | life hurt and pain behind the question, seeking genuine answers to alleviate very deep, core
00:09:35.960 | identity struggles. Like the email we're going to field on Wednesday when we return, it's
00:09:41.120 | an email from a young woman who is the product of IVF. And her biological father was a donor
00:09:46.480 | she's never met, and she was just told about it. And now she feels like a part of her was
00:09:51.200 | sold as a commodity and it's having damaging effects on her search for her own identity.
00:09:57.320 | You won't want to miss this one, it will have connections more broadly to really anyone
00:10:01.980 | who's been adopted or conceived through any form of reproductive technology. That is on
00:10:08.640 | Wednesday when we return. I'm your host Tony Reinke and we will see you then.
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