The Angelic Conflict - Part 46 -
Point 12. - The Existence of Free Will in the Human Race Perpetuates the Angelic Conflict -

Phase 1 - salvation. At salvation through faith in Christ, regenerate mankind becomes positionally superior to angels through the baptism of the Spirit and positional sanctification, Heb 1:1-14.

HEB 1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

Phase 2 - the believer in time. Experiential sanctification (eusebeia / godliness) = the unique spiritual life.

You can put another nail in Satan’s coffin now by being positionally superior to angels, and by living in your very own predesigned plan, you can be superior to angels experientially.

Phase 3 - the believer in eternity. At the resurrection of the Royal Family of God, believers become physically superior to all angels through the possession of a resurrection body.

For seven years, during the Tribulation, Church-age believers in resurrection bodies are a demonstration to demons that their position was totally wrong and God’s judgment is totally right.

If we were given physical superiority now in time, there would be no contest in the angelic conflict; for we must be an inferior but rational form of creation to resolve the angelic conflict.

1CO 6:3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels?

“judge” = fut-act-ind - krino = to make decisions for, to conclude, to approve, to decree, to rule, to govern, to preside over with the power of giving judicial decisions.

There is no difference between the heir and the slave here because the heir has not recognized all the assets that belong to him.

Even though the heir has in his portfolio great wealth, he doesn’t act any different than a slave because he doesn’t know, recognize, appreciate, or utilize those assets!

Before believers reach spiritual adulthood and understand the divine solutions, they act exactly like unbelievers.

1CO 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babies in Christ.

1CO 3:2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able,

1CO 3:3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

There is no difference between a carnal believer in his walk or his conduct of life and an unbeliever, when you are not cognizant of divine solutions which are at your disposal.

Being in union with Christ, we are joint-heirs with Christ, and are therefore adopted at the moment of salvation, Gal 3:26.

When a believer attains the adult spiritual life, then the lifestyle and the character of the heir begins to radically differ from the character and lifestyle of the slave.

2PE 3:18 grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

When you begin to learn about and utilize the divine solutions for your life, that’s when you as an heir begin to radically differ from those who are not heirs.

The ministry of the pastor-teacher is to get the believer out of the experiential stage of slavery and into the experiential stage of heirship and sonship, with liberty and spiritual freedom.

“God has four classes of intelligent creatures in His universe - angels, Gentiles, Jews, and Christians -

and there is more difference to be observed between Christians and either Jews or Gentiles than between angels and Jews and Gentiles.” - Lewis Sperry Chafer

“Should this statement seem extreme, it must be because the true and exalted character of the Christian is not comprehended. No angel is a son of God by actual generating birth from above,

nor is any angel made to stand before God in the pleroma or the fulness of Christ, Joh 1:16, which fulness is the fulness of the Godhead bodily, Col 2:9-10.” - Lewis Sperry Chafer

The believer’s recognition of his sonship and union with TLJC, and exploitation of the divine solutions from living the unique spiritual life, are what experientially sets him apart from the unbeliever and the carnal Christian.

EPH 6:10-11 Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Take up and put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

As a believer, there’s nothing that separates you from an unbeliever experientially until you take up the divine solutions by learning them, and put them on by utilizing them.

The angels are blown away that there’s more similarity between angels and unbelievers, than between angels and believers who live the unique spiritual life of the Church-age.

The mystery doctrine of the Church-age is the means by which ordinary people can become invisible heroes and glorify God as a witness for the prosecution against Satan and all fallen angels, -

- and they can have a tremendous impact which will be recognized in the future ages forever and ever and ever.

Robert R. McLaughlin Bible Ministries

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Robert R. McLaughlin 2001