Hebrews 1:13–14

One more quotation (Ps. 110:1) completes this series. Here He is Son at rest after His work is finished. Man rejected Him, but He waits for God to act and make His foes His footstool, while He Himself sits at the right hand of God. So the testimony is complete, and every quotation fills its place perfectly.

To whom is that said? Who could be addressed like this? God never spoke that way to any created angel. To serve, not to sit, is what marks them out. God could not offer such a place as that Psalm describes to any mere man. To the Son of God before He became man such a word would have been quite out of place. From all eternity He could, and did, sit on the throne of God. But to Him as incarnate, how suitable! ... Always divine, but now a man too. ... He must be God as well as man — God to be there at all, and man for God to speak to like this.

No angel was ever invited, as He is, to sit on that throne. In fact, though the saints are to sit with Christ on His throne in the age of His display, no angel ever will. God made angels to serve, not to reign; they never did and never will.

He has His own right to sit down at God's right hand. But in this Psalm He is invited to take His place on high, because God is satisfied with the great work He has accomplished.

Jehovah acknowledges Him as Lord and places Him at His right hand, but it is "until…" Something lies ahead of Him. The seat He is to occupy is very high, yet it is only for a time, until what lies ahead comes true. The day of His poverty is over. The day of His patience has begun.

And the Lord Jesus Christ, rejected by man, is sitting at God's right hand as Man, expecting until His enemies are made His footstool. Patient grace is working meanwhile to call sinners to a knowledge of the salvation which He has wrought.

Psalm 110 declares Christ's present glory. It explains the puzzle of Christ exalted above, while men reject Him outwardly and He has none of His rights yet here below. ... At last, when His enemies are made a footstool, Christ appears in person to tread them down.

Christ is not yet sitting on His own throne... But the day is coming when He will put down His enemies and sit on His throne. According to the Scriptures, the present state of things is this: Christ is sitting at the right hand of God — until He makes His enemies His footstool. Look at all the wars and tumults and misery and wretchedness and superstition around us. Do you think that Christ is sitting on His throne?

One thing remained to complete this chain of glory: the place Christ holds now, still in contrast with the angels. That place rests on two things — the divine glory of His Person, and the completion of His work. It is at the right hand of God, who called Him to sit there until He had made His enemies His footstool. To which of the angels has God ever said this? They are servants on God's part to the heirs of salvation.

There are rulers in the angelic world — "rule and authority and power and dominion" (Ephesians 1:21) — but their rule only extends over beings of their own order. Dealing with angels, Hebrews 1:14 asks, "Are they not all ministering spirits?" Yes — God created them all to serve, right up to the archangel himself. As far as Scripture tells us, God made only man to have dominion over others.

The ministers are angels. The receivers of the ministry are heirs. They are fellow-heirs with Christ. They are heirs of a Father whom they know and rejoice in as their Saviour and their God. Once sunk in sin beyond all natural hope, they are now, through grace, made in Christ the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. The inheritance they wait for is one single word: "Salvation." Christian salvation is not just an escape from wrath. God sends His angels out to help those He counts worthy of such ministry, because they bear the title of His Son.

They are only spirits, glad to serve, according to God's will, such humble creatures as those who once were fallen sinners, but who will be heirs of salvation.

Take the Epistle to the Hebrews. There, too, salvation is always presented as a future thing. "He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him." The verse means God's people, not the unconverted, when it speaks of coming to God through Christ. For whom is He a priest? For the believer only. So in Hebrews the one who needs saving is the believer, because salvation there covers all the difficulties of our journey through the wilderness.

Still, it is a blessed place they occupy. God has appointed them to bring protection, comfort and support in this life to those destined for eternal glory. No doubt we owe far more to angelic ministry than we notice in matters of physical strength and wellbeing. Yet as spirit beings they keep their ministry completely hidden. They are content to remain unknown to us, so that only God gets the glory for it.

We are not told in what way, except that they protect us through God's providence. If God had given us details, that would open the door to the imagination of unbalanced minds. Instead we have this great comfort: angels, unseen and unnoticed, minister to us in a way that is enough for our needs, and God directs them in His love and wisdom.

They minister now to those who are the heirs of salvation, who bear the title of sons in His Son and who have His life. How little God's people make use of this comfort! It takes an active and simple faith to see the real workings of angels' ministry in what people brush off as accidents of time and place.