Why doesn't God forgive Satan?

False utterly is it that the Lord Jesus is "the Brother of the fallen angels": surely a shameless speaking for God, without warrant of scripture, nay against it. For it is expressly shown in Heb. 2. that on the one hand, since the children were partakers of blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner took part in the same, and that on the other, He does not take up angels but takes up the seed of Abraham (or the children spoken of, those who believe). Hence He became man to die for men; He did not become an angel to die for angels. The grace of God appeared accordingly that brings salvation to all men, though unavailing if they believe not; but not a word of God speaks of salvation for angels. The holy angels do not need it; the fallen ones await their everlasting doom. They were not tempted like man and have no Saviour, no Mediator, like Christ Jesus a Man.

It is mere recklessness to affirm that angels and men are of the same family, or to infer it from angels being called men, as appearing in human guise. Can any thing be more a fallacy than that the two appellations are used indifferently? How absurd to reason, from Satan's being called "the god of this age," that we must be "of his kind"! But enough: has not a book so baseless and wild received sufficient notice? The anonymous writer is not one of the fallen angels. The door of repentance is still open for him (as we may thank God), not for them.

But there is a very solemn back-ground to the blessed entrance into the kingdom: "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (ver. 41). Observe, He does not say, Cursed of My Father, answering to "Blessed of My Father." God hates putting away. So when the awful moment comes for the curse to be pronounced on these wicked Gentiles, it is "Depart from Me, ye cursed." I believe it is the deepest sorrow to God, and throws all the onus of destruction on those whose own sin it was, who rejected His love and holiness and glory in rejecting His Son. "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." In the other case the kingdom was said to be "prepared for you:" not so when speaking about the curse. Hell was not prepared for poor guilty man. He deserves it; but it was prepared for the devil and his angels. Where the souls rejected the testimony, he does pronounce them cursed. He is the King, the judge. But whether it be the great white throne, or this earthly throne, it is "everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." There was no hope of deliverance for these fallen angels — no redemption for them. They wilfully and without a tempter departed from God. Man was tempted by an enemy; and God feels for guilty man, drawn away by a mightier, if not more guilty, rebel than himself. How solemn to think that it was prepared for others, and that men share it with these rebellious spirits? It was not in the heart of God to make a hell for miserable man: it was prepared for the devil and his angels. But there were those who preferred the devil to God; and to such He says, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." The same test is applied to them as to the godly before — the treatment of the King and of His messengers, or rather of Him in them.

Fallen angels are another example of those enjoying a position of favor, yet leaving their first estate. There is no suggestion that these had eternal life, but they had a position of dignity from which they fell, leaving their own habitation that is, the place in which God had put them, which is of course rebellion. In this case there is no possible salvation for them. These are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness" in view of God's judgment in the great day to come. Whether this refers to only a certain number of such fallen angels, or whether it is a moral description of them all, that is, confined and in darkness, even though at the same time engaged in evil work under the direction of Satan, it may be difficult to say. For we know that Satan even now leads many unclean spirits in wicked practices, though indeed they "tremble" in expectation of judgment. In this sense it seems possible that they are in chains and under darkness, for they have absolutely no hope.

Moreover innocent man would have neither the need, nor the desire, to pass a judgment about God. He would enjoy His goodness with thanksgiving. Man who is a sinner is in no way capable of judging rightly, either of his state, or of his position before God; he has not even the wish for it. No, God reveals Himself in His own ways with regard to man. An angel does not furnish Him the occasion for it as man does; an angel has no need of mercy, of grace, of forgiveness, of divine righteousness, of a sacrificing priest, of power which, while sustaining him in weakness, raises him up from the dead. An angel is not, following upon all these things, made like to Christ, the glorious man, identified with His interests by the incarnation. Angels are a witness rendered to the creative and preserving power of God. They excel in strength. We see in them creatures kept by God, so that they have not lost their first estate. Now, grace and redemption, patience, mercy, divine righteousness, do not apply to such a state, but to fallen man they do.

But the first desideratum is the want of life, life eternal in the Son. Till he gets life, what adequate sense of his sin? till then, how can he know God's holy nature in any real way? He has no more than a dread of God. A heathen might have this; and the evil spirits believe and tremble. So we are informed on divine authority, and revealed facts are explained by it. The reason is that they know too well there is no forgiveness for their rebellion. Although they believe Who Jesus is, it does them no good: they are sentenced to destruction. They sinned irreparably. There is no possibility of salvation for an evil spirit, for a fallen angel.

Once this poison gets into the system, there does not seem to be any way in which it can be expelled. It is like a malignant ulcer seated in the very centre of the soul, and whose noxious fibres net and permeate the whole organism, a leprosy defiling and corrupting the fountain of life, a fell weed which cannot be torn up by the roots, but which must multiply, and grow, and spread, even when the garden of the soul is under the cultivation of God Himself. The devil sinned and fell, demons have fallen, angels have sinned, and are reserved in chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day (Jude 6). For none of these does there seem to be any recovery. Man has sinned, and though it has pleased God to make him the object of grace, there is no recovery back into his primordial and innocent condition: he must have a new life and nature. Once a sinner is to be a sinner for ever, unless, through the intervention of God, a new nature is communicated, which has all its delight in Him. Whether this can be done for any other creature than man is a question which I am unable to answer: there is no indication in Scripture that recovery is possible for any other.

The only thing is innocence or glory - innocence in human condition - earthly; glory in a heavenly, Angelic condition sustained. Hence I apprehend, morally speaking, angels could not be brought back because of the knowledge of good and evil in the light with God; so man, Hebrews 6; but - innocence lost, with the knowledge of good and evil - the work of God according to His own glory, and hence necessarily bringing into it - or, a law, provisionally showing the abstract moral perfection of a knowledge of good and evil in a creature, but actually, relatively founded on a prohibition of evil, which brought in, where really apprehended, the conviction of sin.

The wonderful thing about man is that he can be changed. I do not for a moment doubt that God, who knew the end from the beginning, and had His counsels formed with regard to all His works before He put into operation His creative power, so made man that he could be changed in the whole principle of his being. We are not told anything about angels to lead us to believe such beings capable of being changed. Some of them have fallen away from God, and an opportunity of salvation does not seem to be granted to them. Man is the creature chosen of God in whom His workmanship of grace is to be displayed. What He has wrought as a Saviour will be brought to light in ransomed human beings.

The wonderful thing about man is that he can be changed! do not for a moment doubt that God, who knew the end from the beginning, and had His counsels formed with regard to all His works before He put in operation His creative power, so made man that he could be changed in the whole principle of his being. We are not told anything about angels to lead us to suppose such beings capable of being changed. Some of them have fallen away from God, and an opportunity of salvation does not seem to be granted to them: Man is the creature chosen of God in whom His workmanship of grace is to be displayed. What He has wrought as a Saviour will be brought to light in ransomed human beings.

The wonderful thing about man is that he can be changed. I do not for a moment doubt that God, who knew the end from the beginning, and had His counsels formed with regard to all His works before He put in operation His creative power, so made man that he could be changed in the whole principle of his being. We are not told anything about angels to lead us to suppose such beings capable of being changed. Some of them have fallen away from God, and an opportunity of salvation does not seem to be granted to them. Man is the creature chosen of God in whom His workmanship of grace is to be displayed. What He has wrought as a Saviour will be brought to light in ransomed human beings.