Book Quotes: Angels

From Angels by Dr. David Jeremiah (page 61):

Suppose you received a letter today from a favorite friend who's far away. What would you do with it first? Would you stare at the stationary for hours, to analyze and admire it? Would you obtain a chemical analysis of the ink, to learn exactly what it's made of? Would you investigate where the paper came from, and how it was woven and cut?

No--paper and ink are simply the means of your friend's communication. What you're interested in is your friend and your friend's message. The paper and ink fully serve their intended purpose by simply bringing that personal message to you.

The same logic applies in our approach to angels. Angels are just a means of communication from the God who communicates. Through what angels say and do, God personally expresses his friendship to us and his fatherhood and so much more. What's important is the message angels bring--not the messengers themselves.

To a Deeper Love for Christ
Remember, however, that angels are always one-way messengers. They are God's messengers to us, and never our messengers to God. No one in Scripture ever prays to an angel, and neither should we. They are not go-betweens or mediators between us and heaven.

They are not mediators because there is Another who already fulfills that role--and praise God for that! "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Christ's mediation brings us what any mediation of angels could never begin to accomplish: the freedom and eternal salvation of our souls. "Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free" (Hebrews 9:15).

That's why in the New Testament the mention of angels is so completely dominated by a focus on the excellence of Christ in every way.