Imagine if there were a potential dimension to your faith of which you were previously unaware. That was my initial reaction to the 1979 book by Harold J. Chadwick entitled, “We Shall Judge Angels.”
I don’t know if what Chadwick writes reflects a scholarly consensus of Scriptural meaning, but Chadwick bases his insights on Scripture. His focus is on Biblical references to eternity, celestial beings, and heaven — not merely on those events referenced in the Bible that can be measured by the concept of time after the earth and humans were created.
If I am understanding him correctly, Chadwick proposes a divine purpose for mankind’s creation by God: Faith in Christ for the glory of God.
“Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40)
Although Chadwick concedes that no man or woman can fully understand the purposes or actions of God, Chadwick argues that our tests of faith exist as opportunities to overcome our inherent weaknesses — to the glory of God. And since we were designed by our Creator with those weaknesses, that our weaknesses have a divine purpose.
At the center of Chadwick’s belief is Scripture that proclaims that the Son of God, Christ Jesus, offers human beings forgiveness for their sins through faith in Him. According to Chadwick, when we choose to believe in Christ, it is to the glory of God.
Chadwick concludes from his study of Scripture that it is in the celestial context of an eternal struggle of love against hate, light against darkness, obedience against disobedience, harmony against chaos, truth against deceit, and Lucifer’s rebellion against God, that Christ’s obedience to God and sacrifice for our sins glorifies God — and that we similarly glorify God when we believe in Christ. In other words, Chadwick argues that it is not by acts — but rather by faith — that God is glorified. It is through our faith in Christ or our lack of it, that we either glorify God or deny Him.
Chadwick writes that when we choose to put our faith in Christ, our faith glorifies God. It is by our faith or lack of faith in Christ that we choose either eternal life with God or eternal death without Him.
Whether the glorification of God is the purpose for which we were created as Chadwick contends, or whether God had some other purpose for creating us, we may never know.
To me, faith in Christ means not having to know all the answers.
To me, faith in Christ includes trusting in Him when we do not have the answers to all our questions.
If my faith in Christ results in glory to God, then I am pleased.
If the purpose of my existence is for the glory of God, then I pray not to disappoint.
But it is for God’s gift of His Son that I am most thankful: “Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter 1:21)
It is through Christ that we may know God and spend eternity in His embrace.
Painting, “I AM,” by Akiane Kramarik. Subject to copyright.
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