Ephesians 3:10-11

so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,


I’m hooked on the new show Person of Interest. The basic premise is that there is a machine tracking phone conversations, emails, and every wired video camera in America so that it can predict acts of violence. You are being watched. It’s a great premise for a drama, but what about the fact that you are being watched by angels? The “multifaceted wisdom of God” (NLT) is revealed to those in the heavenly places through the earthly church. It may seem strange to you that the body of Christ on earth is somewhat of an object lesson to heavenly beings. Good angels as well as demons see God bringing a diverse group of believers to redemption for His purposes and alternatively rejoice or shudder.

When God takes a life broken by sin and turns it around, the testimony not only affects mortals in this world but an invisible audience of angels. Jesus taught, “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).

The angels (both good and bad) were present at creations. They existed when Adam and Eve first sinned. I imagine they all watched with differing reactions at the sacrifice of Christ. And although we often think of angels as almost omnipotent, they are learning by watching the redemption of Christ play out in the life of the church today. How amazing to have the opportunity to have not only a visible affect on the world around us but on the unseen world of spiritual forces locked in battle. Only through observation of humans can angels understand mercy, grace, and redemption.

Most of us live our lives with far too little awareness of the stupendous realities around us. Most of us go through day after day and seldom feel the impact of the magnitude of what we are caught up in by belonging to Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the ruler of the universe. And we don't take enough time to meditate on how our jobs, our home life, our leisure, our church involvement -- how each of these fits into the cosmic significance of the church. And consequently our lives often lack the flavor of eternity and the aroma of something ultimate. O, that there might be more people among us whose manner of life mirrors something mysterious and wonderful and whose words have a cosmic significance. – John Piper