Strange beings

“You could never have known free grace and dying love if Jesus had not come to redeem you.

Unfallen intelligent spirits will say in eternity, ‘Do you see those beings bowing nearest to the eternal throne? Do you see those well-beloved creatures? Who are they?’ Spirits that have lived in other worlds will come crowding up to the great metropolis, and will say one to another, ‘Who are those courtiers — those that dwell nearest to God? Who are they?’

And one spirit will say to another, ‘They are beings whom God not only made as he made us, but whom the eternal Son of God redeemed by blood.’ And one shining one will say to his fellow, ‘What is that? Tell me that strange story.’ Then will his companion delight to say, ‘They were saved because the Son of God took their nature, and in that nature died.’

‘Wonderful! Wonderful!’ his friend will answer, ‘How could it be? Was there suffering for them, and pain for them, and bloody sweat for them, and death for them on the part of the ever-blessed Son of God?’ The answer ‘It was even so,’ will be news full of astonishment even to the best instructed celestial mind. Spirits will look at us with wonder, and say, ‘What strange beings are these?’

—Charles Spurgeon, “David’s Spoil” (sermon on 1 Samuel 20:30)

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to all those who were to believe in Him for eternal life. 1 Timothy 1:15-16