Questions &
Answers with Dr. Bob Burrelli
Does every Christian have a guardian angel?
The evidence from Scripture that God mediates much of His secret will through angels abounds. There is the destroyer; the angel that carries out the last plague on Egypt’s firstborn (Exodus 12:23). He may very well be the one through whom God was prepared to destroy the unrepentant inhabitants of Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 21:15). God also sends two angels to rescue Lot and his family just before he destroys Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:13), the angel Gabriel to announce to Mary that she would soon be carrying the Messiah (Luke 1:26), Satan, the most beautiful of angels, to torment Job for God’s purposes (Job 2:6), and a demon to torment Paul, as he explains, “to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me” (2 Corinthians 12:7). Paul implies that God is the sender. Satan makes reference to God caring for His people with intervening angels when he quotes Psalm 91:11 to Jesus during His forty days of temptation in the wilderness, “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone” (Luke 4:11). Elisha prays to God to open the eyes of his servant, faint at the sight of the fierce Syrian army that surrounded them, that he might see God’s great angelic host arrayed in battle attire and riding chariots of fire ready to protect Israel (2 Kings 6:17). The book of Revelation has a number of instances where God sends His angels to proclaim on His behalf (5:2), fill censers (8:5), sound trumpets (8:7-12), pour out vials (16:4-17), and testify (22:16). Yes, God uses angels to carry out His purposes.
Oddly enough, however, amid all these examples of God’s intervening angels, there is not one reference to, much less any solid New Testament teaching passage on, the concept of a guardian angel that God assigns to each believer. One would expect at least one specific reference to it if it were that important. What is important is that we serve a Sovereign God who is in control of our lives. God not only began a good work in us, but He will continue it until the day of Christ (Philippians 1:6), ever conforming us more and more to the image of His Son, moving us closer to glory day by day (2 Corinthians 3:18), and working in us, “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). He has also given us the indwelling Holy Spirit to convict us, guide us, comfort us, illuminate His truth to us, and protect us. More than this, He has given us Jesus, who promises never to leave us nor forsake us. He is the One who “is in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27) and your only mediator. Finally, we have the Word of God, without which life would seem absurd. It alone is the lamp to our feet, the light to our path. The Lord is our strength and, no matter how He chooses to work in our lives behind the scenes ”something we cannot know.” He is our confidence.