The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-10, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 1990 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

The question’s out of I Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 10. Now, I’m not so sure how critical this is to anybody’s salvation or their sanctification, but let me read a few verses before to set the scene. I’ll start at verse 8, “For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have authority on her head because of the angels.” Now, here’s the question, “because of the angels”-what does that mean? “Because of the angels…”

Answer

Well, many times in the New Testament, we have to transport ourselves to another dimension in which God is doing things that may not be directly related to us. There are times when God has spiritual purposes on the angelic level. Do you remember, we talked about that in our I Peter study in spiritual warfare? That, here was Job and this whole thing is going on in his life and the reason for the whole thing is God’s trying to make a point to Satan and Job hasn’t got a clue that this is going on. He’s just down there, his whole world is coming apart, he doesn’t know what is going on, and the issue is God is proving to Satan the doctrine of eternal security and the perseverance of faith. Satan comes to God and says, “Hey, you know that guy Job? If I do enough stuff to him, he’ll abandon his faith.” God says, “Have at him. I’ll prove eternal security with Job’s life. I’ll prove perseverance.” And, Job didn’t know what was going on.

There are times in this life when God when God may be doing things for supernatural purposes which are out of our sphere. And I believe that even salvation itself is something angels desire to look into. And I believe that God is demonstrating His majesty and His glory and His grace to angels through the church; Ephesians 3 says that, that the angels can see the manifold grace of God in the church. You see, angels don’t experience grace. Why? Because holy angels don’t what? Sin. So, they can’t experience grace, so God wants them to know grace. You say, “Why do they have to know about grace?” Because grace is part of the attributes of God for which they need to give Him glory. So, in order to demonstrate to them His grace, so they can praise Him for His grace, He says, “Look at the church and look what I’ve done with grace, in redeeming those wicked sinners.”

And, I also believe that God, in the church, is showing the wonder of His work (in perfection in the church), by how the church orders its life. And part of that has to do with the role of men and women. When a woman takes a submissive role--she who was made for the man--when she takes a submissive role and puts a symbol on her head (because in that culture, when a woman wore a veil, that was the symbol that she was submissive to her husband… And when the women in the church took the feminine role, in our society today--that’s different. I still think a woman ought to look feminine, and her hair can be that sign of her femininity, but her whole demeanor should be) that she therefore shows herself under her husband, and thus demonstrates the wonderful work of God in the church to the angels so the angels can give Him glory. 

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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