Random Questions from a Bible Student (Questions #3)

Sometimes questions are just lovely in themselves. It occurs to me that some are to be pondered, some enjoyed, some even perhaps forgotten, and others pursued to answers. But not necessarily rushed to answers. How wonderful, even luxurious, is time given to think, research, pray, and "wisdom" them through, those that call to us. For example:

• Is grace always "unmerited favor" if the Bible says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble?
• Why don't people get that if we could prove God, He wouldn't be God? And if He ever allowed us to prove Him, He'd be diluting the very faith He requires of us; i.e., He'd contradict Himself?
• One verse says not to judge, other verses says to judge, and everybody takes the first one (especially) out of context as a license to do as they please. How do we untangle judging?
• Why can't the devil (and fallen angels) be saved?

The third one sounds like a future post, but I have comments about the fourth one today. It came up in one of my classes. Why can't the devil (and other fallen angels) be saved? 

The entire thrust of the Bible regarding celestial beings is that once they sin, they are permanently evil. There is no evidence to the contrary. I suggest that for God's own reasons they have been created in such a way that they are not capable of repentance or eligible for redemption. It's possible that when we resist this sort of thinking, it's because we consider angels as "closer to human" than to other beings (animals) who also can't repent and for whom Jesus didn't die. But is that valid? Angels, though certainly a different class of beings, are no more human than my cat is. 

I further suggest this different treatment of angels is tied in with the fact that only human beings are made in God's image. Our position as His image-bearers makes us different before God than the rest of His creation. Obviously, this doesn't mean no one will be eternally lost, but it does mean His love kept Him from wiping the human race out entirely and that He always has a remnant (Romans 11; Isaiah 10:22; Zephaniah 3:12). Jesus died for those created in His image. 

There's a school of thought that says (to oversimplify) angels and living creatures know God primarily as holy and humans know Him as love, and this is why the creatures cry, "Holy, holy, holy," day and night (Revelation 4:8). This seems plausible enough; perhaps it's the case and sheds light on God's use of judgment versus mercy, respectively. Another thought that struck me: We know Hebrews 1:14 defines angels as ministering spirits sent to assist those who will inherit salvation (implying, of course, they don't inherit salvation). What if it were possible that the angels sent to assist us sinned now and then? Could we know and trust what they were leading us into? (Would we, along with claiming "The devil made me do it" say "Angels made me do it"?) Isn't it a relief and reassurance to us that these ministering spirits, the ones God sends to help us, haven't sinned? That their "help" is guaranteed help? I think so!