Second Chances

I was reading this morning in 2 Peter 2:1-22 and was blown away with somethings that I discovered from this. I did some digging on the fall of the angels way back when, and this is what I found. The angels were the first and most magnificent of all of God's creatures. They were under the rule and leadership of Lucifer, who's name means "light bearer". The angels were free, pure spirits and had been given the gift of free will. God tested this freedom with an ultimate choice. Some of the angels failed and were cast into darkness. 

Lucifer

Michael

We don't know for sure what this test was. St Thomas of Aquinas suggests that it was one of pride, the motive of which was excellence. The angels were created in the purity of grace and weren't prone to sin. Their rejection of God was a free choice. But they only had one chance, pass or fail.
This hits me like a ton of bricks, right smack in the chest! I have been given a life time to make choices that turn me away from God and towards my selfishness. If it had been left to me, I would have been in the darkness a long time ago...But God! See He had this plan all along I bet to save even me! He knew my bending towards pride, sin and self righteousness! All along, he knew. So when Jesus came and died on that cross for our sins, he died for all of them, past and present and future. Not just for me, but you and dang, everyone on the planet! That is so much sin, I can't even image the weight of that, cuz mine is heavy enough to blow my mind! 

Through one sin of rejecting God's love, the angels were condemned. I, who have repeatedly rejected his love through sin, am allowed to continue to live and am given many "second chances."