Chapter 6—Bore the Imputed Sin and Guilt of the
World
Christ bore the guilt of the sins of the world. Our sufficiency is
found only in the incarnation and death of the Son of God. He could
suffer, because sustained by divinity. He could endure, because He
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was without one taint of disloyalty or sin.—
The Youth’s Instructor,
August 4, 1898
.
He [Christ] took human nature, and bore the infirmities and degen-
eracy of the race.—
The Review and Herald, July 28, 1874
.
It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of
God to take man’s nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in
Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened
by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted
the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these
results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came
with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give
us the example of a sinless life.
Satan in heaven had hated Christ for His position in the courts of
God. He hated Him the more when he himself was dethroned. He
hated Him who pledged Himself to redeem a race of sinners. Yet
into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son
to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He
permitted Him to meet life’s peril in common with every human soul,
to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk
of failure and eternal loss.—
The Desire of Ages, 49
.
Wondrous combination of man and God! He might have helped
His human nature to withstand the inroads of disease by pouring from
His divine nature vitality and undecaying vigor to the human. But He
humbled Himself to man’s nature.... God became man!—
The Review
and Herald, September 4, 1900
.
In our humanity, Christ was to redeem Adam’s failure. But when
Adam was assailed by the tempter, none of the effects of sin were upon
him. He stood in the strength of perfect manhood, possessing the full
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