Chapter 3—Incarnation Prerequisite to Atoning
Sacrifice
Christ has purchased the world by making a ransom for it, by
taking human nature. He was not only the offering, but He Himself
was the Offerer. He clothed His divinity with humanity, and voluntarily
took upon Him human nature, making it possible to offer Himself as a
ransom.—
Manuscript 92, 1899
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Not one of the angels could have become surety for the human
race: their life is God’s; they could not surrender it. The angels all
wear the yoke of obedience. They are the appointed messengers of
Him who is the commander of all Heaven. But Christ is equal with
God, infinite and omnipotent. He could pay the ransom for man’s
freedom. He is the eternal, self-existing Son, on whom no yoke had
come; and when God asked, “whom shall I send?” He could reply,
“Here am I; send me.” He could pledge Himself to become man’s
surety; for He could say that which the highest angel could not say,—I
have power over My own life, “power to lay it down, and ... power to
take it again.”—
The Youth’s Instructor, June 21, 1900
.
Man could not atone for man. His sinful, fallen condition would
constitute him an imperfect offering, an atoning sacrifice of less value
than Adam before his fall. God made man perfect and upright, and
after his transgression there could be no sacrifice acceptable to God
for him, unless the offering made should in value be superior to man
as He was in his state of perfection and innocency.
The divine Son of God was the only sacrifice of sufficient value to
fully satisfy the claims of God’s perfect law. The angels were sinless,
but of less value than the law of God. They were amenable to law.
They were messengers to do the will of Christ, and before Him to
bow. They were created beings, and probationers. Upon Christ no
requirements were laid. He had power to lay down His life, and to
take it again. No obligation was laid upon Him to undertake the work
of atonement. It was a voluntary sacrifice that He made. His life was
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