Chapter 4—Spotless Christ Was Perfect Offering
Christ could not have done this work had He not been personally
spotless. Only One who was Himself perfection could be at once the
sin bearer and the sin pardoner. He stands before the congregation of
His redeemed as their sin-burdened, sin-stained surety, but it is their
sins He is bearing. All through His life of humiliation and suffering,
from the time that He was born an infant in Bethlehem till He hung on
the cross of Calvary, and cried in a voice that shook the universe, “It is
finished,” the Saviour was pure and spotless.—
Manuscript 165, 1899
.
Christ was without sin, else His life in human flesh and His death
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on the cross would have been of no more value in procuring grace for
the sinner than the death of any other man. While He took upon Him
humanity, it was a life taken into union with Deity. He could lay down
His life as Priest and also victim. He possessed in Himself power to
lay it down and take it up again. He offered Himself without spot to
God.—
Manuscript 92, 1899
.
When He uttered the cry “It is finished,” Christ knew that the battle
was won. As a moral conqueror, He planted His banner on the eternal
heights. Was there not joy among the angels? Not a son, not a daughter
of Adam, but could now lay hold on the merits of the spotless Son of
God, and say, Christ has died for me. He is my Saviour.—
Manuscript
111, 1897
.
As the sinbearer, and priest and representative of man before God,
He [Christ] entered into the life of humanity, bearing our flesh and
blood. The life is in the living, vital current of blood, which blood
was given for the life of the world. Christ made a full atonement,
giving His life as a ransom for us. He was born without a taint of
sin, but came into the world in like manner as the human family. He
did not have a mere semblance of a body, but He took human nature,
participating in the life of humanity. According to the law Christ
Himself gave, the forfeited inheritance was ransomed by the nearest of
kin. Jesus Christ laid off His royal robe, His kingly crown, and clothed
His divinity with humanity, in order to become a substitute and surety
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