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Selected Messages Book 1
The purity and holiness of Christ, the spotless righteousness of
Him who did no sin, was a perpetual reproach upon all sin in a world
of sensuality and sin. In His life the light of truth was flashed amid the
moral darkness with which Satan had enshrouded the world. Christ
exposed Satan’s falsehoods and deceiving character, and in many
hearts destroyed his corrupting influence. It was this that stirred Satan
with such intense hatred. With his hosts of fallen beings he determined
to urge the warfare most vigorously; for there stood in the world One
who was a perfect representative of the Father, One whose character
and practices refuted Satan’s misrepresentation of God. Satan had
charged upon God the attribute he himself possessed. Now in Christ
he saw God revealed in His true character—a compassionate, merciful
Father, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
Him in repentance, and have eternal life.
Intense worldliness has been one of Satan’s most successful temp-
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tations. He designs to keep the hearts and minds of men so engrossed
with worldly attractions that there will be no room for heavenly things.
He controls their minds in their love of the world. Earthly things
eclipse the heavenly, and put the Lord out of their sight and under-
standing. False theories and false gods are cherished in the place of the
true. Men are charmed with the glitter and tinsel of the world. They
are so attached to the things of the earth that many will commit any
sin in order to gain some worldly advantage.
It was on this point that Satan thought to overthrow Christ. He
thought that in His humanity He could be easily overcome. “The devil
taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all
the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him,
All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship
me” (
Matthew 4:8, 9
). But Christ was unmoved. He felt the strength
of this temptation; but He met it in our behalf, and conquered. And He
used only the weapons justifiable for human beings to use—the word
of Him who is mighty in counsel—“It is written” (
Matthew 4:4, 10
).
With what intense interest was this controversy watched by the
heavenly angels and the unfallen worlds, as the honor of the law was
being vindicated. Not merely for this world, but for the universe of
heaven, was the controversy to be forever settled. The confederacy of
darkness was also watching for the semblance of a chance to triumph
over the divine and human Substitute of the human race, that the