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S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 5
who upon these special occasions were forced to see that He was the
Son of God, refused to receive Him. Their blindness corresponded
to their determined resistance of conviction.
When Christ’s indwelling glory flashed forth, it was too intense
for His pure and perfect humanity entirely to conceal. The scribes
and Pharisees did not speak in acknowledgment of Him, but their
enmity and hatred were baffled as His majesty shone forth. The
truth, obscured as it was by a veil of humiliation, spoke to every
heart with unmistakable evidence. This led to the words of Christ,
“Ye know who I am.” Men and devils were compelled, by the shining
forth of His glory, to confess, “Truly, this is the Son of God.” Thus
God was revealed; thus Christ was glorified (
The Signs of the Times,
May 10, 1899
).
Christ left His position in the heavenly courts, and came to this
earth to live the life of human beings. This sacrifice He made in
order to show that Satan’s charge against God is false—that it is
possible for man to obey the laws of God’s kingdom. Equal with
the Father, honored and adored by the angels, in our behalf Christ
humbled Himself, and came to this earth to live a life of lowliness
and poverty—to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Yet
the stamp of divinity was upon His humanity. He came as a divine
Teacher, to uplift human beings, to increase their physical, mental,
and spiritual efficiency.
There is no one who can explain the mystery of the incarnation
of Christ. Yet we know that He came to this earth and lived as a man
among men. The man Christ Jesus was not the Lord God Almighty,
yet Christ and the Father are one. The Deity did not sink under the
agonizing torture of Calvary, yet it is nonetheless true that “God so
[1130]
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
In every possible way Satan sought to prevent Jesus from devel-
oping a perfect childhood, a faultless manhood, a holy ministry, and
an unblemished sacrifice. But he was defeated. He could not lead
Jesus into sin. He could not discourage Him, or drive Him from the
work He had come to this earth to do. From the desert to Calvary
the storm of Satan’s wrath beat upon Him, but the more mercilessly
it fell, the more firmly did the Son of God cling to the hand of