Basic HTML Version
Chapter 26
71
in Eden! How much was involved in the fatal eating of the forbidden
tree! But many are following in the very same footprints, in disobe-
dience, in breaking away from the law of God. When men selfishly
enter a course of disobedience to God they go on imperceptibly.
They do not calculate what the sure result will be when they enter
the path of temptation, and make but feeble efforts to resist, and
some make none at all. But when the scroll is unrolled, and God
looks over it, He will find that He has been denied in that place,
dishonored in another place; and as the roll is opened more and
more, the results of un-Christlike actions are revealed. The Word of
God was not fed upon, therefore their actions were not the result of
eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God (
Letter 69,
1897
).
The Garden of Eden with its foul blot of disobedience, is to be
carefully studied and compared with the Garden of Gethsemane,
where the world’s Redeemer suffered superhuman agony when the
sins of the whole world were rolled upon Him.... Adam did not stop
to calculate the result of His disobedience (
Manuscript 1, 1892
).
39
. See
EGW comment on Romans 8:11
.
42 (
Mark 14:36
;
Luke 12:50
;
22:42, 53
;
Philippians 2:7
).
[1104]
Stronger Than Human Desire
—The human nature of Christ was
like unto ours, and suffering was more keenly felt by Him; for His
spiritual nature was free from every taint of sin. Therefore His desire
for the removal of suffering was stronger than human beings can
experience. How intense was the desire of the humanity of Christ to
escape the displeasure of an offended God, how His soul longed for
relief, is revealed in the words, “O my Father, if this cup may not
pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”
Yet Christ had not been forced to take this step. He had contem-
plated this struggle. To His disciples He had said, “I have a baptism
to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!”
“Now is your hour, and the power of darkness.” He had volunteered
to lay down His life to save the world (
The Signs of the Times,
December 9, 1897
).
43 (
Mark 14:40
;
Luke 22:45
). Picture of a Sleeping
Church
—In this fearful hour of trial Christ’s human nature longed
even for the sympathy of His disciples. A second time He rose from
the earth and went to them and found them sleeping. This was not a