Chapter 337—God’s Glorious Plan
That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 5:21
.
The plan by which alone man’s salvation could be secured, involved
all heaven in its infinite sacrifice. The angels could not rejoice as Christ
opened before them the plan of redemption, for they saw that man’s salvation
must cost their loved Commander unutterable woe. In grief and wonder they
listened to His words as He told them how He must descend from heaven’s
purity and peace, its joy and glory and immortal life, and come in contact
with the degradation of earth, to endure its sorrow, shame, and death. He
was to stand between the sinner and the penalty of sin; yet few would receive
Him as the Son of God. He would leave His high position as the Majesty of
heaven, appear upon earth and humble Himself as a man, and by His own
experience become acquainted with the sorrows, and temptations which man
would have to endure. All this would be necessary in order that He might be
able to succor them that should be tempted. When His mission as a teacher
should be ended, He must be delivered into the hands of wicked men and be
subjected to every insult and torture that Satan could inspire them to inflict.
He must die the cruelest of deaths, lifted up between the heavens and the
earth as a guilty sinner. He must pass long hours of agony so terrible that
angels could not look upon it, but would veil their faces from the sight. He
must endure anguish of soul, the hiding of His Father’s face, while the guilt
of transgression—the weight of the sins of the whole world—should be upon
Him....
He bade the angelic host to be in accord with the plan that His Father had
accepted, and rejoice that, through His death, fallen man could be reconciled
to God.
Then joy, inexpressible joy, filled heaven. The glory and blessedness of a
world redeemed, outmeasured even the anguish and sacrifice of the Prince of
life. Through the celestial courts echoed the first strains of that song which
was to ring out above the hills of Bethlehem—“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good will toward men” (
Luke 2:14
).
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