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Plan of Redemption Is Unveiled
35
who are tempted (
Hebrews 2:18
). When His mission as a teacher
would end, He must be subjected to every insult and torture that
Satan could inspire. He must die the cruelest of deaths as a guilty
sinner. He must endure severe suffering in His soul, the hiding of
His Father’s face, while the sins of the whole world were to be upon
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Him.
The angels offered to become a sacrifice for the human race, but
only He who created man had power to redeem him. Christ was to
be made “a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death”
(
Hebrews 2:9
). As He would take human nature upon Him, His
strength would not be equal to that of the angels, and they were to
strengthen Him in His sufferings. They were also to guard those
who accepted God’s grace from the power of evil angels and the
darkness thrown around them by Satan.
When the angels would witness the agony and humiliation of
their Lord, they would want to deliver Him from His murderers, but
they were not to step in. It was a part of the plan that Christ should
suffer the scorn and abuse of wicked people.
Christ assured the angels that by His death He would save many
and recover the kingdom that had been lost by transgression. The
redeemed were to inherit it with Him. Sin and sinners would be
blotted out, and would never again disturb the peace of heaven or
earth.
Then inexpressible joy filled heaven. 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, goodwill toward men” (
Luke 2:14
). “The morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (
Job 38:7
).
God Promises a Savior
In the sentence pronounced on Satan in the garden, the Lord de-
clared, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between
your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall
bruise His heel” (
Genesis 3:15
). This was a promise that the power
of Satan, the great enemy, would finally be broken. Adam and Eve
stood as criminals before the righteous Judge, but before they heard
of the hard work and sorrow that they must experience or that they