Victory through Christ
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man to the infinite God. Through Christ the communication is opened
between God and man. Angels may pass to and fro from heaven to
earth with messages of love to fallen man, and to minister unto those
who shall be heirs of salvation. It is through Christ alone that the
heavenly messengers minister to men.
Adam and Eve in Eden were placed under most favorable cir-
cumstances. It was their privilege to hold communion with God and
angels. They were without the condemnation of sin. The light of God
and angels was with them and around about them. The Author of
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their existence was their teacher. But they fell beneath the power and
temptations of the artful foe. Four thousand years had Satan been at
work against the government of God, and he had obtained strength and
experience from determined practice.
Fallen men had not the advantages of Adam in Eden. They had
been separating from God for four thousand years. The wisdom to un-
derstand, and power to resist, the temptations of Satan had become less
and less, until Satan seemed to reign triumphant in the earth. Appetite
and passion, the love of the world, and presumptuous sins were the
great branches of evil out of which every species of crime, violence,
and corruption grew. Satan was defeated in his object to overcome
Christ upon the point of appetite. And here in the wilderness Christ
achieved a victory in behalf of the race upon the point of appetite,
making it possible for man, in all future time in His name to overcome
the strength of appetite on his own behalf.