“God With Us”
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attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation. With his own evil
characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator. Thus he deceived
angels. Thus he deceived men. He led them to doubt the word of God,
and to distrust His goodness. Because God is a God of justice and
terrible majesty, Satan caused them to look upon Him as severe and
unforgiving. Thus he drew men to join him in rebellion against God,
and the night of woe settled down upon the world.
The earth was dark through misapprehension of God. That the
gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought
back to God, Satan’s deceptive power was to be broken. This could
not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles
of God’s government; He desires only the service of love; and love
cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only
by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character
must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work
only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the
height and depth of the love of God could make it known. Upon the
world’s dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, “with healing
in His wings.”
Malachi 4:2
.
The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formu-
lated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of “the mystery which
hath been kept in silence through times eternal.”
Romans 16:25
, R. V.
It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been
the foundation of God’s throne. From the beginning, God and Christ
knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the de-
ceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist,
but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible
emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to
give His only-begotten Son, “that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16
.
Lucifer had said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
... I will be like the Most High.”
Isaiah 14:13, 14
. But Christ, “being
in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped to be on an
equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,
being made in the likeness of men.”
Philippians 2:6, 7
, R. V., margin.
This was a voluntary sacrifice. Jesus might have remained at the
Father’s side. He might have retained the glory of heaven, and the
homage of the angels. But He chose to give back the scepter into the
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