14
The Desire of Ages
the assurance of every promise. I AM; be not afraid. “God with us” is
the surety of our deliverance from sin, the assurance of our power to
obey the law of heaven.
In stooping to take upon Himself humanity, Christ revealed a
character the opposite of the character of Satan. But He stepped still
lower in the path of humiliation. “Being found in fashion as a man, He
humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross.”
Philippians 2:8
. As the high priest laid aside his gorgeous
pontifical robes, and officiated in the white linen dress of the common
priest, so Christ took the form of a servant, and offered sacrifice,
Himself the priest, Himself the victim. “He was wounded for our
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of
our peace was upon Him.”
Isaiah 53:5
.
Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He
deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share,
that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no
share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive
the life which was His. “With His stripes we are healed.”
By His life and His death, Christ has achieved even more than
recovery from the ruin wrought through sin. It was Satan’s purpose to
bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ
we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen.
In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a
tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked
with us. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten
Son.”
John 3:16
. He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die
as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of
His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to
become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature.
This is the pledge that God will fulfill His word. “Unto us a child is
born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His
shoulder.” God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son,
and has carried the same into the highest heaven. It is the “Son of
man” who shares the throne of the universe. It is the “Son of man”
whose name shall be called, “Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God,
The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6
. The I AM is
the Daysman between God and humanity, laying His hand upon both.
He who is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” is not