Plan of Redemption Is Unveiled
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that should be tempted.
Hebrews 2:18
. When His mission as a teacher
should be ended, 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 anguish of soul, the hiding of His Father’s
face, while the sins of the whole world should be upon Him.
The angels offered to become a sacrifice for man. 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 should take human nature upon Him, His strength would not be
equal to theirs, and they were to strengthen Him under His sufferings.
They were also to guard the subjects of grace from the power of evil
angels.
When the angels should witness the agony and humiliation of their
Lord, they would wish to deliver Him from His murderers, but they
were not to interpose. It was a part of the plan that Christ should suffer
the scorn and abuse of wicked men.
Christ assured the angels that by His death He would ransom many
and recover the kingdom which man had lost by transgression. The
redeemed were to inherit it with Him. Sin and sinners would be blotted
out, nevermore to 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,
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good will 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 Saviour
In the sentence pronounced on Satan in the garden, the Lord de-
clared, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between
thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
His heel.”
Genesis 3:15
. This was a promise that the power of the great
adversary would finally be broken. Adam and Eve stood as criminals
before the righteous Judge, but before they heard of the toil and sor-
row which must be their portion or that they must return to dust, they
listened to words that could not fail to give them hope. They could
look forward to final victory.