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From Heaven With Love
A Voluntary Sacrifice
Jesus might have retained the glory of heaven. But He chose to
step down from the throne of the universe, that He might bring life
to the perishing.
Nearly 2000 years ago, a voice was heard in heaven, “A body
hast thou prepared Me... . Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it
is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God.”
Hebrews 10:5-7
. Christ
was about to visit our world, to become incarnate. Had He appeared
with the glory that was His before the world was, we could not have
endured the light of His presence. That we might behold it and
not be destroyed, His glory was shrouded, His divinity veiled with
humanity.
This great purpose had been shadowed forth in types and sym-
bols. The burning bush, in which Christ appeared to Moses, revealed
God. The lowly shrub, that seemingly had no attractions, enshrined
the Infinite. God shrouded His glory that Moses could look upon
it and live. So in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by
night, God’s glory was veiled, that finite men might behold it. So
Christ was to come “in the likeness of men.” He was the incarnate
God, but His glory was veiled that He might draw near to sorrowful,
tempted men.
Through Israel’s weary wandering in the desert, the symbol of
[14]
God’s presence, the sanctuary, was with them. See
Exodus 25:8
.
So Christ pitched His tent by the side of the tents of men that He
might make us familiar with His divine character and life. “The
Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His
glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace
and truth.”
John 1:14
, RV, margin.
Since Jesus came to dwell with us, every son and daughter of
Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners. In
every divine attraction in the Saviour’s life on earth, we see “God
with us.”
Satan represents God’s law of love as a law of selfishness. He
declares it impossible for us to obey its precepts. The fall of our first
parents he charges upon the Creator, leading men to look upon God
as the author of sin, suffering, and death. Jesus was to unveil this
deception. As one of us He was to give an example of obedience.