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How Christ’s Death Defeated Satan
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developed a perfect character. These He offers as a free gift to all
who will receive Him. His life stands for the life of men. Thus they
have remission of sins that are past. More than this, Christ imbues
men with the attributes of God. He builds up the human character
after the similitude of the divine character. Thus “the righteousness
of the law” is fulfilled in the believer in Christ.
Romans 8:4
. God can
“be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
Romans
3:26
.
It had been Satan’s purpose to divorce mercy from truth and jus-
tice. But Christ showed that in God’s plan they are joined together;
the one cannot exist without the other. “Righteousness and peace
have kissed each other.”
Psalm 85:10
.
By His life and His death, Christ proved that God’s justice did
not destroy His mercy, but that sin could be forgiven, and that the
law is righteous, and can be perfectly obeyed. Satan’s charges were
refuted.
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Another deception was now to be brought forward. Satan de-
clared that the death of Christ abrogated the Father’s law. Had it
been possible for the law to be changed or abrogated, then Christ
need not have died. But to abrogate the law would be to immortalize
transgression and place the world under Satan’s control. Because the
law was changeless, Jesus was lifted up on the cross. Yet the means
by which Christ established the law Satan represented as destroying
it. Here will come the last conflict of the great controversy.
Satan’s “New Model” Lie
That some specification of the law spoken by God’s own voice
has been set aside is the claim which Satan now puts forward. He
need not assail the whole law; if he can lead men to disregard
one precept, his purpose is gained. For “whosoever shall keep the
whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
James
2:10
. By consenting to break one precept, men are brought under
Satan’s power. Prophecy declares of the great apostate power, the
representative of Satan: “He shall speak great words against the
Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think
to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand.”
Daniel 7:25
. Men will set up laws to counterwork the laws of God,