Plan of Redemption
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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 minister
to Him, to strengthen and soothe Him under His sufferings. They
were also to be ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who
should be heirs of salvation.
Hebrews 1:14
. They would guard the
subjects of grace from the power of evil angels and from the darkness
constantly thrown around them by Satan.
When the angels should witness the agony and humiliation of their
Lord, they would be filled with grief and indignation and would wish
to deliver Him from His murderers; but they were not to interpose in
order to prevent anything which they should behold. It was a part of
the plan of redemption that Christ should suffer the scorn and abuse
of wicked men, and He consented to all this when He became the
Redeemer of man.
Christ assured the angels that by His death He would ransom many,
and would destroy him who had the power of death. He would recover
the kingdom which man had lost by transgression, and the redeemed
were to inherit it with Him, and dwell therein forever. Sin and sinners
would be blotted out, nevermore to disturb the peace of heaven or
earth. He bade the angelic host to be in accord with the plan that His
Father had accepted, and rejoice that, through His death, fallen man
could be reconciled to God.
Then joy, inexpressible joy, filled heaven. The glory and blessed-
ness of a world redeemed, outmeasured even the anguish and sacrifice
of the Prince of life. 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, good will toward
men.”
Luke 2:14
. With a deeper gladness now than in the rapture of
the new creation, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of
God shouted for joy.”
Job 38:7
.
To man the first intimation of redemption was communicated in
the sentence pronounced upon Satan in the garden. The Lord declared,
“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 sentence, uttered in the hearing of our first parents,
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was to them a promise. While it foretold war between man and Satan, it
declared that the power of the great adversary would finally be broken.
Adam and Eve stood as criminals before the righteous Judge, awaiting