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Patriarchs and Prophets
in moral and intellectual power, until the world would be filled with
misery of every type. Through the indulgence of appetite and passion
men would become incapable of appreciating the great truths of the
plan of redemption. Yet Christ, true to the purpose for which He left
heaven, would continue His interest in men, and still invite them to
hide their weakness and deficiencies in Him. He would supply the
needs of all who would come unto Him in faith. And there would ever
be a few who would preserve the knowledge of God and would remain
unsullied amid the prevailing iniquity.
The sacrificial offerings were ordained by God to be to man a
perpetual reminder and a penitential acknowledgment of his sin and a
confession of his faith in the promised Redeemer. They were intended
to impress upon the fallen race the solemn truth that it was sin that
caused death. To Adam, the offering of the first sacrifice was a most
painful ceremony. His hand must be raised to take life, which only
God could give. It was the first time he had ever witnessed death, and
he knew that had he been obedient to God, there would have been no
death of man or beast. As he slew the innocent victim, he trembled
at the thought that his sin must shed the blood of the spotless Lamb
of God. This scene gave him a deeper and more vivid sense of the
greatness of his transgression, which nothing but the death of God’s
dear Son could expiate. And he marveled at the infinite goodness that
would give such a ransom to save the guilty. A star of hope illumined
the dark and terrible future and relieved it of its utter desolation.
But the plan of redemption had a yet broader and deeper purpose
than the salvation of man. It was not for this alone that Christ came
to the earth; it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world
might regard the law of God as it should be regarded; but it was to
vindicate the character of God before the universe. To this result of His
great sacrifice—its influence upon the intelligences of other worlds, as
well as upon man—the Saviour looked forward when just before His
crucifixion He said: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the
prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all unto Me.”
John 12:31, 32
. The act of Christ in dying for
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the salvation of man would not only make heaven accessible to men,
but before all the universe it would justify God and His Son in their
dealing with the rebellion of Satan. It would establish the perpetuity
of the law of God and would reveal the nature and the results of sin.