Plan of Redemption
53
From the first the great controversy had been upon the law of
God. Satan had sought to prove that God was unjust, that His law was
faulty, and that the good of the universe required it to be changed. In
attacking the law he aimed to overthrow the authority of its Author. In
the controversy it was to be shown whether the divine statutes were
defective and subject to change, or perfect and immutable.
When Satan was thrust out of heaven, he determined to make the
earth his kingdom. When he tempted and overcame Adam and Eve, he
thought that he had gained possession of this world; “because,” said he,
“they have chosen me as their ruler.” He claimed that it was impossible
that forgiveness should be granted to the sinner, and therefore the
fallen race were his rightful subjects, and the world was his. But God
gave His own dear Son—one equal with Himself—to bear the penalty
of transgression, and thus He provided a way by which they might be
restored to His favor, and brought back to their Eden home. Christ
undertook to redeem man and to rescue the world from the grasp of
Satan. The great controversy begun in heaven was to be decided in the
very world, on the very same field, that Satan claimed as his.
It was the marvel of all the universe that Christ should humble
Himself to save fallen man. That He who had passed from star to star,
from world to world, superintending all, by His providence supplying
the needs of every order of being in His vast creation—that He should
consent to leave His glory and take upon Himself human nature, was
a mystery which the sinless intelligences of other worlds desired to
understand. When Christ came to our world in the form of humanity,
all were intensely interested in following Him as He traversed, step
by step, the bloodstained path from the manger to Calvary. Heaven
marked the insult and mockery that He received, and knew that it was
at Satan’s instigation. They marked the work of counteragencies going
forward; Satan constantly pressing darkness, sorrow, and suffering
upon the race, and Christ counteracting it. They watched the battle
between light and darkness as it waxed stronger. And as Christ in His
[70]
expiring agony upon the cross cried out, “It is finished” (
John 19:30
),
a shout of triumph rang through every world and through heaven itself.
The great contest that had been so long in progress in this world was
now decided, and Christ was conqueror. His death had answered the
question whether the Father and the Son had sufficient love for man
to exercise self-denial and a spirit of sacrifice. Satan had revealed