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Plan of Salvation
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could inspire wicked men to inflict; that He would die the cruelest of
deaths, hung up between the heavens and the earth as a guilty sinner;
that He would suffer dreadful hours of agony, which even angels
could not look upon, but would veil their faces from the sight. Not
merely agony of body would He suffer, but mental agony, that with
which bodily suffering could in no wise be compared. The weight
of the sins of the whole world would be upon Him. He told them
He would die and rise again the third day, and would ascend to His
Father to intercede for wayward, guilty man.
The One Possible Way of Salvation
The angels prostrated themselves before Him. They offered their
lives. Jesus said to them that He would by His death save many, that
the life of an angel could not pay the debt. His life alone could be
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accepted of His Father as a ransom for man. Jesus also told them
that they would have a part to act, to be with Him and at different
times strengthen Him; that He would take man’s fallen nature, and
His strength would not be even equal with theirs; that they would
be witnesses of His humiliation and great sufferings; and that as
they would witness His sufferings and the hatred of men toward
Him, they would be stirred with the deepest emotion, and through
their love for Him would wish to rescue and deliver Him from His
murderers; but that they must not interfere to prevent anything they
should behold; and that they should act a part at His resurrection;
that the plan of salvation was devised, and His Father had accepted
the plan.
With a holy sadness Jesus comforted and cheered the angels and
informed them that hereafter those whom He should redeem would
be with Him, and that by His death He should ransom many and
destroy him who had the power of death. And His Father would give
Him the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole
heaven, and He would possess it forever and ever. Satan and sinners
would be destroyed, nevermore to disturb heaven or the purified new
earth. Jesus bade the heavenly host be reconciled to the plan that His
Father had accepted and rejoice that through His death fallen man
could again be exalted to obtain favor with God and enjoy heaven.