Incarnation and Early Life of Christ
111
Why Christ Took Human Nature
He [Satan] had proudly boasted to the heavenly angels that when
Christ should appear, taking man’s nature, He would be weaker than
himself, and he would overcome Him by his power. He exulted that
Adam and Eve in Eden could not resist his insinuations when he
appealed to their appetite.—
The Review and Herald, July 28, 1874
.
The only begotten Son of God came to our world as a man, to
reveal to the world that men could keep the law of God. Satan, the
fallen angel, had declared that no man could keep the law of God after
the disobedience of Adam.—
Manuscript Releases 6:334
.
Satan claimed that it was impossible for human beings to keep
God’s law. In order to prove the falsity of this claim, Christ left His
high command, took upon Himself the nature of man, and came to
the earth to stand at the head of the fallen race, in order to show that
[156]
humanity could withstand the temptations of Satan.—
The Upward
Look, 172
.
Christ’s Human Nature
His [Christ’s] human nature was created; it did not even possess
the angelic powers. It was human, identical with our own.—
Selected
Messages 3:129
.
Christ in the weakness of humanity was to meet the temptations of
one possessing the powers of the higher nature that God had bestowed
on the angelic family.—
The Review and Herald, January 28, 1909
.
The story of Bethlehem is an exhaustless theme. In it is hidden
“the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.”
Romans 11:33
. We marvel at the Saviour’s sacrifice in exchanging the
throne of heaven for the manger, and the companionship of adoring
angels for the beasts of the stall. Human pride and self-sufficiency
stand rebuked in His presence. Yet this was but the beginning of
His wonderful condescension. It would have been an almost infinite
humiliation for the Son of God to take man’s nature, even when Adam
stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when
the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every
child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law
of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His