Rebellious Angels Are Cast Out, and Adam and Eve Fall
45
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
accepted of the Father as a ransom for man.—
Early Writings, 149,
150
.
The angels feared that they [Adam and Eve] would put forth the
hand, and eat of the tree of life, and be immortal sinners. But God
said that He would drive the transgressors from the garden. Angels
were commissioned immediately to guard the way of the tree of life.—
Spiritual Gifts 1:22
.
The angels who had been appointed to guard Adam in his Eden
home before his transgression and expulsion from paradise were now
appointed to guard the gates of paradise and the way of the tree of
life.—
The Review and Herald, February 24, 1874
.
When Adam and Eve realized how exalted and sacred was the
law of God, the transgression of which made so costly a sacrifice
necessary to save them and their posterity from utter ruin, they pled to
die themselves, or to let them and their posterity endure the penalty
of their transgression, rather than that the beloved Son of God should
make this great sacrifice....
Adam was informed that an angel’s life could not pay the debt. The
law of Jehovah, the foundation of His government in heaven and upon
earth, was as sacred as God Himself; and for this reason the life of an
[61]
angel could not be accepted of God as a sacrifice for its transgression....
The Father could not abolish nor change one precept of His law to
meet man in his fallen condition. But the Son of God, who had in
unison with the Father created man, could make an atonement for man
acceptable to God....
When Adam, according to God’s special directions, made an offer-
ing for sin, it was to him a most painful ceremony. His hand must be
raised to take life, which God alone could give, and make an offering
for sin. It was the first time he had witnessed death. As he looked upon
the bleeding victim, writhing in the agonies of death, he was to look
forward by faith to the Son of God, whom the victim prefigured.—
The
Spirit of Prophecy 1:50-53
.