MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
God’s Purposes Revealed by Inspiration
THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION INVOLVES ALL HEAVEN IN ITS INFINITE SACRIFICE FOR MAN’S SALVATION
Heaven here means the three Persons of the Godhead and the innumerable angels, created before earth and man were, as His “ministering spirits,” not flesh and blood, sexless. Man alone was made in the image and likeness of God.
But by that mysterious first experiment with disobedience to God by Adam and Eve in their Eden home, “sin entered into the world, and death,” “the wages of sin,” “passed into all men.” Since then “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Thus all were condemned to die eternal death. But God’s love, mercy, wisdom, power, and righteousness had devised a plan “before the foundations of the earth were laid,” which alone could save fallen man without doing away with His immutable law; in fact, even “magnifying it and making it honorable the universe.
“The plan by which ALONE man’s salvation could be secured, INVOLVED ALL HEAVEN in its INFINITE SACRIFICE. The angels [whose home is heaven while earth was created for man, and from which he was made and originated from] not rejoice as Christ opened before them the PLAN OF REDEMPTION; for they saw that [fallen, sinful] man’s salvation must COST their loved Commander UNUTTERABLE WOE. In grief and wonder they listened to His words as He told them HOW HE MUST DESCEND FROM HEAVEN.”
Infinitely more than mainstream Christianity’s narrow focus and fixation on Christ’s crucifixion at Calvary and thus, myopic and stinted understandjng of what His sacrifice comprehends, which stretches from eternity past “as a Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth”, to eternity future, where “the plan of redemption will the science and song of the eternally-redeemer.”
Here’s a more detailed “cost analysis”—to which no measurements and values can ever be attached—of the Creator’s condescending descent of His infinite sacrifice and from what:
1. “He must descend from heaven’s a) purity and peace b) its joy c) its glory d) its immortal life and
2. “Come in contact with: a) the degradations of [sin-cursed] earth
3. “To endure a) its sorrow b) its shame c) its death
4. “He was to stand between the sinner and the penalty of sin; yet FEW would receive Him as the Son of God [starting with His chosen people, the Jewish nation].
5. “He would leave His high position as the Majesty of Heaven, appear upon [fallen, sin-cursed] earth and humble Himself AS A MAN, and by His own experience ‘become acquainted with the SORROWS AND TEMPTATIONS which [fallen] man would have to ENDURE.
“All this would be necessary in order that He might be able to SUCCOR them that should be tempted (Heb. 2:18).” – Quoted parts from E. G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp.64-5. (All others, including emphases, provided).
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.