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Bad News and Good News
When Adam and Eve listened to Satan’s lies and ate of the
tree of knowledge of good and evil, they soon began to see the evil results of
their choice:
After their sin Adam and Eve were no longer to dwell in Eden.
They earnestly entreated that they might remain in the home of their innocence
and joy. They confessed that they had forfeited all right to that happy abode,
but pledged themselves for the future to yield strict obedience to God. But
they were told that their nature had become depraved by sin; they had lessened
their strength to resist evil and had opened the way for Satan to gain more
ready access to them. In their innocence they had yielded to temptation; and
now, in a state of conscious guilt, they would have less power to maintain
their integrity.
In humility and unutterable sadness they bade farewell to their
beautiful home and went forth to dwell upon the earth, where rested the curse
of sin. The atmosphere, once so mild and uniform in temperature, was now
subject to marked changes, and the Lord mercifully provided them with a garment
of skins as a protection from the extremes of heat and cold.
As they witnessed in drooping flower and falling leaf the first
signs of decay, Adam and his companion mourned more deeply than men now mourn
over their dead. The death of the frail, delicate flowers was indeed a cause of
sorrow; but when the goodly trees cast off their leaves, the scene brought
vividly to mind the stern fact that death is the portion of every living thing.
Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 60-62
After confronting Adam and Eve and sharing the sad news that
they must leave the beautiful garden, God gave them the good news of the
gospel—that He had a remedy for the sin problem:
To man the first intimation of redemption was communicated in
the sentence pronounced upon Satan in the garden. The Lord declared, “I will
put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He
shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15. This
sentence, uttered in the hearing of our first parents, was to them a promise.
While it foretold war between man and Satan, it declared that the power of the
great adversary would finally be broken. Adam and Eve stood as criminals before
the righteous Judge, awaiting the sentence which transgression had incurred;
but before they heard of the life of toil and sorrow which must be their
portion, or of the decree that they must return to dust, they listened to words
that could not fail to give them hope. Though they must suffer from the power
of their mighty foe, they could look forward to final victory.
When Satan heard that enmity should exist between himself and
the woman, and between his seed and her seed, he knew that his work of
depraving human nature would be interrupted; that by some means man would be
enabled to resist his power. Yet as the plan of salvation was more fully
unfolded, Satan rejoiced with his angels that, having caused man’s fall, he
could bring down the Son of God from His exalted position. He declared that his
plans had thus far been successful upon the earth, and that when Christ should
take upon Himself human nature, He also might be overcome, and thus the
redemption of the fallen race might be prevented. . . .
The sacrifice demanded by their transgression revealed to Adam
and Eve the sacred character of the law of God; and they saw, as they had never
seen before, the guilt of sin and its dire results. In their remorse and anguish
they pleaded that the penalty might not fall upon Him whose love had been the
source of all their joy; rather let it descend upon them and their posterity.
They were told that since the law of Jehovah is the foundation
of His government in heaven as well as upon the earth, even the life of an
angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for its transgression. Not one of
its precepts could be abrogated or changed to meet man in his fallen condition;
but the Son of God, who had created man, could make an atonement for him. As
Adam’s transgression had brought wretchedness and death, so the sacrifice of
Christ would bring life and immortality.
Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 65-67
We must not overlook the fact that the war between Jesus and
the devil began in heaven; it involved more than merely this earth. Likewise,
God’s plan to save fallen man would also impact more than this world:
The plan of redemption had a yet broader and deeper purpose than
the salvation of man. It was not for this alone that Christ came to the earth;
it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world might regard the
law of God as it should be regarded; but it was to vindicate the character of
God before the universe. To this result of His great sacrifice—its influence
upon the intelligences of other worlds, as well as upon man—the Saviour looked
forward when just before His crucifixion He said: “Now is the judgment of this
world: now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up
from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” John 12:31, 32. The act of
Christ in dying for the salvation of man would not only make heaven accessible
to men, but before all the universe it would justify God and His Son in their
dealing with the rebellion of Satan. It would establish the perpetuity of the
law of God and would reveal the nature and the results of sin.
Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 68-69
For the sake of time and space, we will now “fast forward”
about 4,000 years, to the time when Jesus was
born in Bethlehem.
All Scriptures are quoted from the New King James Version,
including those originally quoted by Ellen White from the King James
Version.—Editors
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