“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”Romans 5:8.
(TMK 18.1)
The fall of man, with all its consequences, was not hidden from the Omnipotent. Redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam, but an eternal purpose, suffered to be wrought out for the blessing not only of this atom of a world, but for the good of all the worlds that God had created....
(TMK 18.2)
When man sinned, all heaven was filled with sorrow.... Out of harmony with the nature of God, unyielding to the claims of His law, naught but destruction was before the human race. Since the divine law is as changeless as the character of God, there could be no hope for man unless some way could be devised whereby his transgression might be pardoned, his nature renewed, and his spirit restored to reflect the image of God. Divine love had conceived such a plan....
(TMK 18.3)
In the work of creation Christ was with God. He was one with God, equal with Him.... He alone, the Creator of man, could be his Saviour. No angel of heaven could reveal the Father to the sinner, and win him back to allegiance to God. But Christ could manifest the Father’s love, for God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Christ could be the “daysman” between a holy God and lost humanity, one who could “lay his hand upon us both” (Job 9:33).... He proposed to take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin—sin so offensive in the sight of God that it would necessitate separation from His Father. Christ proposed to reach to the depths of man’s degradation and woe, and restore the repenting, believing soul to harmony with God. Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, offered Himself as a sacrifice and substitute for the fallen sons of Adam.
(TMK 18.4)
Through creation and redemption, through nature and through Christ, the glories of the divine character are revealed. By the marvelous display of His love in giving “his only begotten Son,”(John 3:16) ... the character of God is revealed to the intelligences of the universe.
(TMK 18.5)