We cannot understand how Christ became a little, helpless babe. He could have come to earth in such beauty that he would have been unlike the sons of men. His face could have been bright with light, and his form could have been tall and beautiful. He could have come in such a way as to charm those who looked upon Him; but this was not the way that God planned he should come among the sons of men.
(3SM 127.1)
He was to be like those who belonged to the human family and to the Jewish race. His features were to be like those of other human beings, and he was not to have such beauty of person as to make people point Him out as different from others. He was to come as one of the human family, and to stand as a man before heaven and earth. He had come to take man’s place, to pledge Himself in man’s behalf, to pay the debt that sinners owed. He was to live a pure life on the earth, and show that Satan had told a falsehood when he claimed that the human family belonged to him forever, and that God could not take men out of his hands.
(3SM 127.2)
Men first beheld Christ as a babe, as a child....
(3SM 127.3)
The more we think about Christ’s becoming a babe here on earth, the more wonderful it appears. How can it be that the helpless babe in Bethlehem’s manger is still the divine Son of God? Though we cannot understand it, we can believe that he who made the worlds, for our sakes became a helpless babe. Though higher than any of the angels, though as great as the Father on the throne of heaven, he became one with us. In Him God and man became one, and it is in this fact that we find the hope of our fallen race. Looking upon Christ in the flesh, we look upon God in humanity, and see in Him the brightness of divine glory, the express image of God the Father.—The Youth’s Instructor, November 21, 1895.
(3SM 128.1)
Christ Descended to the Level of Fallen Humanity
Christ has made an infinite sacrifice. He gave his own life for us. He took upon his divine soul the result of the transgression of God’s law. Laying aside his royal crown, he condescended to step down, step by step, to the level of fallen humanity.—The Review and Herald, April 30, 1901
(3SM 128.2)
From the Jordan, Jesus was led into the wilderness of temptation. “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread” (Matthew 4:2, 3).
(3SM 128.3)
Christ was suffering the keenest pangs of hunger, and this temptation was a severe one. But he must begin the work of redemption just where the ruin began. Adam had failed on the point of appetite, and Christ must conquer here. The power that rested upon Him came directly from the Father, and he must not exercise it in his own behalf. With that long fast there was woven into his experience a strength and power that God alone could give. He met and resisted the enemy in the strength of a “Thus saith the Lord.”“Man shall not live by bread alone,” he said, “but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
(3SM 128.4)
This strength it is the privilege of all the tempted ones of earth to have. Christ’s experience is for our benefit. His example in overcoming appetite points out the way for those to overcome who would be his followers.
(3SM 128.5)
Christ was suffering as the members of the human family suffer under temptation; but it was not the will of God that he should exercise his divine power in his own behalf. Had he not stood as our representative, Christ’s innocence would have exempted Him from all this anguish, but it was because of his innocence that he felt so keenly the assaults of Satan. All the suffering which is the result of sin was poured into the bosom of the sinless Son of God. Satan was bruising the heel of Christ, but every pang endured by Christ, every grief, every disquietude, was fulfilling the great plan of man’s redemption. Every blow inflicted by the enemy was rebounding on himself. Christ was bruising the serpent’s head.—The Youth’s Instructor, December 21, 1899.
(3SM 129.1)
Was Christ Capable of Yielding to Temptation?
In your letter in regard to the temptations of Christ, you say: “If he was One with God he could not fall”....The point you inquire of me is, In our Lord’s great scene of conflict in the wilderness, apparently under the power of Satan and his angels, was he capable, in his human nature, of yielding to these temptations?
(3SM 129.2)
I will try to answer this important question: As God he could not be tempted: but as a man he could be tempted, and that strongly, and could yield to the temptations. His human nature must pass through the same test and trial Adam and Eve passed through. His human nature was created; it did not even possess the angelic powers. It was human, identical with our own. He was passing over the ground where Adam fell. He was now where, if he endured the test and trial in behalf of the fallen race, he would redeem Adam’s disgraceful failure and fall, in our own humanity.
(3SM 129.3)
Christ Had a Human Body and a Human Mind—A human body and a human mind were his. He was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He was subjected to poverty from his first entrance into the world. He was subject to disappointment and trial in his own home, among his own brethren. He was not surrounded, as in the heavenly courts, with pure and lovely characters. He was compassed with difficulties. He came into our world to maintain a pure, sinless character, and to refute Satan’s lie that it was not possible for human beings to keep the law of God. Christ came to live the law in his human character in just that way in which all may live the law in human nature if they will do as Christ was doing. He had inspired holy men of old to write for the benefit of man: “Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me” (Isaiah 27:5).
(3SM 129.4)
Abundant provision has been made that finite, fallen man may so connect with God that, through the same Source by which Christ overcame in his human nature, he may stand firmly against every temptation, as did Christ. He was subject to inconveniences that human nature is subjected to. He breathed the air of the same world we breathe. He stood and traveled in the same world we inhabit, which, we have positive evidence, was no more friendly to grace and righteousness than it is today.
(3SM 130.1)
His Attributes May Be Ours—The higher attributes of his being it is our privilege to have, if we will, through the provisions he has made, appropriate these blessings and diligently cultivate the good in the place of the evil. We have reason, conscience, memory, will, affections—all the attributes a human being can possess. Through the provision made when God and the Son of God made a covenant to rescue man from the bondage of Satan, every facility was provided that human nature should come into union with his divine nature. In such a nature was our Lord tempted. He could have yielded to Satan’s lying suggestions as did Adam, but we should adore and glorify the Lamb of God that he did not in a single point yield one jot or one tittle.
(3SM 130.2)
Two Natures Blended in Christ—Through being partakers of the divine nature we may stand pure and holy and undefiled. The Godhead was not made human, and the human was not deified by the blending together of the two natures. Christ did not possess the same sinful, corrupt, fallen disloyalty we possess, for then he could not be a perfect offering.—Manuscript 94, 1893.
(3SM 131.1)
The Reality of Christ’s Temptations—When the follower of Christ meets with trial and perplexity, he is not to become discouraged. He is not to cast away his confidence if he does not realize all his expectations. When buffeted by the enemy, he should remember the Saviour’s life of trial and discouragement. Heavenly beings ministered to Christ in his need, yet this did not make the Saviour’s life one of freedom from conflict and temptation. He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. If his people will follow this example, they will be imbued with his Spirit, and heavenly angels will minister to them.
(3SM 131.2)
The temptations to which Christ was subjected were a terrible reality. As a free agent he was placed on probation, with liberty to yield to Satan’s temptations and work at cross-purposes with God. If this were not so, if it had not been possible for Him to fall, he could not have been tempted in all points as the human family is tempted.
(3SM 131.3)
The temptations of Christ, and his sufferings under them, were proportionate to his exalted, sinless character. But in every time of distress, Christ turned to his Father. He “resisted unto blood” in that hour when the fear of moral failure was as the fear of death. As he bowed in Gethsemane, in his soul agony, drops of blood fell from his pores, and moistened the sods of the earth. He prayed with strong crying and tears, and he was heard in that he feared. God strengthened Him, as he will strengthen all who will humble themselves, and throw themselves, soul, body, and spirit, into the hands of a covenant-keeping God.
(3SM 131.4)
Upon the cross Christ knew, as no other can know, the awful power of Satan’s temptations, and his heart was poured out in pity and forgiveness for the dying thief, who had been ensnared by the enemy.—The Youth’s Instructor, October 26, 1899.
(3SM 132.1)
Christ’s heart was pierced by a far sharper pain than that caused by the nails driven into his hands and feet. He was bearing the sins of the whole world, enduring our punishment—the wrath of God against transgression. His trial involved the fierce temptation of thinking that he was forsaken by God. His soul was tortured by the pressure of great darkness, lest he should swerve from his uprightness during the terrible ordeal.
(3SM 132.2)
Unless there is a possibility of yielding, temptation is no temptation. Temptation is resisted when man is powerfully influenced to do a wrong action; and, knowing that he can do it, resists, by faith, with a firm hold upon divine power. This was the ordeal through which Christ passed.—The Youth’s Instructor, July 20, 1899.
(3SM 132.3)
We May Overcome as Christ Overcame—The love and justice of God, and also the immutability of his law, are made manifest by the Saviour’s life, no less than by his death. He assumed human nature, with its infirmities, its liabilities, its temptations.... He was “in all points tempted like as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). He exercised in his own behalf no power which man cannot exercise. As man he met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him of God. He gives us an example of perfect obedience. He has provided that we may become partakers of the divine nature, and assures us that we may overcome as he overcame. His life testified that by the aid of the same divine power which Christ received, it is possible for man to obey God’s law.—Manuscript 141, 1901.
(3SM 132.4)
God Sent a Sinless Being to This World
God did for us the very best thing that he could do when he sent from heaven a Sinless Being to manifest to this world of sin what those who are saved must be in character—pure, holy, and undefiled, having Christ formed within. He sent his ideal in his Son, and bade men build characters in harmony with this ideal.—Letter 58, 1906.
(3SM 132.5)
Man Created With Sinless Moral Nature
In the councils of heaven God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him” (Genesis 1:26, 27). The Lord created man’s moral faculties and his physical powers. All was a sinless transcript of Himself. God endowed man with holy attributes, and placed him in a garden made expressly for him. Sin alone could ruin the beings created by the hand of the Almighty.—The Youth’s Instructor, July 20, 1899.
(3SM 133.1)
Sickness of Others Carried Vicariously
Christ alone was able to bear the afflictions of all the human family. “In all their afflictions he was afflicted.” he never bore disease in his own flesh, but he carried the sickness of others. When suffering humanity pressed about Him, he who was in the health of perfect manhood was as one afflicted with them....
(3SM 133.2)
In his life on earth, Christ developed a perfect character, he rendered perfect obedience to his Father’s commandments. In coming to the world in human form, in becoming subject to the law, in revealing to men that he bore their sickness, their sorrow, their guilt, he did not become a sinner. Before the Pharisees he could say, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?”John 8:46. Not one stain of sin was found upon Him. He stood before the world the spotless Lamb of God.—The Youth’s Instructor, December 29, 1898.
(3SM 133.3)
Christ’s Sinlessness Disturbed Satan
Christ, the Redeemer of the world, was not situated where the influences surrounding Him were the best calculated to preserve a life of purity and untainted morals, yet he was not contaminated. He was not free from temptation. Satan was earnest and persevering in his efforts to deceive and overcome the Son of God by his devices.
(3SM 133.4)
Christ was the only one who walked the earth upon whom there rested no taint of sin. He was pure, spotless, and undefiled. That there should be One without the defilement of sin upon the earth, greatly disturbed the author of sin, and he left no means untried to overcome Christ with his wily, deceptive power. But our Saviour relied upon his heavenly Father for wisdom and strength to resist and overcome the tempter. The Spirit of his heavenly Father animated and regulated his life. He was sinless. Virtue and purity characterized his life.—The Youth’s Instructor, February, 1873.
(3SM 134.1)
Our Fallen Human Nature Connected With Christ’s Divinity
Though he had no taint of sin upon his character, yet he condescended to connect our fallen human nature with his divinity. By thus taking humanity, he honored humanity. Having taken our fallen nature, he showed what it might become, by accepting the ample provision he has made for it, and by becoming partaker of the divine nature.—Letter 81, 1896.
(3SM 134.2)
Tempted as Children Today Are
One may think that Christ, because he was the Son of God, did not have temptations as children now have. The Scriptures say he was tempted in all points like as we are tempted.—The Youth’s Instructor, April, 1873.
(3SM 134.3)
What the Incarnation Accomplishes
The Lord did not make man to be redeemed, but to bear his image. But through sin man lost the image of God. It is only by man’s redemption that God can accomplish his design for him in making him a son of God.
(3SM 134.4)
“As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.... And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:12-16).
(3SM 134.5)
Because of the ransom paid for him, man, by his own choice, by obedience, may accomplish the design of God, and through the grace given of God bear the image that was first impressed upon him, and afterwards lost through the fall....
(3SM 135.1)
Christ’s Obedience Not Altogether Different From Ours—The great teacher came into our world, not only to atone for sin but to be a teacher both by precept and example. He came to show man how to keep the law in humanity, so that man might have no excuse for following his own defective judgment. We see Christ’s obedience. His life was without sin. His lifelong obedience is a reproach to disobedient humanity. The obedience of Christ is not to be put aside as altogether different from the obedience he requires of us individually. Christ has shown us that it is possible for all humanity to obey the laws of God....
(3SM 135.2)
The work of Christ was not a divided heart service. Christ came not to do his own will but the will of Him that sent Him. Jesus says, “Step in the footprints of my Sonship in all obedience. I obey as in partnership with the great firm. You are to obey as in co-partnership with the Son of God. Often you will not see the path clearly; then ask of God, and he will give you wisdom and courage and faith to move forward, leaving all issues with Him.” We want to comprehend so far as possible the truly human nature of our Lord. The divine and human were linked in Christ, and both were complete.
(3SM 135.3)
Our Saviour took up the true relationship of a human being as the Son of God. We are sons and daughters of God. In order to know how to behave ourselves circumspectly, we must follow where Christ leads the way. For thirty years he lived the life of a perfect man, meeting the highest standard of perfection. Then let man, however imperfect, hope in God, saying not, “If I were of a different disposition I would serve God,” but bring himself to Him in true service.... That nature has been redeemed by Me. “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12)—you are not degraded, but raised, ennobled, refined by Me. You can find refuge in Me. You can obtain victory and be more than conquerors in My name.—Letter 69, 1897.
(3SM 135.4)
Satan Declared That Man Could Not Keep God’s Law
The world’s Redeemer passed over the ground where Adam fell because of his disobeying the expressed law of Jehovah; and 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. He claimed the whole race under his control.
(3SM 136.1)
The Son of God placed Himself in the sinner’s stead, and passed over the ground where Adam fell, and endured the temptation in the wilderness, which was a hundredfold stronger than was or ever will be brought to bear upon the human race. Jesus resisted the temptations of Satan in the same manner that every tempted soul may resist, by referring him to the inspired record and saying, “It is written.”
(3SM 136.2)
Humanity Can Keep God’s Law by Divine Power—Christ overcame the temptations of Satan as a man. Every man may overcome as Christ overcame. He humbled Himself for us. He was tempted in all points like as we are. He redeemed Adam’s disgraceful failure and fall, and was conqueror, thus testifying to all the unfallen worlds and to fallen humanity that man could keep the commandments of God through the divine power granted to him of heaven. Jesus the Son of God humbled Himself for us, endured temptation for us, overcame in our behalf to show us how we may overcome. He has thus bound up his interests with humanity by the closest ties, and has given the positive assurance that we shall not be tempted above that we are able, for with the temptation he will make a way of escape.
(3SM 136.3)
The Holy Spirit Enables Us to Be Victorious—The Holy Spirit was promised to be with those who were wrestling for victory, in demonstration of all mightiness, endowing the human agent with supernatural powers, and instructing the ignorant in the mysteries of the kingdom of God. That the Holy Spirit is to be the grand helper, is a wonderful promise. Of what avail would it have been to us that the only begotten Son of God had humbled Himself, endured the temptations of the wily foe, and wrestled with him during his entire life on earth, and died the Just for the unjust that humanity might not perish, if the Spirit had not been given as a constant, working, regenerating agent to make effectual in our cases what has been wrought out by the world’s Redeemer?
(3SM 137.1)
The imparted Holy Spirit enabled his disciples, the apostles, to stand firmly against every species of idolatry and to exalt the Lord and Him alone. Who, but Jesus Christ by his Spirit and divine power, guided the pens of the sacred historians that to the world might be presented the precious record of the sayings and works of Jesus Christ?
(3SM 137.2)
The promised Holy Spirit, whom he would send after he ascended to his Father, is constantly at work to draw the attention to the great official sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary, and to unfold to the world the love of God to man, and to open to the convicted soul the precious things in the Scriptures, and to open to darkened minds the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, the truths that make their hearts burn within them with the awakened intelligence of the truths of eternity.
(3SM 137.3)
Who but the Holy Spirit presents before the mind the moral standard of righteousness and convinces of sin, and produces godly sorrow which worketh repentance that needeth not to be repented of, and inspires the exercise of faith in Him who alone can save from all sin.
(3SM 137.4)
Who but the Holy Spirit can work with human minds to transform character by withdrawing the affections from those things which are temporal, perishable, and imbues the soul with earnest desire by presenting the immortal inheritance, the eternal substance which is imperishable, and recreates, refines, and sanctifies the human agents that they may become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly king....
(3SM 138.1)
Christ Overcame Sin as a Man—The fall of our first parents broke the golden chain of implicit obedience of the human will to the divine. Obedience has no longer been deemed an absolute necessity. The human agents follow their own imaginations, which the Lord said of the inhabitants of the old world were evil and that continually. The Lord Jesus declares, I have kept My Father’s commandments. How? As a man. Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. To the accusations of the Jews he stood forth in his pure, virtuous, holy character and challenged them, “Who of you convinceth me of sin?”John 8:46.
(3SM 138.2)
Our Example and Sacrifice for Sin—The world’s Redeemer came not only to be a sacrifice for sin but to be an example to man in all things, a holy, human character. He was a Teacher, such an educator as the world never saw or heard before. He spake as one having authority, and yet he invites the confidence of all. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
(3SM 138.3)
The only begotten Son of the infinite God has, by his words [and], his practical example left us a plain pattern which we are to copy. By his words he has educated us to obey God, and by his own practice he has showed us how we can obey God.
(3SM 138.4)
Not only did Christ give explicit rules showing how we may become obedient children but he showed us in his own life and character just how to do those things which are right and acceptable with God, so there is no excuse why we should not do those things which are pleasing in his sight.
(3SM 139.1)
He Disproved Satan’s Claim—We are ever to be thankful that Jesus has proved to us by actual facts that man can keep the commandments of God, giving contradiction to Satan’s falsehood that man cannot keep them. The Great Teacher came to our world to stand at the head of humanity, to thus elevate and sanctify humanity by his holy obedience to all of God’s requirements showing it is possible to obey all the commandments of God. He has demonstrated that a lifelong obedience is possible. Thus he gives chosen, representative men to the world, as the Father gave the Son, to exemplify in their life the life of Jesus Christ.
(3SM 139.2)
He Stood the Test as a True Human Being—We need not place the obedience of Christ by itself as something for which he was particularly adapted, by his particular divine nature, for he stood before God as man’s representative and tempted as man’s substitute and surety. If Christ had a special power which it is not the privilege of man to have, Satan would have made capital of this matter. The work of Christ was to take from the claims of Satan his control of man, and he could do this only in the way that he came—a man, tempted as a man, rendering the obedience of a man....
(3SM 139.3)
Bear in mind that Christ’s overcoming and obedience is that of a true human being. In our conclusions, we make many mistakes because of our erroneous views of the human nature of our Lord. When we give to his human nature a power that it is not possible for man to have in his conflicts with Satan, we destroy the completeness of his humanity. His imputed grace and power he gives to all who receive Him by faith. The obedience of Christ to his Father was the same obedience that is required of man.
(3SM 139.4)
Man cannot overcome Satan’s temptations without divine power to combine with his instrumentality. So with Jesus Christ, he could lay hold of divine power. He came not to our world to give the obedience of a lesser God to a greater, but as a man to obey God’s Holy Law, and in this way he is our example.
(3SM 140.1)
Jesus Showed What Man Could Do—The Lord Jesus came to our world, not to reveal what a God could do, but what a man could do, through faith in God’s power to help in every emergency. Man is, through faith, to be a partaker in the divine nature, and to overcome every temptation wherewith he is beset. The Lord now demands that every son and daughter of Adam through faith in Jesus Christ, serve Him in [the] human nature which we now have.
(3SM 140.2)
The Lord Jesus has bridged the gulf that sin has made. He has connected earth with heaven, and finite man with the infinite God. Jesus, the world’s Redeemer, could only keep the commandments of God in the same way that humanity can keep them. “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4)....
(3SM 140.3)
We must practice the example of Christ, bearing in mind his Sonship and his humanity. It was not God that was tempted in the wilderness, nor a God that was to endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself. It was the Majesty of heaven who became a man—humbled Himself to our human nature.
(3SM 140.4)
How We Are to Serve God—We are not to serve God as if we were not human, but we are to serve Him in the nature we have, that has been redeemed by the Son of God; through the righteousness of Christ we shall stand before God pardoned, and as though we had never sinned. We will never gain strength in considering what we might do if we were angels. We are to turn in faith to Jesus Christ, and show our love to God through obedience to his commands. Jesus “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus says, “Follow me.”“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”—Manuscript 1, 1892.
(3SM 140.5)
Real Meaning of the Incarnation
Christ took upon Himself humanity, and laid down his life a sacrifice, that man, by becoming a partaker of the divine nature, might have eternal life. Not only was Christ the Sacrifice but he was also the Priest who offered the sacrifice. “The bread that I will give,” said He, “is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). He was innocent of all guilt. He gave Himself in exchange for the people who had sold themselves to Satan by transgression of God’s law—his life for the life of the human family, who thereby became his purchased possession.
(3SM 141.1)
“Therefore doth my Father love me,” said Christ, “because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:17, 18).
(3SM 141.2)
“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). To Adam before his fall the Lord said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). “If you transgress my law, death will surely be your punishment.” By disobeying God’s command, he forfeited his life.
(3SM 141.3)
Before his fall Adam was free from the results of the curse. When he was assailed by the tempter, none of the effects of sin were upon him. He was created perfect in thought and in action. But he yielded to sin, and fell from his high and holy estate.
(3SM 141.4)
In the Likeness of Sinful Flesh—Christ, the second Adam, came in the likeness of sinful flesh. In man’s behalf, he became subject to sorrow, to weariness, to hunger, and to thirst. He was subject to temptation, but he yielded not to sin. No taint of sin was upon Him. He declared, “I have kept my Father’s commandments [in My earthly life]” (John 15:10). He had infinite power only because he was perfectly obedient to his Father’s will. The second Adam stood the test of trial and temptation that he might become the Owner of all humanity.—Manuscript 99, 1903.
(3SM 141.5)