The Plan of Redemption

All that was lost by the first Adam will be restored by the second. The prophet says, «O Tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto Thee shall it come, even the first dominion.» And the apostle Paul points forward to the «redemption of the purchased possession.» God created the earth to be the abode of holy, happy beings. That purpose will be fulfilled when, renewed by the power of God, and freed from sin and sorrow, it shall become the eternal abode of the redeemed. «And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him.»

The sacrificial offerings were ordained by God to be to man a perpetual reminder and a penitential acknowledgment of his sin, and a profession of his faith in the promised Redeemer. They were intended to impress upon the fallen race the solemn truth that death is the result of sin, the transgression of the law of God. To Adam the offering of the first sacrifice was a most painful ceremony. His hand must be raised to take life, which God alone could give. It was the first time he had ever witnessed death, and he knew that had he been obedient to God, there would have been no death of man or beast. As he slew the innocent victim, he trembled at the thought that his sin must shed the blood of the spotless Lamb of God. This scene gave him a deeper and more vivid sense of the greatness of his transgression, which nothing but the death of God’s dear Son could expiate. And he marveled at the infinite goodness that would give such a ransom to save the guilty. A star of hope illumined the dark and terrible future, and relieved it of its utter desolation.

The Law the Point of Issue.

From the first, the great controversy had been upon the law of God. Satan had sought to prove that God was unjust, and that His law was faulty, and that the good of the universe required it to be changed. In attacking the law, he aimed to overthrow the authority of its Author. In the controversy it was to be shown whether the divine statutes were defective and subject to change, or perfect and immutable.

When Satan was thrust out of heaven, he determined to make the earth his kingdom. When he had tempted and overcome Adam and Eve, he claimed that by virtue of this conquest, the fallen race were his rightful subjects, and the world was his. By sin the human race had been alienated from God, they were brought into sympathy with Satan, and were ready to unite with him in rebellion against God’s law. Christ undertook to redeem man and rescue the world from the grasp of Satan.

The law of God could not be set aside even to save lost man. The well-being of the universe demanded that the divine government should be maintained. But in His infinite love and mercy, the Creator sacrificed Himself. In His Son, God Himself bore the penalty of transgression, «that He might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.» Thus man, redeemed from Satan’s power, and brought again into harmony with God, might be restored to «the first dominion.» In this world the great controversy was to be decided. The plan of redemption was to be wrought out on the very field that Satan claimed as his.