CHARGED with an embassage of mercy, Christ came to the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He saw that rebellion had overspread His provinces, and that despite was done to God in every section and by every tenant of the earth. Man was in rebellion against God; but "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
When sin first entered the world, God had promised a deliverer. He had said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." When Jesus came to the world, His own nation despised Him, His friends denied Him, His brethren did not believe on Him. The unbelief with which He was met, was indeed a bruising of His heel. Christ, the world's Redeemer, was buffeted with temptation, but it had been written of Him, "He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth." Through the very bruising of His heel by Satan, because of affliction, temptation, and sorrow, Christ was gaining the victory in behalf of the human family; for He triumphed over His enemy in not yielding to his temptation, and thus bruised the head of the serpent. He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and every pang of anguish He suffered, every temptation He resisted, as man's substitute and surety, was elevating the human family in the scale of moral worth, and was procuring for man deliverance from Satan's power and bondage. The character of Satan, through his efforts to overcome and destroy the Son of God, was developing before the universe, and was being made manifest in its true malignity before the unfallen worlds that had been created by Christ. Every time he stung the heel of Christ with his murderous fang, the serpent was making more sure his own discomfiture and ruin.
Then Satan Would Have Triumphed
Could Satan have caused the Son of the infinite God to become in the least degree a partaker of his own hellish attributes, then Satan would have wounded the head of Christ, and in hellish exultation he would have triumphed over Him, and the world would have remained his dominion, the human family his slaves. The synagog of Satan would have been victorious, and man would have perished, without God and without hope. Satan could cause pain to the Son of God, but he could not force Him to transgress the law of God. He could cause Him to suffer, but he could not defile Him. He did make the Saviour's life one of sorrow and affliction; but Jesus patiently endured grief, for He knew that through His conflict with the powers of darkness, the chains of Satan could be broken from the human family, and He would place them on vantage-ground before God. With His human arm Jesus encircled the human race, and with His divine arm He grasped the throne of the Infinite. To Him was given power to unite whoever would consent to be drawn to Him, to the Father's throne.
A Perfect Saviour
Jesus became the world's Redeemer, rendering perfect obedience to every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He redeemed Adam's disgraceful fall, and threw the kingdoms of this world back into favor with God, uniting the earth, that had been divorced by sin from God, to the continent of heaven. It was in the very sight of Heaven that Satan led on the Jewish priests and rulers, and made them his agents to stir up the passions of the murderous mob against the Prince of Life. It was in the hearing of Heaven that the hoarse cry was raised against the Majesty of Heaven, "Crucify Him; crucify Him." It was in the sight of Heaven that they scourged Him, that they plaited the crown of thorns, that they mocked and derided Him. But in these very scenes it was made manifest to angels and principalities what is the power of Satan over the human mind. It was made plain that under the dominion of the deceiver men became liars and murderers. The railings of the multitude reached the ears of God and holy angels. The hoarse cries, that sounded like the bellowing of wild beasts, made their record for time and eternity. Those who instigated the suffering that Jesus endured as a malefactor, will yet behold Him in all His glory. They will see that He whom they derided and rejected and crucified, that He whom they set aside for a robber and a murderer, is none other than the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.
In Death a Victor
In the scenes that transpired at the judgment-hall, and at Calvary, we see what the human heart is capable of when under the influence of Satan. Christ submitted to crucifixion, altho the heavenly host could have delivered Him. The angels suffered with Christ. God Himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was one with the Father. Those who reject Christ, those who will not have this Man to rule over them, choose to place themselves under the rule of Satan, to do his work as his bond-slaves. Yet for them Christ yielded up His life on Calvary.
In the death of Christ on Calvary's cross, the temple seemed to be destroyed, the head seemed to have been bruised; but this was not so. Satan, in the very act of grasping his prey, demolished his own throne. Satan, evil angels, and evil men united in a desperate companionship, and thought to claim the victory; but it was in the death of Christ, in the cruel suffering and crucifixion, that the Son of God accomplished the very work for which He was ordained from before the foundation of the world. He died a victim to jealousy and hate, a victim to false religious zeal. But in His dying agony He was victor over the powers of earth and hell. He reinstated man in the position from which Satan had hurled him through temptation and sin, and, by His own perfect obedience to the law of God, placed him on vantage-ground. In His death He broke the spell that had held millions in slavery, under perfect subjection to Satan's rule and jurisdiction.
Jesus measured weapons with the prince of darkness in the Garden of Gethsemane, where the agony was so great that He sweat as it were great drops of blood. It forced from His pale and quivering lips a cry of agonizing prayer, when He besought His Father, saying, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." Three times He raised this prayer to God, but at last added the submissive words, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt."
To Mark His Form Eternally
On the cross He received the wounds that will mark His form through the ceaseless ages of eternity; but these very wounds will be His glory, the insignia of His triumph over him who bruised His heel; for He shall bruise the serpent's head. On the cross He cried, "It is finished," and bowed His head and died. He descended into the grave; but after three days a mighty angel, clothed with the panoply of heaven, parted the darkness from His track, and caused the Roman guard to fall as dead men at his feet. The angel rolled back the stone from the sepulcher, and the Roman seal was broken, and Christ came forth from the prison of death, and, over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, proclaimed Himself "the resurrection and the life." Through Him it was announced that every son and daughter of Adam might be emancipated from their bondage to Satan, to sin and transgression; for, as man's substitute and surety, Jesus had won the victory. The world and its inhabitants were His inheritance, purchased at infinite cost, and every soul who believed in His name, might be an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. When Christ rose from the dead, the victory was proclaimed in triumph by the loftiest order of heavenly intelligence, and joy, inexpressible joy, filled the courts of God.
