Beginning of the End

God Promises a Savior

In the sentence pronounced on 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 was a promise that the power of Satan, the great enemy, would finally be broken. Adam and Eve stood as criminals before the righteous Judge, but before they heard of the hard work and sorrow that they must experience or that they must return to dust, they listened to words that could not fail to give them hope. They could look forward to final victory! BOE 23.5

Satan knew that his work of depraving human nature would be interrupted, that by some means men and women would be enabled to resist his power. Yet Satan rejoiced with his angels that, having caused mankind to fall, he could bring down the Son of God from His exalted position. When Christ would take upon Himself human nature, He also might be overcome. BOE 23.6

Heavenly angels explained the plan of salvation more fully opened to our first parents. Adam and his companion were not to be abandoned to Satan. Through repentance and faith in Christ they might again become the children of God. BOE 23.7

Adam and Eve saw as never before the guilt of sin and its results. They pleaded that the penalty might not fall on Him whose love had been the source of all their joy; rather let it come on them and their descendants. BOE 23.8

They were told that since the law of Jehovah is the foundation of His government. Even the life of an angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for transgression, but the Son of God, who had created them, could make an atonement for them. As Adam’s transgression had brought misery and death, so the sacrifice of Christ would bring life and immortality. BOE 23.9

At his creation Adam was placed in dominion over the earth, but by yielding to temptation he became Satan’s captive. The dominion passed to the one who had conquered him, thus Satan became “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4, KJV). But Christ by His sacrifice would not only redeem the human family but recover the dominion they had forfeited. All that was lost by the first Adam will be restored by the second (see Micah 4:8). BOE 24.1

God created the earth to be the home 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 home of the redeemed. BOE 24.2