Selected Messages Book 3

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” (Verse 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