Immanuel -- Chapter 1
Immanuel -- Chapter 2
Immanuel -- Chapter 3
Immanuel -- Chapter 4
Immanuel -- Chapter 5
Immanuel -- Chapter 6
Immanuel -- Chapter 7
Immanuel -- Chapter 8
Immanuel -- Chapter 9
Immanuel -- Chapter 10
Immanuel -- Chapter 11
Immanuel -- Chapter 12
Immanuel -- Chapter 13
Immanuel -- Chapter 14
Bibliography
Chapter Fourteen
1 Review and Herald. 04.22.1909.
2 Review and Herald. 07.19.1892. 03.19.1889.
3 Review and Herald. 03.09.1886.
4 Early Writings p127.
5 2 Testimonies p207.
6 Review and Herald. 07.19.1892.
7 Review and Herald. 07.19.1892.
8 Spalding and Magan p68.
9 1 Spirit of Prophecy p48.
10 Hebrews 11:19. Abraham knew his son would be resurrected, yet he suffered greatly in his decision to sacrifice him.
11 Australian Union Recorder. 06.01.1900.
12 Isaiah 53:6.10. Verse 10 says “it pleased the Lord to bruise him”. Do not think the Father was actually pleased to make his Son suffer; it is not so.
However, in the plan of redemption, the Father was to place the sins of the world upon His Son, and in fulfilling His part, the Father knew salvation would be accomplished. Only as He saw in omniscience the end result, was the Father ‘pleased’.
12 Matthew 26:38.
14 Signs of the Times. 08.09.1905.
15 1 John 4:8.16.
16 3 Spirit of Prophecy p162.
17 Signs of the Times. 04.14.1898.
18 Signs of the Times. 11.25.1889.
19 Bible Echo. 01.01.1987.
20 The Desire of Ages p756.
21 9 Testimonies p285.286
Chapter Fourteen
THE GIFT
When the Father permitted His only-begotten Son to come to this world and suffer the penalty of sin, “He gave the richest gift that heaven could bestow.” 1
It was “all heaven… in that one gift.” 2
This precious gift was not a created angel. It was God’s “own dear Son.” 3 He is called the Father’s “darling Son”, 4 the “Son of His bosom”, 5 the “Son of the infinite God.” 6
God has done all that is possible for Him to do, “all that a God can do, that you might be saved, that you might have an inheritance with the saints of light.” 7
Think of it -- the Father, “spared not His only begotten Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all.” 8
Some are inclined to think there was no sacrifice for God, after all, it was the Son who died in agony.
“Said the angel, ‘Think ye that the Father yielded up His dearly beloved Son without a struggle? No, no. It was even a struggle with the God of heaven, whether to let guilty man perish, or to give His beloved Son to die for them.” 9
We must remember that when the Father consented for His Son to become the means of our salvation, He was consigning Him to a cruel death.
What father would willingly give his firstborn son to suffer, even for a short time?
God knew His Son would be mocked and ridiculed, scourged, spat upon, and finally crucified in shame. The Father’s heart ached to see Christ submit Himself to the agonising death of the cross.
If it is hard to imagine the God of the universe struggling over giving His Son up to suffering and death, consider the agony Abraham suffered over the proposed death of his son. This was to be a “figure” or “type” of God’s promise to send His Son. 10
We cannot even begin to consider the cost.
God withheld not the sacrifice of Himself, for in giving His Son, He gave Himself. “The Father suffered with Christ in all His humiliation and agony. He suffered as He saw the Son of His love despised and rejected by those whom He came to elevate, ennoble, and save.
He saw Him hanging upon the cross, mocked and jeered by the passers-by, and He hid as it were His face from Him. He saw Christ bearing the sin of the world, dying in the sinner’s stead.
The human heart knows the love of a parent for his child. We know what a mother’s love will do and suffer for her beloved one. But never can the heart of man fathom the depths of God’s self-sacrifice.” 11
And He knew only too well, that it had been His responsibility to place the sins of the world upon His Son. “… the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all…. He hath put him to grief, when (He) made him an offering for sin…” 12
The Father’s suffering did not end until His Son closed His eyes in death. Then, the battle had been won.
In Gethsemane, Christ’s suffering was so intense it forced from His lips words that revealed the greatest mental distress, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” 13
“Never before or since has so fearful a strain been brought upon a human being as that which God permitted to be brought upon His Son at this time. It is not possible for His suffering and distress to be exceeded; for He was bearing the sins of the whole world; and in all His suffering He gave an example of absolute submission to the divine will.
The sinless Son of God was treated as a sinner, that sinful human beings might be treated as innocent. ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed’.” 14
In carrying out the plan of salvation, Christ revealed that “God is love.” 15
“The guilt of every descendant of Adam of every age was pressing upon His heart; and the wrath of God, and the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation.
The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour, in this hour of supreme anguish, pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man.
Every pang endured by the Son of God upon the cross, the blood drops that flowed from His head, His hands, and feet, the convulsions of agony which racked His frame, and the unutterable anguish that filled His soul at the hiding of His Father's face from Him, speak to man, saying, ‘It is for love of thee that the Son of God consents to have these heinous crimes laid upon Him; for thee He spoils the domain of death, and opens the gates of Paradise and immortal life’.” 16
In true submission, Christ “felt no pang of bitterness against His Father”. 17
“When the Son of God hung upon Calvary, the darkness gathered like the pall of death about the cross.
All nature sympathized with its dying Author. There were thunderings and lightnings, and a mighty earthquake, but the hearts of men were so hardened that they could quarrel at the foot of the cross upon which hung the world's Redeemer, about the dividing of His vesture. Their hearts seemed to be wholly under the control of the powers of darkness.
Angels looked upon the scene with sorrow and amazement.
As man's substitute and surety, the iniquity of men was laid upon Christ. He was counted a transgressor that He might redeem them from the curse of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart; and the wrath of God, and the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation.
The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour, in this hour of supreme anguish, pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. Sin, so hateful to His sight, was heaped upon Him till He groaned beneath its weight.
The despairing agony of the Son of God was so much greater than His physical pain, that the latter was hardly felt by Him. The hosts of Heaven veiled their faces from the fearful sight. They heard His despairing cry, ‘My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?’, they saw the divine Sufferer die beneath the sins of the world.” 18
“It was the hiding of His Father’s face, a feeling that His own dear Father had forsaken Him as He drank the cup which the sinner so richly merited, that brought despair to His soul.
The separation that sin makes between God and man was fully realized and keenly felt by the innocent, suffering Man of Calvary.
He was oppressed by the powers of darkness, and had not one ray of light to brighten the future. His mental agony on this account was so great that man can have but a faint conception of it.” 19
A moment before Christ breathed His last, the Father gave His Son the blessing of knowing by faith that He had won the battle, that the victory was His. “Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken by God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe…. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. As in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father’s favor was withdrawn. By faith, Christ was victor.” 20
In the kingdom of God, “the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and the Son. The angels, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King and His trophies of victory -- those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.
A song of triumph shall peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts, accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and sacrifice has not been in vain.” 21
Dear Reader, I pray you will be there.
Immanuel -- God with Us