Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Philippians 2:6.

The divine Son of God was the only sacrifice of sufficient value to fully satisfy the claims of God’s perfect law. The angels were sinless but of less value than the law of God. They were amenable to law…. They were created beings and probationers. Upon Christ no requirements were laid. He had power to lay down His life and to take it again. No obligation was laid upon Him to undertake the work of atonement. It was a voluntary sacrifice that He made. His life was of sufficient value to rescue sinners from their fallen condition….

The sacrificial offerings and the priesthood of the Jewish system were instituted to represent the death and mediatorial work of Christ. All those ceremonies had no meaning and no virtue, only as they related to Christ, who was Himself the foundation of, and who brought into existence, the entire system. The Lord had made known to Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and the ancient worthies, especially Moses, that the ceremonial system of sacrifices and the priesthood, of themselves, were not sufficient to secure the salvation of one soul.

The system of sacrificial offerings pointed to Christ. Through these, the ancient worthies saw Christ and believed in Him. These were ordained of Heaven to keep before the people the fearful separation which sin had made between God and the human family, requiring a mediating ministry. Through Christ the communication which was cut off because of Adam’s transgression was opened between God and the ruined sinner….

The Jewish system was symbolical and was to continue until the perfect Offering should take the place of the figurative…. The people of God, from Adam’s day down to the time when the Jewish nation became a separate and distinct people from the world, had been instructed in regard to the Redeemer to come, which their sacrificial offerings represented. This Savior was to be a mediator, to stand between the Most High and His people. Through this provision, a way was opened whereby the guilty sinner might find access to God through the mediation of another…. Christ alone could open the way by making an offering equal to the demands of the divine law. He was perfect and undefiled by sin. He was without spot or blemish.—The Review and Herald, December 17, 1872.

From From the Heart

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son. Galatians 4:4.

Christ came to this world to reveal the Father, to give to humanity a true knowledge of God. He came to manifest the love of God. Without a knowledge of God, humanity would be eternally lost…. Life and power must be imparted by Him who made the world.

The promise made in Eden—the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head—was the promise of the Son of God, through whose power alone could the counsel of God be fulfilled and the knowledge of God be imparted.

God made the promise to Abraham, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” To Abraham was unfolded God’s purpose for the redemption of the race…. Christ declared, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.”

Jacob declared, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”

To Moses God talked face to face, as one talks with a friend. On him shone the light regarding the Savior. He said to the people, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.”

The sacrifices and offerings told their story of the coming Savior, who was to be offered up for the sins of the world. They pointed forward to a better service than theirs, when God would be worshipped in spirit and truth and in the beauty of holiness.

In the Jewish service was typified the atonement demanded by the broken law. The victim, a lamb without spot or blemish, represented the world’s Redeemer, who is so holy and so efficient that He can take away the sin of the world.

To David was given the promise that Christ should reign forever and ever, and that of His kingdom there should be no end.

The Hebrews lived in an attitude of expectancy, looking for the promised Messiah. Many died in faith, not having received the promises; but having seen them afar off, they believed and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.—Youth’s Instuctor, September 13, 1900.

From From the Heart

You shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. Isaiah 58:12.

We have reason to rejoice that the world has not been left in solitary hopelessness. Jesus left the royal throne and His high command in heaven and became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. He took upon Himself our nature, that He might teach us how to live. In the steps which the sinner must take in conversion—repentance, faith, and baptism—He led the way. He did not repent for Himself, for He was sinless, but in behalf of sinners.

Jesus became “the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.” He became an exile to earth to bring back the one lost, straying sheep, the one world ruined by sin. In Him were combined the earthly and the heavenly, the human and the divine; otherwise, He could not be a Mediator whom the sinful could approach, and through whom they could be reconciled to their Maker. But now He encircles the race in arms of sympathy and love while He grasps the throne of the Infinite, thus uniting us in our weakness and helplessness with the Source of strength and power….

We are indebted to Jesus for all the blessings we enjoy. We should be deeply grateful that we are the subjects of His intercession. But Satan deceives men and women by presenting the service of Christ before them in a false light and making them think that it is a condescension on their part to accept Jesus as their Redeemer. If we viewed the Christian privilege in the right light, we should consider it the highest exaltation to be accounted a child of God, an heir of heaven, and we should rejoice that we can walk with Jesus in His humiliation….

Will you leave the dark abodes of sin and woe, and seek the mansions Jesus has gone to prepare for His followers? In His name we beseech you to plant your feet firmly on the ladder and climb upward. Forsake your sins, overcome your defects of character, and cling with all your powers to Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. We may every one of us succeed. None who shall persevere will fail of everlasting life. Those who believe on Christ shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of His hand.—Signs of the Times, July 31, 1884.

From From the Heart

And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. Exodus 12:24.

There were quite a number of the Egyptians who were led to acknowledge, by the manifestations of the signs and wonders shown in Egypt, that the gods whom they had worshipped were without knowledge and had no power to save or to destroy, and that the God of the Hebrews was the only true God. They begged to be permitted to come to the houses of the Israelites with their families upon that fearful night when the angel of God should slay the firstborn of the Egyptians. The Hebrews welcomed these believing Egyptians to their homes, and the latter pledged themselves henceforth to choose the God of Israel as their God and to leave Egypt and go with the Israelites to worship the Lord.

The Passover pointed backward to the deliverance of the children of Israel and was also typical, pointing forward to Christ, the Lamb of God, slain for the redemption of fallen humanity. The blood sprinkled upon the doorposts prefigured the atoning blood of Christ and also the continual dependence of sinners upon the merits of that blood for safety from the power of Satan and for final redemption. Christ ate the Passover supper with His disciples just before His crucifixion, and the same night instituted the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, to be observed in commemoration of His death…. After partaking of the passover with His disciples, Christ arose from the table and said unto them, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.” He then performed the humiliating office of washing the feet of His disciples. Christ gave His followers the ordinance of washing feet for them to practice, which would teach them lessons of humility….

The example of washing the feet of His disciples was given for the benefit of all who should believe in Him….

The salvation of men and women depends upon a continual application to their hearts of the cleansing blood of Christ. Therefore, the Lord’s Supper was to be observed more frequently than the annual Passover. This solemn ordinance commemorates a far greater event than the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt. That deliverance was typical of the great atonement which Christ made by the sacrifice of His own life for the final redemption of His people.—Signs of the Times, March 25, 1880.

From From the Heart

And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses. Exodus 12:7.

The Lord gave Moses special directions for the children of Israel in regard to what they must do to preserve themselves and their families from the fearful plague that He was about to send upon the Egyptians. Moses was also to give his people instructions in regard to their leaving Egypt. On that night, so terrible to the Egyptians and so glorious to the people of God, the solemn ordinance of the Passover was instituted. By the divine command, each family, alone or in connection with others, was to slay a lamb or a goat “without blemish,” and with a bunch of hyssop sprinkle its blood on “the two side posts, and on the upper door post” of their houses, as a token, that the destroying angel, coming at midnight, might not enter that dwelling. They were to eat the flesh roasted, with bitter herbs, at night, as Moses said, “with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover.” This name was given in memory of the angel’s passing by their dwellings; and such a feast was to be observed as a memorial by the people of Israel in all future generations.

Leaven works secretly and is a fit emblem of hypocrisy and deceit. And on this occasion the children of Israel were to abstain from leavened bread, that their minds might be impressed with the fact that God requires truth and sincerity in His worship. The bitter herbs represented their long and bitter servitude in Egypt, also the bondage of sin. It was not enough to simply slay the lamb and sprinkle its blood upon the doorposts, but it was to be eaten, thus representing the close union which must exist between Christ and His followers.

A work was required of the children of Israel to prove them and to show their faith in the great deliverance which God had been bringing about for them. In order to escape the terrible judgment about to fall upon Egypt, the token of blood must be seen upon their houses. And they were required to separate themselves and their children from the Egyptians and gather them into their own houses; for if any of the Israelites were found in the dwellings of the Egyptians, they would fall by the hand of the destroying angel. They were also directed to keep the feast of the Passover for an ordinance, that when their children should inquire what such service meant, they should relate to them their wonderful preservation in Egypt.—Signs of the Times, March 25, 1880.

From From the Heart