Christ Accepts Satan’s Challenge

The bold challenge by Satan that the Creator of the universe was actually not a God of love was startling to the angels. In dismay they listened to Satan’s enlarging and expanding accusations. A God of love would not require of His created beings that which they were unable to do, Satan alleged. If there was fault with the law, there was fault with the lawgiver. The pretense of being a God of love was only a mask covering a character that was really arbitrary, unjust, selfish, and cruel. This challenge was openly and defiantly hurled at the Creator. (See chapter one in Patriarchs and Prophets.)
The angels had not long to wait. The Son of God, who knew the Father’s character better than anyone else, did not hesitate to rise to the occasion and accept Satan’s challenge. He knew full well what would have to be done in order to expose Satan’s greatest lie as the gross misrepresentation that it was, and He calmly announced His intention to do it.

(Christ) came to this world to live the law in humanity, that Satan’s charges that man can not keep the law might be demonstrated as false . . . He came to reveal to the heavenly universe, to the worlds unfallen, and to sinful men, that every provision has been made by God in behalf of humanity, and that through the imputed righteousness of Christ, all who receive Him by faith can show their loyalty by keeping the law. 3ST 465

Satan had made the boast that he would gather the world under his banner of rebellion. He declared that man could not keep the law of God. Christ came to prove this assertion false. 4ST 398

Satan represents God’s law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts . . . Jesus was to unveil this deception. DA 24

Christ came to vindicate the sacred claims of the law. He came to

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live a life of obedience to its requirements, and thus prove the falsity of the charge made by Satan that it is impossible for man to keep the law of God. As a man He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him from God. As He went about doing good, healing all who were afflicted by Satan, He made plain to men the character of God’s law and the nature of His service. His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God. 8T 207-8

(Christ) came to this world to be tempted in all points as we are, to prove to the universe that in this world of sin human beings can live lives that God will approve. 5RH 120

. . Satan had represented (God) to man as arbitrary, stern, and unforgiving. All the misery and suffering he had brought upon man, he charged to God. He declared that man could not keep the law, and that God was arbitrary and cruel in demanding of him something that he could not do.

Christ came to represent the Father, and to show in what tender relation we stand to Him. He showed that humanity can keep the law. YI 446

We are ever to be thankful that Jesus has proved to us by actual life that man can keep the commandments of God, contradicting Satan’s falsehood that man cannot keep them. The great Teacher came to our world to stand at the head of humanity, to thus elevate and sanctify humanity by His holy obedience to all the requirements of God, showing it is possible to obey all the commandments of God. He has demonstrated that a lifelong obedience is possible. Thus He gives men to the world, as the Father gave the Son, to exemplify in their life the life of Christ.

Christ redeemed Adam’s disgraceful failure and fall, and was conqueror, thus testifying to all the unfallen worlds and to fallen humanity that through the divine power granted to him of heaven man can keep the commandments of God. Jesus, the Son of God, humbled Himself for us, endured temptation for us, overcame in our behalf, to show us how we may overcome; by the closest ties He bound up His interest with humanity, and gave positive assurance that we shall not be tempted above that we are able; for with the temptation He will make a way of escape. 3ST 32

Satan had claimed that it was impossible for man to obey God’s commandments; and in our own strength it is true that we cannot obey them. But Christ came in the form of humanity, and by His perfect obedience He proved that humanity and divinity combined can obey every one of God’s precepts. COL 314

By His life and His death, Christ proved that God’s justice did not destroy His mercy, but that sin could be forgiven, and that the law

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is righteous, and can be perfectly obeyed. Satan’s charges were refuted God had given man unmistakable evidence of His love. DA 762

The Saviour’s life of obedience maintained the claims of the law; it proved that the law could be kept in humanity, and showed the excellence of character that obedience would develop. All who obey as He did are likewise declaring that the law is “holy, and just, and good.” Romans 7:12. On the other hand, all who break God’s commandments are sustaining Satan’s claim that the law is unjust and cannot be obeyed. Thus they second the deceptions of the great adversary, and cast dishonor upon God DA 309

Christ declared “. . . God could not change His law to meet man in his fallen condition. By suffering the penalty of transgression, I will redeem the race. I have taken human nature, and have come to this earth to pass over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell. In human nature I will bear the test and proving of God Satan has declared that man can not keep the law. I will show that his statement is false; that man can keep the law. I have come to establish the law Satan is seeking to make void, to show how far-reaching are the principles of this law. I have come to strip from it the burdensome exactions with which man has loaded it down. I have come to show its length and breadth, its dignity and nobility. I will open before men its purity and spirituality. Not to introduce a new law, have I come, but to establish the law which to all eternity will be the standard of obedience.” 4ST 372

Satan declared that it was impossible for the sons and daughters of Adam to keep the law, and thus charged upon God a lack of wisdom and love. If they could not keep the law, then there was fault with the Lawgiver. Men who are under the control of Satan repeat these accusations against God, in asserting that men can not keep the law of God. Jesus humbled himself, clothing His divinity with humanity, in order that He might stand as the head and representative of the human family, and by both precept and example condemn sin in the flesh, and give the lie to Satan’s charges. 3ST 264

Satan has asserted that men could not keep the commandments of God. To prove that they could, Christ became a man, and lived a life of perfect obedience, an evidence to sinful human beings, to the worlds unfallen, and to the heavenly angels, that man could keep God’s law through the divine power that is abundantly provided for all that believe. In order to reveal God to the world, to demonstrate as true that which Satan has denied, Christ volunteered to take humanity, and in His power, humanity can obey God. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” 4ST 34

Christ came to give moral power to man; to elevate, ennoble, and

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strengthen him. He came to prove the falsity of Satan’s charge that God had made a law which man could not keep. While possessing man’s nature, Christ kept the Ten Commandments. Thus He proved to the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds and to human beings that it is possible for man perfectly to obey the law. He vindicated God’s justice in demanding obedience to His law. Those who accept Christ as their Saviour, becoming partakers of the divine nature, are enabled to follow His example of obedience to every divine precept. 4ST 239

On this earth Satan sought to carry forward the work that he began in heaven. He declared that man could not obey the law of God . . . The Son of God, heaven’s glorious Commander, was touched with pity for the fallen race. He entered into a covenant with God to save man, and to vindicate His -Father’s character as expressed in the law. He came to the earth in the form of man to refute Satan’s lie, that God had given a law which man could not keep. 4ST 252

It was the existence of sin in the human heart that led Christ to come to this earth. He covenanted with God to lay aside His kingly crown and royal robe, clothe His divinity with humanity, and, standing on this earth at the head of humanity, bear testimony against the assertion of darkness that man could not live without sin. 4ST 293

The only-begotten Son of God came to our world as a man, to reveal to the world the fact that men through divine power could keep the law of God. Satan, the fallen angel, had declared that no man could keep God’s law, and he pointed to the disobedience of Adam as proving the declaration true. 3ST 30

Jesus was one with the Father, and revealed the perfection of God, and yet He came to the world in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, and condemned sin in the flesh by His own life of perfect obedience to the law of God, showing that men may become partakers of the divine nature, and may through faith in Christ lay hold on moral power that has been brought within their reach through the love so abundantly expressed in their behalf. Human agents may form characters after the divine similitude, because of the great love where with Christ has loved us . . . The plan of Satan was by his lying philosophies to widen the breach that existed between God and man. He argued that man could not keep the law of God, and therefore that God had been obliged to change the laws which He had made, and had abolished the rule of His government. 3ST 188

In His divine plan of salvation, God gave His only begotten Son, that every voice may be silent upon the point that it is not possible for humanity to keep the law of God. In Christ, divinity and humanity bore every test of temptation; in Him, humanity is exalted and

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honored. In Christ, man is privileged to become a partaker of the divine nature. 3RH 628

Satan declared that human beings could not keep the law. Christ has proved this statement false. 4RH 337

In His human nature Christ rendered perfect obedience to the law of God, thus proving to all that this law can be kept. 4RH 304

Satan has cast his shadow athwart the pathway of every human being, in order that he may misrepresent God to the world. He has clothed the character of God with attributes that are satanic, and wholly at variance with the truth. He has pictured Him as a being full of revenge, as a law-giver whose law is beyond the power of man to keep, and he has implanted enmity in the heart of the sinner, so that man unregenerated is in rebellion against God. This is the impression that Satan has made upon the human mind. Those who present the law of God as a transcript of the divine character will blend with their teaching that which belongs with the subject, and will present the love of the Father and the Son. When this is done, the shadow of the evil one will be removed from the hearts of men, and the clear light of Christ’s love, illuminating the understanding, will reveal the character of God as of one who is infinite in mercy. . . . 2ST 464

It was necessary that Christ should take upon Him our nature, in order to prove the falsity of Satan’s statements. The apostate cast contempt upon the law of God, and declared that it was impossible for men to keep God’s commandment, which had been pre-ordained in the counsels of heaven. 3ST 125

Look again at that last quotation. Why was it necessary for Christ to take our nature in order to expose the falsity of Satan’s charges? And what did Ellen White mean by the expression our nature? Her line of logic becomes increasingly clear as we move to our next chapter, Christ Accepts The Conditions of The Challenge.

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