The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 502

In the atonement the character of God is revealed. The mighty argument
of the cross demonstrates to the whole universe that the course of
sin which Lucifer had chosen was in no wise chargeable upon the
government of God.
In the contest between Christ and Satan, during the Saviour’s earthly
ministry, the character of the great deceiver was unmasked. Nothing
could so effectually have uprooted Satan from the affections of the
heavenly angels and the whole loyal universe as did his cruel warfare
upon the world’s Redeemer. The daring blasphemy of his demand
that Christ should pay him homage, his presumptuous boldness in
bearing Him to the mountain summit and the pinnacle of the temple,
the malicious intent betrayed in urging Him to cast Himself down from
the dizzy height, the unsleeping malice that hunted Him from place to
place, inspiring the hearts of priests and people to reject His love, and
at the last to cry, “Crucify Him! crucify Him!”—all this excited the
amazement and indignation of the universe.
It was Satan that prompted the world’s rejection of Christ. The prince
of evil exerted all his power and cunning to destroy Jesus; for he saw that
the Saviour’s mercy and love, His compassion and pitying tenderness,
were representing to the world the character of God. Satan contested
every claim put forth by the Son of God and employed men as his agents
to fill the Saviour’s life with suffering and sorrow. The sophistry and
falsehood by which he had sought to hinder the work of Jesus, the hatred
manifested through the children of disobedience, his cruel accusations
against Him whose life was one of unexampled goodness, all sprang
from deep-seated revenge. The pent-up fires of envy and malice, hatred
and revenge, burst forth on Calvary against the Son of God, while all
heaven gazed upon the scene in silent horror.
When the great sacrifice had been consummated, Christ ascended on
high, refusing the adoration of angels until He had presented the request:
“I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I
am.” John 17:24. Then

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