Christ Was Not Forced To Bear The Guilt Of The World, September 17

“And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:44^L.

Christ had not been forced to do this [bear the guilt of a perishing world]. He had volunteered to lay down His life to save the world. The claims of God′s government had been misapprehended through the deceptive words and works of Satan, and the necessity of a mediator was seen and felt by the Father and the Son....

The universe of heaven had watched with intense interest the entire life of Christ—every step from the manger to the present awful scene of momentous interest. The unfallen worlds were watching the result of this controversy. They beheld the Son of God, their loved Commander, in His superhuman agony, apparently dying on the field of battle to save a lost and perishing world....

Satan was urging upon Him all the force of his temptations. He presented before Him that the sin of the world, so offensive to God, was chastisement too great. He would never again be looked upon as pure and holy and undefiled, as God′s only begotten Son.

Christ was now standing in a different attitude than He had ever done before. Hitherto He had stood as an intercessor for others; now He longs for an intercessor for Himself. Could His human nature bear the strain? Shall the sins of an apostate world, since Adam′s transgression to the close of time, be laid upon Him? ...

In the supreme crisis, when heart and soul are breaking under the [world′s] load of sin, Gabriel is sent to strengthen Him. And while the angel supports His fainting form, Christ takes the bitter cup and consents to drink its contents. Before the suffering One comes up the wail of a lost and perishing world, and the words come from the bloodstained lips, “Nevertheless, if the fallen race must perish unless I drink this cup, Thy will, not Mine, be done.”...

There was silence in heaven; no harp was touched. They see their Lord enclosed by legions of satanic forces, His human nature weighed down with a shuddering, mysterious dread.... Strengthened by the angel sent from heaven, Jesus arises in sweat and blood and agony and for the third time returns to His disciples.... But He was disappointed. He found them sleeping in the hour of His bitterest agony. And the sight made angels grow sad.... Prophecy had declared that the “Mighty One” ... was to tread the winepress alone; “of the people there was none”(Isaiah 63:3^L) with Him.—Manuscript 42, 1897.