The Origon of Evil
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To the very close of
the controversy in heaven, the great
usurper continued to justify himself.
When it was announced that with all
his sympathizers he must be expelled
from the abodes of bliss, then the
rebel leader boldly avowed his
contempt for the Creator’s law.
He reiterated his claim that angels
needed no control, but should be left
to follow their own will, which would
ever guide them right. He denounced
the divine statutes as a restriction
of their liberty and declared that it
was his purpose to secure the
abolition of law; that, freed from
this restraint, the hosts of heaven
might enter upon a more exalted, more
glorious state of existence.
With one accord, Satan
and his host threw the blame of their
rebellion wholly upon Christ,
declaring that if they had not been
reproved, they would never have
rebelled. Thus stubborn and defiant
in their disloyalty, seeking vainly
to overthrow the government of God,
yet blasphemously claiming to be
themselves the innocent victims of
oppressive power, the archrebel and
all his sympathizers were at last
banished from heaven.
The same spirit that
prompted rebellion in heaven still
inspires rebellion on earth. Satan
has continued with men the same
policy that he pursued with the
angels. His spirit now reigns in the
children of disobedience. Like him,
they seek to break down the
restraints of the law of God and
promise men liberty through
transgression of its precepts.
Reproof of sin still arouses the
spirit of hatred and resistance. When
God’s messages of warning are
brought home to the conscience, Satan
leads men to justify themselves and
to seek the sympathy of others in
their course of sin. Instead of
correcting their errors, they excite
indignation against the reprover, as
if he were the sole cause of
difficulty. From the days of
righteous Abel to our own time such
is the spirit that has been displayed
toward those who dare to condemn sin.
By the same
misrepresentation of the character of
God as he had practiced in heaven,
causing Him to be regarded as severe
and tyrannical, Satan induced man to
sin. And having succeeded thus far,
he declared that God’s unjust
restrictions had led to man’s
fall, as they had led to his own
rebellion. However, the Eternal One
Himself proclaims His character:
“The Lord God, merciful and
gracious, long-suffering, and
abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means
clear the guilty.” Exodus 34:
6,7.
In the banishment of
Satan from Heaven, God declared His
justice and maintained the honor of
His throne. However, when man had
sinned through yielding to the
deceptions of this apostate spirit,
God gave an evidence of His love by
yielding up His only-begotten Son to
die for the fallen race.
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 that Lucifer
had chosen was in no wise chargeable
upon the government of God.
In the contest between
Christ and Satan, during the
Savior’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 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
Savior’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 Savior’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 with inexpressible love
and power came forth the answer from
the Father’s throne: “Let
all the angels of God worship
Him.” Hebrews 1:6. Not a stain
rested upon Jesus. His humiliation
ended, His sacrifice completed, there
was given unto Him a name that is
above every name.
Now the guilt of Satan
stood forth without excuse. He had
revealed his true character as a liar
and a murderer. It was seen that the
very same spirit with which he ruled
the children of men, who were under
his power, he would have manifested
had he been permitted to control the
inhabitants of heaven. He had claimed
that the transgression of God’s
law would bring liberty and
exaltation; but it was seen to result
in bondage and degradation.
Satan’s lying
charges against the divine character
and government appeared in their true
light. He had accused God of seeking
merely the exaltation of Himself in
requiring submission and obedience
from His creatures, and had declared
that, while the Creator exacted
self-denial from all others, He
Himself practiced no self-denial and
made no sacrifice. Now it was seen
that for the salvation of a fallen
and sinful race, the Ruler of the
universe had made the greatest
sacrifice which love could make; for
“God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself.” 2
Corinthians 5:19. It was seen, also,
that while Lucifer had opened the
door for the entrance of sin by his
desire for honor and supremacy,
Christ had, in order to destroy sin,
humbled Himself and became obedient
unto death.
God had manifested His
abhorrence of the principles of
rebellion. All heaven saw His justice
revealed, both in the condemnation of
Satan and in the redemption of man.
Lucifer had declared that if the law
of God was changeless, and its
penalty could not be remitted, every
transgressor must be forever debarred
from the Creator’s favor. He had
claimed that the sinful race were
placed beyond redemption and were
therefore his rightful prey. However,
the death of Christ was an argument
in man’s behalf that could not
be overthrown. The penalty of the law
fell upon Him who was equal with God,
and man was free to accept the
righteousness of Christ and by a life
of penitence and humiliation to
triumph, as the Son of God had
triumphed, over the power of Satan.
Thus, God is just and yet the
justifier of all who believe in
Jesus.
However, it was not
merely to accomplish the redemption
of man that Christ came to the earth
to suffer and die. He came to
‘magnify the law” and to
“make it honorable.” Not
alone that the inhabitants of this
world might regard the law as it
should be regarded; but it was to
demonstrate to all the worlds of the
universe that God’s law is
unchangeable. Could its claims have
been set aside, then the Son of God
need not have yielded up His life to
atone for its transgression. The
death of Christ proves it immutable.
And the sacrifice to which infinite
love impelled the Father and the Son,
that sinners might be redeemed,
demonstrates to all the universe
– what nothing less than this
plan of atonement could have sufficed
to do – that justice and mercy
are the foundation of the law and
government of God.
In the final execution
of the judgment, it will be seen that
no cause for sin exists. When the
Judge of all the earth shall demand
of Satan, “Why hast thou
rebelled against Me, and robbed Me of
the subjects of My kingdom?” the
originator of evil can render no
excuse. Every mouth will be stopped,
and all the hosts of rebellion will
be speechless.
The cross of Calvary,
while it declares the law immutable,
proclaims to the universe that the
wages of sin is death. In the
Savior’s expiring cry, “It
is finished,” the death knell of
Satan was rung. The great controversy
that had been so long in progress was
then decided, and the final
eradication of evil was made certain.
The Son of God passed through the
portals of the tomb, that
“through death He might destroy
Him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil.” Hebrews 2:14.
Lucifer’s desire for
self-exaltation had led him to say:
“I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God; … I will be
like the Most High.” God
declares: “I will bring thee to
ashes upon the earth, … and
never shalt thou be any more.”
Isaiah 14: 13, 14; Ezekiel 28: 18,
19. When ‘the day cometh,
that shall burn as an oven; …
all the proud, yea, all that do
wickedly, shall be stubble: and the
day that cometh shall burn them up,
saith the Lord of hosts, that it
shall leave them neither root nor
branch.” Malachi 4:1.
The whole universe
will have become witnesses to the
nature and results of sin. And its
utter extermination, which in the
beginning would have brought fear to
angels and dishonor to God, will now
vindicate His love and establish His
honor before the universe of beings
who delight to do His will, and in
whose heart is His law. Never will
evil again be manifest. Says the word
of God: “Affliction shall not
rise up the second time.” Nahum
1:9. The law of God, which Satan has
reproached as the yoke of bondage,
will be honored as the law of
liberty. A tested and proved creation
will never again be turned from
allegiance to Him whose character has
been fully manifested before them as
fathomless love and infinite wisdom.
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