And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. Genesis 3:15.
Adam and Eve should have been perfectly satisfied with the knowledge of God in His created works, and by the instruction of the holy angels.... The high state of knowledge to which they thought to attain by eating of the forbidden fruit plunged them into the degradation of sin and guilt.
The angels who had been appointed to guard Adam and Eve in their Eden home before their transgression and expulsion from paradise were now appointed to guard the gates of paradise and the way of the tree of life, lest they should return and gain access to the tree of life and sin be immortalized.
Sin drove Adam and Eve from paradise. And sin was the cause of paradise being removed from the earth. In consequence of transgression of God's law, they lost paradise. In obedience to the Father's law and through faith in the atoning blood of His Son, paradise may be regained....
Satan made his exulting boasts to Christ and to loyal angels that he had succeeded in gaining a portion of the angels in heaven to unite with him in his daring rebellion. And now that he had succeeded in overcoming Adam and Eve, he claimed that their Eden home was his. He proudly boasted that the world which God had made was his dominion. Having conquered Adam, the monarch of the world, he had gained the race as his subjects, and he should now possess Eden and make that his headquarters. And he would there establish his throne and be monarch of the world.
But measures were immediately taken in heaven to defeat Satan in his plans. Strong angels, with beams of light representing flaming swords turning in every direction, were placed as sentinels to guard the way of the tree of life from the approach of Satan and the guilty pair....
A council was held in heaven, which resulted in God's dear Son undertaking to redeem the human race from the curse and from the disgrace of Adam's failure, and to conquer Satan. Oh, wonderful condescension! The Majesty of heaven, through love and pity for fallen humanity, proposed to become their substitute and surety.—The Review and Herald, February 24, 1874.
From From the Heart - Page 142
From the Heart