Gospel Truth #5
In seeking us, Christ came all the way to where we are, taking upon Himself "the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Thus He is a Savior "nigh at hand, not afar off." He "is the Savior of all men," even "the chief of sinners." But sinners have the freedom to refuse Him and reject Him.
Ellen White Was Not Only Supportive, But Enthusiastic
"On Sabbath afternoon [at South Lancaster] many hearts were touched, and many souls were fed on the bread that cometh down from heaven. . . . We [Jones, Waggoner, and Ellen White] felt the necessity of presenting Christ as a Saviour who was not afar off, but nigh at hand. . . . There were many, even among the ministers, who saw the truth as it is in Jesus in a light in which they had never before viewed it" (Review and Herald, March 5, 1889).
"Many say that Jesus was not like us, that He was not as we are in the world, that He was divine, and therefore we cannot overcome as He overcame. But this is not true; 'for verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. . . . For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.' Christ knows the sinner's trials; He knows his temptations. He took upon Himself our nature. . . . The Christian's . . . strongest temptations will come from within; for he must battle against the inclinations of the natural heart. The Lord knows our weaknesses. . . . Every struggle against sin, every effort to conform to the law of God, is Christ working through His appointed agencies upon the human heart. Oh, if we could comprehend what Jesus is to us!" (Christ Tempted As We Are, pp. 3, 4, 11; 1894).
"It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life" (The Desire of Ages, p. 49).
"[Christ] took on His sinless nature our sinful nature, that He might know how to succor them that are tempted" (Medical Ministry, p. 189).