MAN had fallen. He was a captive and enslaved in mind and body to Satan. Between man and his new and cruel master there was complete harmony. Satan’s mind was man’s mind and will.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 547.1

But thank the Lord, the merciful and true God, mankind was not left in this enslavement. For immediately from His gracious lips there passed to Satan the ominous sentence, and to all mankind the blest assurance, that this alliance of enslavement was forever broken up. “And the Lord God said unto the serpent.... I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”MEDM July 8, 1908, page 547.2

By the infinite power of that divine word enmity was then planted between mankind and Satan; and from that moment to this, there has been no unity of mind or of soul between mankind and Satan, and no unity between even any individual and Satan except upon the continuous, persistent, and determined choice of the individual himself. The enmity between mankind and Satan that by the divine word was there and then implanted was fixed and perpetual from God; and it never can be affected nor modified by anything that Satan can do, but only by the personal choice of the individual himself.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 547.3

The working of this divinely implanted enmity is fully described in the following inspired passage: “That which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it [the law] is good.” “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me [that is, in my flesh,] dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:15-24.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 547.4

The warfare there described between the good and the evil, is in every soul that ever came into the world. Every soul knows better than he does. He knows the good and “would do it.” And though he hates the evil, he hates the evil that he does; and many times even fairly hates himself for doing the evil that he hates. Each person knows in himself the experience of knowing better than he does; and the experience of resolving and promising himself to do better; and the experience of trying to do better, and failing; and the experience of “turning over new leaves,” and the new leaves soon blurred as the former ones; and in and through it all only the wearisome and discouraging experience of the treadmill or the quicksands.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 547.5

Every soul knows that the law of God is good that says that what he is doing should not be done. He gladly consents in his mind that the law of God is good. He willingly “wills” that this good should be done, and even “wills” that he will do that good. But “how to perform,” that is the problem. For in his members, in his flesh, he finds another law, the law of sin, warring against the law of his mind, the law of God, and in the warfare he finds this “other law” gaining the victory and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin in his members. And this is always so, this experience is so constant, so utterly unrelieved, that itself forces the cry, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” A body of death because it is only a body of sin.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 547.6

This is the warfare that is the consequence of the enmity that by the divine word was that day in the garden implanted between mankind and Satan. But it is not a warfare in which the victory is always on the wrong side. It is a warfare in which the victory need not ever be on the wrong side. The warfare was started by the gracious Lord, expressed in order that every soul should be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the blameless children of God! Expressly in order that each soul should have only victory all the time; expressly in order that victory should always be only on the right side, and on the side of right.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 548.1

The only reason why in this divinely implanted warfare victory ever is on the wrong side; the only reason why the warfare ever turns against the soul, is that the soul himself seeks to gain the victory by his own battling and his own struggling. The victory in this warfare can never be gained in this way; the disadvantages are too many, the opposing forces are too many and too powerful. The lost, captured, and imprisoned soul is too weak to so fight the battle as to gain the victory and deliverance alone.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 548.2

And it was never the intention that the victory and deliverance should be gained in that way. Note again the situation when the enmity was implanted, of which the warfare is the consequence. Adam and Eve were already lost, captured, and enslaved to the enemy. Their minds were only the reflection of his mind. And that being the condition, how could it be possible for them, of themselves, to carry to victory a warfare against their captor, even when the enmity had been implanted? On the very face of affairs, such a thing was plainly impossible.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 548.3

What, then, alone could mean the implanting of the enmity and its consequent warfare! Just this! In Adam and Eve in transgression mankind was then in unity with Satan, and with the evil. There was no enmity between them. God breaks up that unity and friendship by creating and implanting in mankind enmity against Satan and the evil; implanting enmity against the very evil in which they were, and which was in them, and of which they were a part. This planting in them enmity against the evil, was in itself to give to them the knowledge of the good. And in planting fixed hatred of the evil, there was given a longing for the good.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 548.4

But, and please note it particularly, this good was not in them. And the longing for the good could not possibly be satisfied from themselves. The good was not in themselves, and they were not to look there for it. The good was only in God, who in His goodness had planted in them who were now bad the enmity against the bad, that gate to them the knowledge of the good. And the longing for the good could be satisfied only from Him who in His divine goodness had planted hatred of the evil in them who were already in the evil.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 548.5

The planting of the enmity, therefore, plainly did not make mankind good. It gave them the knowledge of the good and a longing for the good. And it broke up the absolutism of the captivity and mastery of Satan, again setting free the will and the power of choice, so that mankind were again possessed of individuality to be exercised in choosing and willing which mind they would have and who should be their master.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 548.6

And as the good, the knowledge of which, and the desire for which, was thus given, was not in themselves, but in Him who in His goodness created in mankind the enmity against Satan and the hatred of the evil, it is plain that the planting this enmity against Satan and the hatred of evil was the opening of the door, and the showing of the way of salvation to lost mankind. And this door and this way of salvation thus opened and shown to lost man- kind, was in itself only the gift of Jesus Christ the Lord “the Door,” and “the Way,” “Desire of all nations;” “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”MEDM July 8, 1908, page 548.7

And thus to every soul exclaiming in his defeat, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” from the moment of the planting of that enmity against Satan unto this moment and forever the blessed answer is, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” there is in Him complete deliverance from defeat, from captivity, and from all loss, unto triumphant victory, unto glorious liberty, and unto eternal possession of “all things.”MEDM July 8, 1908, page 549.1

In the planting of enmity against Satan that day, there was the gift of Christ, “the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world” “on his coming into the world.” And in this gift of Christ there was a restoring of the true mind to lost mankind, and of freedom to choose this mind instead of the false and deceiving mind of Satan. And from that moment until now and forever, the divine call to every soul has been “Change you mind;” that is, “Repent.” Repent your mind from the false to the true; from the mind that “is enmity against God and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,” to the mind that is in Christ, and that is itself the very keeping of the Law of God because it is made manifest by the Holy Spirit.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 549.2

“The Son of God is come and hath given us a mind.” “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” “We have the mind of Christ.” And “with the mind, I myself serve the Law of God.”MEDM July 8, 1908, page 549.3

This is the redemption that was given to lost man the very day that he sinned and was lost. And it is the redemption to lost mankind forever. It is a free gift of divine grace, ever to be had in all its fulness only for the taking.MEDM July 8, 1908, page 549.4

June 24, 1908

July 15, 1908