The New Creation, January 2

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Genesis 1:31. How beautiful the earth was when it came from the Creator's hand! God presented before the universe a world in which even His all-seeing eye could find no spot or stain, no defect or crookedness. Each part of His creation occupied the place assigned it and answered the purpose for which it was created. Like the parts of some great machine, part fitted to part, and all was in perfect harmony.... There was no disease ... and the vegetable kingdom was without taint of corruption. God looked upon the work of His hands wrought out by Christ and pronounced it “very good.” He looked upon a perfect world, in which there was no trace of sin, no imperfection. But a change came. Satan tempted Adam, and he fell. He who in heaven had become disloyal and had been cast out made lying reports of God to the beings He had created, and they listened to his reports and believed his lie. And sin entered the world, and death by sin.—Letter 23, 1903 (see also The Review and Herald, July 21, 1904). When Christ saw that there was no human being able to be humanity's intercessor, He Himself entered the fierce conflict and battled with Satan. The First Begotten of God was the only one who could liberate those who by Adam's sin had been brought in subjection to Satan. The Son of God gave Satan every opportunity to try all his arts upon Him. The enemy had tempted the angels in heaven, and afterward the first Adam. Adam fell, and Satan supposed he could succeed in ensnaring Christ after He assumed humanity. All the fallen host looked upon this engagement as an opportunity to gain the supremacy over Christ. They had longed for a chance to show their enmity against God. When the lips of Christ were sealed in death, Satan and his angels imagined that they had obtained the victory.... In the death struggle the Son of God could rely only upon His heavenly Father. All was by faith. He Himself was a ransom, a gift, given for the freeing of the captives. By His own arm He has brought salvation to humanity; but at what a cost to Himself!—Manuscript 125, 1901 (The Upward Look, 357).