ion of the dead. For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive."[43]

The atonement was plainly to be a vicarious sacrifice, voluntary and
love-inspired on the Savior's part, universal in its application to
mankind so far as men shall accept the means of deliverance thus placed
within their reach. For such a mission only one who was without sin
could be eligible. Even the altar victims of ancient Israel offered as a
provisional propitiation for the offenses of the people under the Mosaic
law had to be clean and devoid of spot or blemish; otherwise they were
unacceptable and the attempt to offer them was sacrilege.[44] Jesus
Christ was the only Being suited to the requirements of the great
sacrifice:

1--As the one and only sinless Man;

2--As the Only Begotten of the Father and therefore the only Being born
to earth possessing in their fulness the attributes of both Godhood and
manhood;

3--As the One who had been chosen in the heavens and foreordained to
this service.

What other man has been without sin, and therefore wholly exempt from
the dominion of Satan, and to whom death, the wage of sin, is not
naturally due? Had Jesus Christ met death as other men have done--the
result of the power that Satan has gained over them through their
sins--His death would have been but an individual experience, expiatory
in no degree of any faults or offenses but His own. Christ's absolute
sinlessness made Him eligible, His humility and willingness rendered Him
acceptable to the Father, as the atoning sacrifice whereby propitiation
could be made for the sins of all men.

What other man has lived with power to withstand death, over whom death
could not prevail except through his own submission? Yet Jesus Christ
could not be slain until His "hour had come", and that, the hour in
which He voluntarily surrendered His life, and permitted His own decease
through an act of will. Born of a mortal mother He inherited the
capacity to die; begotten by an immortal Sire He possessed as a heritage
the power to withstand death indefinitely. He literally gave up His
life; to this effect is His own affirmation: "Therefore doth my Father
love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man
taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again."[45] And further: "For as the
Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in
hims