Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Hebrews 1:14.
The plan by which alone humanity's salvation could be secured involved all heaven in its infinite sacrifice. The angels could not rejoice as Christ opened before them the plan of redemption, for they saw that salvation of the human race must cost their loved Commander unutterable woe. In grief and wonder they listened to His words as He told them how He must descend from heaven's purity and peace, its joy and glory and immortal life, and come in contact with the degradation of earth, to endure its sorrow, shame, and death.
He was to stand between the sinner and the penalty of sin; yet few would receive Him as the Son of God. He would leave His high position as the Majesty of heaven, appear upon the earth and humble Himself as a man, and by His own experience become acquainted with the sorrows and temptations that humans would have to endure. All this would be necessary in order that He might be able to succor them that should be tempted.
When His mission as a teacher should be ended, He must be delivered into the hands of wicked men and be subjected to every insult and torture that Satan could inspire them to inflict. He must die the cruelest of deaths, lifted up between the heavens and the earth as a guilty sinner. He must pass long hours of agony so terrible that angels could not look upon it, but would veil their faces from the sight. He must endure anguish of soul, the hiding of His Father's face, while the guilt of transgression—the weight of the sins of the whole world—should be upon Him.
The angels prostrated themselves at the feet of their Commander and offered to become a sacrifice for lost humans. But an angel's life could not pay the debt; only He who created them had power to redeem them. Yet the angels were to have a part to act in the plan of redemption. Christ was to be made “a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.” As He should take human nature upon Him, His strength would not be equal to theirs, and they were to minister to Him, to strengthen and soothe Him under His sufferings. They were also to be ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who should be heirs of salvation. They would guard the subjects of grace from the power of evil angels and from the darkness constantly thrown around them by Satan....
Christ assured the angels that by His death He would ransom many, and would destroy him who had the power of death.—Patriarchs and Prophets, 64, 65.
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