We understand that God created man, placing him here on the earth, and that He conferred upon him certain legal rights. Legal rights that are conferred are more easily forfeited than those that come by nature. These rights man transferred to Satan, God's enemy. This brings the Devil into the plan so that he must be dealt with, and the whole scheme of Redemption is God's seeking to redeem the human race from Adam's sin, and doing it upon such an equitable basis that it will perfectly satisfy the claims of Justice, meet the needs of man, and defeat Satan on legal grounds.
The Fall of Man was a lawful act; that is, Adam had legal right to transfer the authority and dominion that God had placed in his hands into the hands of another. This gives Satan a legal right to rule over man and over creation.
The plan of Redemption is one of the most ingenious and most wonderful of all the many works of God. Notice what He is obliged to do. Man sold himself out to the Devil, making himself a bond slave, and that slavery will last until the lease or period of man's dominion expires. God must in some way redeem fallen man from his sin, and Satan's dominion. He must do it in such a way as not to be unjust to Satan, nor unjust to man. God must recognize and hold inviolate man's treacherous act of transference of dominion. It was a legal act, and God has no right to arbitrarily annul it. He must show to Satan perfect justice at all points, and at the same time He must reach man in his helplessness and redeem him.
In order to do this, it is necessary that one come to the earth who is not a subject of Satan, and yet a man, and as a man meet every demand of justice against man. In order to accomplish this, there must be an Incarnation. This Incarnate one must not be a subject of Satan, nor a subject of death, and to this end God sends the Holy Spirit to a virgin in Judah, and she conceives and bears a son. This son is born, not of natural generation but of supernatural. The child is not a subject of death nor of Satan. He has the same type of a body that the first man, Adam, had before he sinned. Every step of the work that was accomplished by this Incarnate One was based upon perfectly legal grounds.
This Incarnate One met the demands, first, of the heart of Deity for a perfect human who would do His will; second, He met the demands of fallen man in that as a man He met the Devil and conquered him in honorable open combat. "Being tempted in all points, yet without sin." He goes on the Cross, and God lays upon him the iniquity of the human race. He, then, with this burden upon Him and under Judgment of God, goes down into Hell and suffers the penalty demanded by Justice.
When He had paid this penalty, He arose from the dead. He conquered Satan. He broke his dominion and took away his authority and power. Then, with the trophies of His triumph, He ascended to the right band of the Majesty on High and laid the tokens of His victory at the feet of His Great Father.
On the ground of this victory, the sinner has a legal right to accept Jesus Christ as a personal Savior. He has a legal right to Eternal Life. He has a legal right to Victory over sin and Satan. He has a legal right to a home in Heaven. He has a legal right to use the Name of Jesus in prayer. He has a legal right to his Father's protection and care. He has a legal right to a son's place in the Family of God. He has a legal right to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, to the care and protection of the Spirit, and to the intercession and teaching of the Spirit. He has a legal right to be translated at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. He has a legal right to immortality for the body. He has a legal right to an inheritance in the New Heavens and New Earth. He has a legal right to live with his Father throughout Eternity.
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