Chapter 157—Infinite Suffering
For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
succour them that are tempted.
Hebrews 2:18
.
Would that we could comprehend the significance of the words, Christ
“suffered being tempted.” While He was free from the taint of sin, the refined
sensibilities of His holy nature rendered contact with evil unspeakably painful
to Him. Yet with human nature upon Him, He met the archapostate face
to face, and single-handed withstood the foe of His throne. Not even by a
thought could Christ be brought to yield to the power of temptation.
What a sight was this for Heaven to look upon! Christ, who knew not the
least taint of sin or defilement, took our nature in its deteriorated condition.
This was humiliation greater than finite man can comprehend. God was
manifest in the flesh. He humbled Himself. What a subject for thought, for
deep, earnest contemplation! So infinitely great that He was the Majesty of
heaven, and yet He stooped so low, without losing one atom of His dignity
and glory! He stooped to poverty and to the deepest abasement among men.
For our sake He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made
rich.
The world had lost the original pattern of goodness and had sunk into
universal apostasy and moral corruption; and the life of Jesus was one of
laborious, self-denying effort to bring man back to his first estate by imbuing
him with the spirit of divine benevolence and unselfish love. While in the
world, He was not of the world. It was a continual pain to Him to be brought
in contact with the enmity, depravity, and impurity which Satan had brought
in; but He had a work to do to bring man into harmony with the divine
plan, and earth in connection with heaven, and He counted no sacrifice too
great for the accomplishment of the object. He “was in all points tempted
like as we are” (
Hebrews 4:15
). Satan stood ready to assail Him at every
step, hurling at Him his fiercest temptations; yet He “did no sin, neither was
guile found in His mouth” (
1 Peter 2:22
). “He ... suffered being tempted,”
suffered in proportion to the perfection of His holiness. But the prince of
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