Chapter 10—Fasting
Christ’s Victory Through Denial of Appetite
295. With Christ, as with the holy pair in Eden, appetite was the
ground of the first great temptation. Just where the ruin began, the
work of our redemption must begin. As by the indulgence of appetite
Adam fell, so by the denial of appetite Christ must overcome. “And
when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an
hungered. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be
the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But He
answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
From the time of Adam to that of Christ, self-indulgence had
increased the power of the appetites and passions, until they had almost
unlimited control. Thus men had become debased and diseased, and
of themselves it was impossible for them to overcome. In man’s
behalf, Christ conquered by enduring the severest test. For our sake
He exercised a self-control stronger than hunger or death. And in this
first victory were involved other issues that enter into all our conflicts
with the powers of darkness.
When Jesus entered into the wilderness, He was shut in by the
Father’s glory. Absorbed in communion with God, He was lifted
above human weakness. But the glory departed, and He was left to
battle with temptation. It was pressing upon Him every moment. His
human nature shrank from the conflict that awaited Him. For forty
days He fasted and prayed. Weak and emaciated from hunger, worn
and haggard with mental agony, “His visage was so marred more than
any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” Now was Satan’s
opportunity. Now he supposed that he could overcome Christ.—
The
Desire of Ages, 117, 118, 1898
[186]
296. Christ entered upon the test upon the point of appetite, and for
nearly six weeks resisted temptation in behalf of man. That long fast
in the wilderness was to be a lesson to fallen man for all time. Christ
was not overcome by the strong temptations of the enemy, and this is
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