The Sin of Presumption
The sin of presumption lies close beside the virtue of perfect faith
and confidence in God. Satan flattered himself that he could take
advantage of the humanity of Christ to urge Him over the line of trust
to presumption. Upon this point many souls are wrecked. Satan tried
to deceive Christ through flattery. He admitted that He was right in the
wilderness in His faith and confidence that God was His Father under
the most trying circumstances. He then urged Christ to give him one
more proof of His entire dependence upon God, one more evidence
of His faith that He was the Son of God, by casting Himself from the
Temple. He told Christ that if He was indeed the Son of God He had
nothing to fear, for angels were at hand to uphold Him. Satan gave
evidence that he understood the Scriptures by the use he made of them.
The Redeemer of the world wavered not from His integrity, and
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showed that He had perfect faith in His Father’s promised care. He
would not put the faithfulness and love of His Father to a needless trial,
although He was in the hands of an enemy and placed in a position
of extreme difficulty and peril. He would not at Satan’s suggestion
tempt God by presumptuously experimenting on His providence. Satan
had brought in Scripture which seemed appropriate for the occasion,
hoping to accomplish his designs by making the application to our
Saviour at this special time.
Christ knew that God could indeed bear Him up if He had required
Him to throw Himself from the Temple. But to do this unbidden,
and to experiment upon His Father’s protecting care and love because
dared by Satan to do so would not show His strength of faith. Satan
was well aware that if Christ could be prevailed upon, unbidden by
His Father, to fling Himself from the Temple to prove His claim to His
heavenly Father’s protecting care, He would in the very act show the
weakness of His human nature.
Christ came off victor in the second temptation. He manifested
perfect confidence and trust in His Father during His severe conflict
with the powerful foe. Our Redeemer, in the victory here gained, has
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