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Selected Messages Book 1
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 Christ 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
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 the 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
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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
left man a perfect pattern, showing him that his only safety is in firm
trust and unwavering confidence in God in all trials and perils. He
refused to presume upon the mercy of His Father by placing Himself
in peril that would make it necessary for His heavenly Father to display
His power to save Him from danger. This would be forcing providence
on His own account; and He would not then leave for His people a
perfect example of faith and firm trust in God.