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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4a
Christ took not on him the nature of angels, but the nature of man,
that he might acquaint himself with the temptations with which he was
beset, and help man in his fallen state, and by his own humiliation and
death elevate men to become heirs with him to his Father’s kingdom.
Christ endured the strongest temptations of Satan, that he might ex-
perience in himself the severest conflict which the children of men
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would have with the fallen foe, and that he might sustain those who
should come to him for strength in their temptations.
Satan caused the fall of the first Adam, and he boasted to the
angels that he should succeed with the second Adam, Jesus Christ,
by approaching him through the appetite. Before Christ entered upon
his ministry, Satan commenced his series of temptations. He knew
that he could lead astray through the appetite sooner than in any other
way. Eve fell in consequence of appetite when she had every kind
of fruit good to satisfy her wants. Christ suffered a long fast of forty
days, and endured the keenest hunger. Satan came to him with his
series of temptations while thus weak and suffering, tempting him
to do a miracle for his own sake, to appease his hunger, and by so
doing give him evidence that he was the Son of God. “And when the
tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God, command
that these stones be made bread.” Christ answered him with Scripture.
“It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Christ refers to his Father’s
law. The words of God spoken from Sinai are the conditions of life.
These words obeyed will give man again free access to the tree of
life, that our first parents forfeited all right to by disobedience. Their
transgression made it needful for Christ to come to reconcile fallen
man to God by his own death.
The scene of Christ’s temptation was to be a lesson for all his
followers. When the enemies of Christ, by the instigation of Satan, re-
quest them to show some miracle, they should answer them as meekly
as the Son of God answered Satan, “It is written, Thou shalt not tempt
the Lord thy God.” If they will not be convinced by inspired testimony,
a manifestation of God’s power would not benefit them. God’s won-
drous works are not manifested to gratify the curiosity of any. Christ,
the Son of God, refused to give Satan any proof of his power. He
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made no effort to remove Satan’s “if,” by showing a miracle. The
disciples of Christ will be brought into similar positions. Unbelievers