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S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 5
In Christ, divinity and humanity were combined. Divinity was
not degraded to humanity; divinity held its place, but humanity, by
being united to divinity, withstood the fiercest test of temptation
in the wilderness. The prince of this world came to Christ after
His long fast, when He was an hungered, and suggested to Him to
command the stones to become bread. But the plan of God, devised
for the salvation of man, provided that Christ should know hunger,
and poverty, and every phase of man’s experience. He withstood
the temptation, through the power that man may command. He laid
hold on the throne of God, and there is not a man or woman who
may not have access to the same help through faith in God. Man
may become a partaker of the divine nature; not a soul lives who
may not summon the aid of Heaven in temptation and trial. Christ
came to reveal the source of His power, that man might never rely
on his unaided human capabilities.
Those who would overcome must put to the tax every power of
their being. They must agonize on their knees before God for divine
power. Christ came to be our example, and to make known to us
that we may be partakers of the divine nature. How?—By having
escaped the corruptions that are in the world through lust. Satan did
not gain the victory over Christ. He did not put his foot upon the
soul of the Redeemer. He did not touch the head though he bruised
the heel. Christ, by His own example, made it evident that man may
stand in integrity. Men may have a power to resist evil—a power
that neither earth, nor death, nor hell can master; a power that will
place them where they may overcome as Christ overcame. Divinity
and humanity may be combined in them (
The Review and Herald,
February 18, 1890
).
(
Isaiah 53:6
;
2 Corinthians 5:21
.) The Terrible Conse-
quences of Transgression
—Unless there is a possibility of yielding,
temptation is no temptation. Temptation is resisted when man is
powerfully influenced to do a wrong action and, knowing that he
can do it, resists, by faith, with a firm hold upon divine power. This
was the ordeal through which Christ passed. He could not have
been tempted in all points as man is tempted, had there been no
possibility of His failing. He was a free agent, placed on probation,
as was Adam, and as is every man. In His closing hours, while
hanging upon the cross, He experienced to the fullest extent what