Christian Temperance
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Christ in the wilderness, determined to rob Him of His integrity as
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the Son of the Infinite, is to be their adversary to the end of time.
Although he failed to overcome Christ, his power is not weakened
over man. All are personally exposed to the temptations that Christ
overcame, but strength is provided for them in the all-powerful name
of the great Conqueror. And all must, for themselves, individually
overcome. Many fall under the very same temptations wherewith
Satan assailed Christ.
Although Christ gained a priceless victory in behalf of man in
overcoming the temptations of Satan in the wilderness, this victory
will not benefit him unless he also gains the victory on his own account.
Man now has the advantage over Adam in his warfare with Satan;
for he has Adam’s experience in disobedience and his consequent fall
to warn him to shun his example. Man also has Christ’s example in
overcoming appetite and the manifold temptations of Satan, and in
vanquishing the mighty foe upon every point and coming off victor
in every contest. If man stumbles and falls under the temptations of
Satan, he is without excuse; for he has the disobedience of Adam as
a warning, and the life of the world’s Redeemer as an example of
obedience and self-denial, and the promise of Christ that “to him that
over-cometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also
overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”