Temptation
87
all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of
yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear which He has not
endured.
With Christ, as with the holy pair in Eden, appetite was the ground
of the first great temptation. Just where the ruin began, the work of our
redemption must begin. As by the indulgence of appetite Adam fell,
so by the denial of appetite Christ must overcome. “And when He had
fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. And
when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God,
command that these stones be made bread. But He answered and said,
It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
From the time of Adam to that of Christ, self-indulgence had
increased the power of the appetites and passions, until they had almost
unlimited control. Thus men had become debased and diseased, and
of themselves it was impossible for them to overcome. In man’s
behalf, Christ conquered by enduring the severest test. For our sake
He exercised a self-control stronger than hunger or death. And in this
first victory were involved other issues that enter into all our conflicts
with the powers of darkness.
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When Jesus entered the wilderness, He was shut in by the Father’s
glory. Absorbed in communion with God, He was lifted above human
weakness. But the glory departed, and He was left to battle with
temptation. It was pressing upon Him every moment. His human
nature shrank from the conflict that awaited Him. For forty days
He fasted and prayed. Weak and emaciated from hunger, worn and
haggard with mental agony, “His visage was so marred more than any
man, and His form more than the sons of men.”
Isaiah 52:14
. Now
was Satan’s opportunity. Now he supposed that he could overcome
Christ.
There came to the Saviour, as if in answer to His prayers, one in
the guise of an angel from heaven. He claimed to have a commission
from God to declare that Christ’s fast was at an end. As God had sent
an angel to stay the hand of Abraham from offering Isaac, so, satisfied
with Christ’s willingness to enter the bloodstained path, the Father had
sent an angel to deliver Him; this was the message brought to Jesus.
The Saviour was faint from hunger, He was craving for food, when
Satan came suddenly upon Him. Pointing to the stones which strewed