Temptation - The Great Reenactment (3)

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

“On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.” (From Matthew Chapter 4, NASB).

In the Garden of Eden, when tempted by the serpent Eve responds, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.”

In Genesis 3:1 – 7 the serpent questions God’s Word, Eve gives one response to the serpent, the serpent counters her argument, the woman succumbs to the deception (compare 2 Cor. 11:1 – 3), and the temptation is consummated in sin and death.

In Matthew Chapter 4, after forty days of temptation in the Wilderness, Satan attacks with a temptation and Jesus responds with God’s Word; Satan attacks with another temptation and Jesus responds with God’s Word; Satan attacks with another temptation and Jesus responds with God’s Word. Satan’s sustained attack is met with Jesus’ sustained response with God’s Word.

In each of His responses Jesus speaks from Deuteronomy (Dt. 8:3, 6:16, 6:13).[i] This raises the question, “How can we possibly resist temptation without a living (incarnational) knowledge of the Word of God to which we are living in obedience?”

Also, let us keep in mind that Jesus is driven into the Wilderness after His baptism, at which the Holy Spirit descended upon Him – it was the Holy Spirit who drove Jesus into the Wilderness to be tempted. Jesus resisted temptation by the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon the Word of God – we cannot separate the Spirit from the Word or the Word from the Spirit. The Bible must be illuminated by the Holy Spirit for us to understand it and see Christ in it. To withstand temptation and live in obedience to Christ we need the union of the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures in our lives. We must call on our Lord Jesus to work His will within us, to live His life within us – for in and of ourselves we are not sufficient to obey God and face temptation.

Should someone say, “What of young Christians who are just learning the Scriptures?” We have the promise that “…God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13). The critical point here is that “God is faithful.” We can trust the character of our Father.

Sadly, there are some today who disregard what we call the Old Testament; the Law and the Prophets and the Writings. Yet, it is from Deuteronomy that Jesus took all three of His responses to the enemy in the Wilderness. It was through the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms that the risen Christ revealed Himself to His disciples (Luke 24:27, 32, 44 – 47). How foolish to reject the revelation of Christ in Genesis through Malachi. How foolish to disregard the foundation and backdrop of the New Testament. I don’t use the word heresy lightly, but this is heresy as old and older than Marcion.

In the Great Reenactment in the Wilderness, Jesus is living by the Word of God; He is living in obedience to the Word of God and not tempting God by attempting to manipulate the Word (note that Satan traduces Psalm 91 in Matthew 4:6, we see this ploy in heretical teachers); He is worshiping and serving God and God alone.

Knowing God’s Word as our sustenance. Living in obedience to God’s Word. Worshiping and serving God and God alone. This is our daily calling. By God’s grace, faithfulness to this calling will see us through the Wilderness of temptation, trial, and testing as we participate with Jesus Christ in the Great Reenactment.

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[i] I write from a human perspective for I don’t understand the mystery of the Incarnation; certainly the Word of John 1:1 has always been the Word and therefore the Word of Deuteronomy which Jesus “quotes” in Matthew 4 is His own Word which Moses recorded in Deuteronomy. It is difficult, at least for me, to understand in most any measure the union of God and Man in the Incarnation. I “see” it more clearly at some times than at others – but it is ever a mystery.

I Think It’s Beautiful

“You’re weird,” she said to me.

I wasn’t offended. It’s one more reason I love her, she is willing to be my wife even though I’m weird.

Granted, “weird” before marriage may be novel; while weird after marriage may not. I realize she has a limit to how much weirdness she can tolerate in a day or week, but all in all she’s a pretty good gal.

We were sitting in the sunroom. Watching the morning light play with the trees, watching the birds, enjoying the early-morning quiet. My mind wandered from the surrounding beauty and contemplated another beauty; I was visualizing it, meditating on it, swishing it around in my thoughts the way you might enjoy a swish of fine Cabernet. The flavors were having a party in my head. It was like a jeweler with a loop enjoying a radiant gem.

She asked, “What are you thinking?”

“Do you really want to know? You won’t believe it.”

“Tell me.”

“Are you sure? You won’t believe it.”

“Just tell me.”

“Okay. I was thinking how beautiful a semicolon is.”

“What?”

“I was thinking how beautiful a semicolon is.”

“You’re weird. Why would you think that?”

“When I was doing a blog post this morning, I used a semicolon in a particular place and it struck me as beautiful. I originally had a comma and a conjunction, but then I realized a semicolon would be just right. With a semicolon you don’t have to come to a full stop, a period; you need not use a comma which can move things too fast; it cuts down on conjunctions which can be tedious. The pause which a semicolon provides can be just enough of a pause to ponder; just enough of a rest before you move on – it need not interrupt the music and rhythm of thought, the dance, the point and counterpoint. The semicolon is beautiful.

“You’re weird.”

;

Our North Star and Anchor

In his preface to The Saints Everlasting Rest, Richard Baxter writes:

“What more welcome to men under personal afflictions, tiring duties, disappointments, or sufferings, than rest?” [The “rest” that Baxter writes about is our seeing the face of Christ; a “rest” that I believe the Bible teaches begins now and continually unfolds in Jesus Christ.]

“It is not our comfort only, but our stability. Our liveliness in all duties, our enduring of tribulation, our honoring of God, the vigor of our love, thankfulness, and all our graces; yea, the very being of our religion and Christianity depend on the believing, serious thoughts of our rest.” (italics mine).

While I have heard the saying, “People can be so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good,” I have seldom, if ever, seen a person like this. My experience has been quite the contrary. The people I have known who have a deep and abiding sense of Christ, of things above (Colossians 3:1-2), of the eternals, are those who tend to have more compassion and mercy on those around them; they are those who tend to use their time and resources to help others.

Note that Baxter is looking at life as it really is; we will have afflictions, we will have disappointments, we will have sufferings; Baxter’s Christianity is not “health and wealth” or “name it and claim it” or “maintain the status quo” or one of personal peace and affluence.

Baxter knows that when we are seeking Christ and the “rest” we have in Christ (Hebrews Chapter 4) that Christ becomes our North Star and our Anchor. (Consider that the men and women of faith in Hebrews 11 were “looking for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”) When we look to Jesus Christ we have stability, and when we have stability in Jesus Christ we have one response to suffering, one response to pain, one response to uncertainty, one response to mountains and valleys – Jesus Christ and the rest that we are on pilgrimage to reach, the rest that is already unfolding in our lives – for it is Jesus Himself who is our rest, our heart’s desire, our hope.

The professing-church today, at least in the West, is unstable; it runs here and there looking for a new teaching, a new experience, a new solution that will appeal to church attendees and prospective attendees and will solve our immediate problems – making us feel good. We are like puppies chasing their tails. We sow seed in soil with no depth or nutrients. We grow dis-eased crops. We plant annuals and do not cultivate perennials.

When Baxter writes “our liveliness in all duties” I take that to mean that the rest of Christ, and the life of Christ within us, animates all of life (John 15:1ff). We not only have a North Star and an Anchor, we have a constant source of Life, Divine Life, the very Life of Jesus Christ, the life of the Trinity, living and abiding with us.

What a blessing to enjoy stability in Jesus Christ in an unstable world!

A Principle That Will Kill You

"The one principle of hell is that “I am my own.”' 

George MacDonald

If you are going to church today, or if you are watching a preacher on TV, or listening to one on radio, or reading a book written by a Christian - if what you are exposing yourself to is all about you, if it makes you the center of the message, if it is concerned with you living your best life now - run from it! Run hard, run fast, escape with your life!

And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8

There is More

Richard Baxter (1615 – 1691), in The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, writes:

“When God would give the Israelites his Sabbaths of rest, in a land of rest, it was harder to make them believe it, than to overcome their enemies, and procure it for them. And when they had it, only as a small intimation and earnest of an incomparably more glorious rest through Christ, they yet believe no more than they possess, but say, with the epicure at the feast, Sure there is no other heaven but this! or, if they expect more by the Messiah, it is only the increase of their earthly felicity [happiness].

“The apostle [who wrote Hebrews, the “rest” Baxter writes about is Hebrews 4:9] aims most of this Epistle [Hebrews] against this obduracy [stubbornly refusing to change an opinion or course of action], and clearly and largely proves that the end of all ceremonies and shadows is to direct them to Jesus Christ, the substance; and that the rest of Sabbaths, and Canaan, should teach them to look for a further rest, which indeed is their happiness.”

I have chosen to use the original manuscripts when quoting Baxter, Ambrose, and Owen rather than update their English to make it easier to read for a few reasons. One is that reading older English should slow us down and ponder what they are writing – consuming words rather than pondering words is a disease. Another reason is that in using current English something might be missed, or something might be injected, that would add or subtract from the original authors’ thoughts – I don’t want to take that chance. Thirdly, the more we read a style of writing or a form of English that we are not familiar with, hopefully the more familiar we’ll become, thus enabling us to read more older writing with greater profit.

When Baxter writes above, “it was harder to make them believe it, than to overcome their enemies, and procure it [the inheritance of Canaan] for them” he is pointing out that the Israelites did not accept God’s promise of rest in the Promised Land of Canaan – they understood warfare but they didn’t understand the Sabbaths, they didn’t understand “rest”. They, like us, were more comfortable doing than believing and resting.

An irony with both the Israelites and ourselves is that when we insist on the primacy of doing we end up not doing as much and we inevitably fall short of what God has promised us in Jesus Christ.

This is because, like Baxter’s above example of an epicurean, we just can’t believe there can be anything more than what we are experiencing. Baxter points out that rather than the Israelites seeing that the inheritance they were gaining, and the rest from the Wilderness wanderings they were experiencing, were just a foretaste of more to come – they thought they were experiencing and inheriting all that there was, that there was nothing beyond what they had.

This is pretty much the picture of the church today. We would rather “do” than “believe and rest”. We think that what we have is all there is. We do not see that all that the Father gives us is designed to draw us deeper into Jesus Christ; we do not look for more of Christ, a clearer vision of Christ, a deeper rest in Christ – we tend to simply look at ourselves and what we have and we do not believe there is anything more.

We are comfortable with Martha; we think Mary is irresponsible (Luke 10:41 – 42). We dumb-down the words of Jesus, we excuse them, we don’t really want to hear Him say, “…but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” We say and preach and teach “Yeah but…what Martha was doing was important.” But Jesus doesn’t say that, we add to Jesus’ words. Jesus says, “…but only one thing is necessary…”

Baxter points out that the happiness we seek is not more of the eternal Christ, but rather more of the here and now Christ; give us happiness now and don’t bother to expand our horizons, don’t bother to expand our vision of You, don’t trouble us with thoughts of eternity. Unlike our fathers and mothers of faith in Hebrews Chapter 11, we are not seeking a City to come (and that is coming), we are not looking for a City whose builder and maker is God. We do not want God to work and live within the Holy of Holies of our lives, but rather we want Him to entertain us in the Outer Court.

We would much rather eat from food trucks than dine in the palace of the King of Kings.

There is so much more; more peace, more understanding, more grace, more mercy, more hope, more faith, more love…more rest, deeper rest…and most importantly…more of Christ.

Are we learning to know Jesus Christ as our Sabbath, our Rest? What does this look like in my life? In your life?

Christ the Rock and Foundation

The following is an excerpt from Christologia: Learning About Christ, by John Owen, (1616 – 24 August 1683):

“One or two more out of Augustine shall close these testimonies: ‘Upon this rock which thou hast confessed – upon myself, the Son of the living God – I will build my church. I will build thee upon myself, and not myself upon thee.’” (Italics mine).

Owen continues with Augustine:

“He (Christ) meant the universal church, which in this world is shaken with divers temptations, as with showers, floods, and tempests, yet falleth not, because it is built on the rock (Petra) from whence Peter took his name. For the rock is not called Petra from Peter, but Peter is so called from Petra the rock; as Christ is not so called from Christian, but Christian from Christ [these italics mine]. Therefore, said the Lord, ‘Upon this rock will I build my church’; because Peter said,

“‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

“Upon this rock, which thou hast confessed, will I build my church. For Christ himself was the rock on which foundation Peter himself was built. For no other foundation can no man lay, save that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ [1 Corinthians 3:11].”

I’ve chosen this passage from Owen’s preface in Christologia for a few reasons. The first is that it reminds us that Owen and other Puritans were well-versed in the Church Fathers. There are extensive Greek and Latin quotations, along with translations into English, in their writing – Christologia is an example of this – the above English translations are preceded by Latin quotations in Owen’s book.  Since this is the case, one wonders how we can talk of the Puritans, as well as the Reformers who were also well-versed in the Patristics, without also talking of their encounters with the Church Fathers.

In Christologia, Owen is building not only upon the Cornerstone of the Foundation, which is Christ; he is also building upon the initial courses of that Foundation – the Bible and the Church Fathers. Perhaps we can learn from Owen’s methodology?

Owen employs Augustine to demonstrate not only that Christ is the Rock and the one Foundation (in interpreting Matthew 16:13 – 20), but in engaging Augustine Owen is also appealing, I think, to those Church Fathers who were Christocentric and in submission to the Scriptures – he is demonstrating a line of Biblical understanding stretching back hundreds of years.

Also note that Augustine is quite clear about the Foundation Stone of the Church. Ponder Augustine’s words, “For the rock is not called Petra from Peter, but Peter is so called from Petra the rock; as Christ is not so called from Christian, but Christian from Christ [these italics mine].”

We find assurance in Christ’s words, and in Owen’s understanding of them, that Christ is the Builder, the Rock, the Foundation.

Consider these words of Jesus:

“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’” (Luke 14:28 – 30). While these words were directed to the people concerning discipleship, surely our Lord Jesus has counted the cost required to build His Church and surely He is able to complete it.

Or consider these words concerning Zerubbabel, who is a picture (type) of Jesus Christ:

“Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it.”” (Zechariah 4:9a).

We can have joyful confidence in Jesus Christ our Rock, our Foundation, our Builder – Jesus Christ is Everything.

Looking Away and Looking Unto

From Isaac Ambrose in his book, Looking Unto Jesus:

“In the text [Hebrews 12:1 – 2] we have the act and object. The act in the original [Greek] is very emphatical, but the English doth not fully express it; it signifies a drawing of the eye from one object to another: there are two expressions; the one signifies a turning of the eye from all other objects; the other a fast fixing of the eye upon such an object, and only upon such. So it is both a looking off, and a looking on…This indeed is the glad tidings, the gospel, the gospel privilege, and our gospel duty –looking unto Jesus.”

Jesus tells us that if our eye is single that our whole body will be filled with light – surely our eye is to be centered on Him, surely He alone is to be the focus of our vision, the apple of our eye, the center of our heart’s desire.

And yet we seem to allow our vision to be drawn away from Him, allowing ourselves to substitute cheap imitations for Jesus Christ; we seem to insist that Jesus Christ is not enough, in and of Himself, to be our all in all.

And what of those who cling to Jesus? Those who love Jesus? Those who demonstrate no desire to know anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ as their Author and Finisher? We say that they are “simple”. We pity their backwardness. We shake our heads at their refusal to be more pragmatic and practical.

Perhaps I am mistaken, but I think it was Paul who wrote, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”

The Saints' Everlasting Rest

Richard Baxter (1615 – 1691), in The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, writes:

“It was not only our interest [relationship, participation] in God, and actual enjoyment of him, which was lost in Adam’s fall, but all spiritual knowledge of him [see 1 Corinthians Chapter 2], and true disposition toward such a felicity [happiness of knowing God]. When the Son of God comes with recovering grace, and discoveries of a spiritual and eternal happiness and glory, he finds not faith in man to believe it.

“As the poor man, that would not believe any one had such a sum as a hundred pounds, it was so far above what he himself possessed, so men will hardly now believe there is such a happiness as once they had [before Adam’s fall], much less as Christ hath now procured.”

We just don’t believe the glory of Christ’s work, of His reconciliation, of His work on the Cross. Unbelievers don’t believe it, and Christians usually don’t believe it. As Baxter writes, we are like a person who has known nothing but poverty all his life, someone who has never seen or held more than $1.00. When this person is told that there are people who carry $100.00 bills in their wallets he cannot believe it, he simply cannot comprehend it.

So with many Christians, we simply cannot believe that we are truly and fully forgiven in Jesus Christ. We cannot believe that we are the sons and daughters of the Living God. We cannot accept and live in the fact that “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”

We are called to an everlasting rest that is to begin here, on this earth, right here and right now in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:9 – 16). We enter this rest by submitting to the Word of God, we enter this rest by our Great High Priest, we enter this rest by ceasing from our own works and relying completely and absolutely on Jesus Christ.

But…we cannot believe it. We have been conditioned to be spiritual dumpster-divers, to eat out of garbage cans, to wear clothing of tatters rather than the fine linen that is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

We think and act as if Christ begrudges us light and life and forgiveness. We live and think as if, even though Jesus died for us and has reconciled us to our Father, that neither our Father or Lord Jesus really want us to be close to them, they really don’t want us to find peace and rest (but see Romans 5:1 – 11!). We think and act as if the Holy Spirit does not really want to reveal Jesus and His Word to us.

Oh that we would allow the Gospel to penetrate our hearts and souls and chase all our fears away; that we would trust the love and grace of our Lord Jesus – believing that our Father loves us just as our Father loves Jesus, His only begotten Son (John 17:23, 26).

Let us not take counsel of our fears and insecurities, nor of preachers who would only teach one-half a gospel, and certainly not of other preachers who seek to dethrone Jesus Christ (as if that could be done) and place us at the center of the universe, making the Cross a selfish means of pleasure and satisfying our lusts for more, more, and more.

Can we not believe the life and love and Word of Jesus Christ? Can we not accept the love of our Father? Can we not receive the communion of the Holy Spirit?

Isn’t it time we learned to be the children of the Great King and live in His Palace of light and truth and love and dumpster-dive no more?

The Bread of Their Souls

The following is an excerpt from Christologia: Learning About Christ, by John Owen, (1616 – 24 August 1683):

“Unto them that believe unto the saving of the soul he [Jesus Christ] is, he always hath been, precious – the sun, the rock, the life, the bread of their souls – everything that is good, useful, amiable, desirable, here or unto eternity. In, from, and by him, is all their spiritual and eternal life, light, power, growth, consolation, and joy here; with everlasting salvation hereafter…By him are they brought into the nearest cognation, alliance, and friendship with God, the firmest union unto him, and the most holy communion with him, that our finite natures are capable of, and so conducted unto the eternal enjoyment of him.”

In writing of disciples of Jesus Christ, Christian believers, Owen continues:

“On these and the like accounts [contained in the Scriptures], the principal design of their whole lives unto whom he is thus precious, is to acquaint themselves with him – the mystery of the wisdom, grace, and love of God, in his person and mediation, as revealed to us in the Scripture, which is life eternal.”

A bit later Owen continues:

“In these things consist the soul, life, power, beauty, and efficacy of the Christian religion; without which, whatever outward, whatever outward ornaments may be put upon its exercise, it is but a lifeless carcass.” (Italics mine). Owen then proceeds to quote Philippians 3:8 – 12.

Is Jesus Christ the bread of our souls?

Do our churches live by Christ? Or are we doing just fine without Him?

Is Christ the bread of my soul?

What about your soul?

Christ the Sun and Centre

Christ the Sun and Centre

This is from Looking Unto Jesus, by Isaac Ambrose (1604 – 20 January 1664, an English Puritan).

“Christ is the sun and centre of all divine and revealed truths; we can preach nothing else as the object of our faith, which doth not some way or other either meet in Christ, or refer to Christ. Only Christ is the whole of man’s happiness; the sun to enlighten him, the physician to heal him, the wall of fire to defend him, the friend to comfort him, the pearl to enrich him, the ark to support him, the rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures; 

‘As a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.’ 

Only Christ is that ladder between earth and heaven, the Mediator betwixt God and man; a mystery which the angels of heaven desire to pry into.”

Temptation - The Great Reenactment (2)

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. (Mark 1:9 – 12 ESV).

In Genesis we’re told that after the creation of Adam that “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” At some point after that declaration of the good work of God in creation, and in the forming of Adam, the tempter appears on the scene. We don’t know what the time sequence was, but we go from the beauty of creation and the peace of the Garden to the temptation, to the horror of sin, rebellion, and expulsion from the Garden.

In the Gospel we see that after the Father’s declaration of pleasure in the Son that the Son is immediately driven by the Spirit into the wilderness and the Son, the express image of God, is tempted by Satan – unlike in Genesis here in the Gospel we do see the time sequence: baptism, the descent of the Holy Spirit, the affirmation of the Father, and then immediately Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the enemy.

Where do some people get the idea that God will not try His work? That God will not put the excellency of His work on display through fiery trials? Through sustained (40 days!) trial? Where do we get the idea that we can sow and receive the Word of God without encountering the enemy? Consider these words of Jesus:

And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. (Mark 4:13 – 17 ESV).

To receive the Word of God with “joy” is not the same as receiving the implanted Word which is able to save our souls (James 1:21). To be sure there is joy in our Lord and in His Word, but Jesus makes a particular point of telling us that we can receive the Word with joy and yet have no root in ourselves – we may endure for a while, but when difficulty comes we fall away. I want to suggest that this principle applies to sanctification, our growth in Christ and transformation into His image, as well as to what was, as I see it, the immediate context of the parable, our salvation. (We certainly see a focus on sanctification in the seed sown among thorns and in the seed sown on good soil).

Tribulation and persecution bring with them the temptation to abandon Jesus Christ and His Word and thereby “fall away” from Him. Adam and Eve received, in some measure, God’s Word concerning the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; however, rather than abiding in that Word, and rather than submitting to that Word so it would abide in them, they succumbed to the temptation of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:14), and when that Word was tried in the Wilderness for 40 days it did not fall away but remained faithful to Himself, to the Word of the Father (we cannot penetrate the mystery of the Trinity – we can experience the Trinity, we can receive the self-revelation of the Trinity, but we cannot “comprehend” the unfathomable). As Paul writes, “He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). And yet, the temptation, the Great Reenactment, contained all the dynamics and possibilities of our temptations, for our High Priest was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

“The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times” (Psalm 12:6 ESV).

When God sends His Word into the earth, that Word is tested. When He sends His Word into our lives, into our earthly furnaces, His Word is tested. His Word will always come forth in purity, the question is whether we will submit to that Word and whether in our submission we will allow His Word to purify our lives; our hearts, our minds, our souls…our very beings. The Word of God is pure and it purifies those who submit to its working in their lives.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12 - 13 ESV).

The context of this Hebrews passage is the failure of Israel in the Wilderness to receive, believe, and obey the Word of God – Israel succumbed to temptation in the Wilderness and therefore failed to enter into the “rest” that God desired to give them. This is what precedes the passage; but what follows the passage should give us great hope:

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14 – 16 ESV).

When we have a time of need, when we are tempted, we need not follow the way of Adam, we need not follow the way of Israel in the Wilderness, for we now have a Great High Priest who has also been in the Wilderness of temptation, and He has been tempted “in every respect” as we are, and yet He is without sin – for He never ever said “yes” to temptation. This is a great hope and it is a great decision – shall we join ourselves to Adam and deny the Word of God? Shall we join ourselves to Israel in the Wilderness and deny the Word of God? Shall we take our place in the rocky ground of the parable of the Sower and Seed and deny the Word of God?

Or shall we draw near to our Great High Priest at the Throne of Grace and receive His mercy and grace to help us in our time of need and temptation? Which reenactment will we choose to participate in? Adam in the Garden? Israel in the Wilderness?

Or shall we join ourselves to the Great Reenactor in the Great Reenactment as the sons and daughters of the Living God?

Temptation is always an attack on God’s Word. It is always an attack on God’s glory. It is always an attack on God’s Son and His Body, His Bride, His Temple, His Church.

Temptation - The Great Reenactment

           “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them…

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:26, 27, 31)

“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.” (Mark 1:9 – 13a).

In Genesis we see God creating man in His own image. In the Gospel we see the express and coeternal Incarnate image of God on earth to recreate man. In Genesis we see that God’s creation was very good. In the Gospel we hear the Father proclaiming His delight in the Son. In Genesis we see that the woman gives the fruit to her husband and sin and death enter our race; in the Gospel we see our Divine Husband taking the curse upon Himself, thus giving life to His Bride. That is, as in Genesis the bride was, in a sense, the conduit of sin and death, so the Husband is now the conduit of justification and eternal life. In Genesis we see the first creation coming up out of the waters, in the Gospel the New Creation rises from the Jordan River. In Genesis mankind is removed from the Garden with the Tree of Life, in the Gospel the Tree of Life comes to mankind.

And so in the Gospel we see the Great Reenactment of the Temptation in Genesis culminating in not one onslaught of temptation, but of forty days of temptation (Luke 4:2) culminating in three hyper-temptations.

Jesus is driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days – this after the Father’s affirmation and the descent of the Holy Spirit! While we are not shown the particular temptations of the forty days (save the last three), Luke gives us just a glimpse when he writes, “When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time,” (Luke 4:13 italics mine).

Considering the nature of the final three temptations, and considering what the Scriptures teach us about temptation, we are on safe ground to think that the nature of the temptations that Jesus encountered for forty days has to do with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin,” (Hebrews 4:15 NASB).

As we will consider in a future meditation, temptations often come after times of victory and growth. In the life of our Lord Jesus, He was impelled by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted; in one sense the season of temptation did not come to Him, He came into it. Also note that the culminating temptations came when Jesus was hungry, having fasted for forty days; we are probably on safe ground in thinking that His body was crying out for relief.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:1 – 4 ESV).

In Genesis the serpent tells Eve that if she eats from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that she will be like God. Sadly she forgets that she and Adam are God’s children, made is His likeness and image – she denied who she already was in God.

In the Gospel the enemy again raises the issue of identity, this time by challenging the Son’s identity in the Father, “If you are the Son of God…” The enemy challenges the Son to vindicate His sonship by satisfying His hungry body that has been fasting for forty days, the enemy appeals to the desires of the flesh. However, the Son affirms His sonship not by gratifying His legitimate bodily needs, but by affirming that we are called to live according to “every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Yes, we need bread, but let us eat bread as we live in subjection to God’s Word, which is a higher bread, a more sustaining bread, the Bread of eternal life.

Suppose Eve had responded to the serpent as Jesus Christ responded to Satan? In the Garden the enemy called God’s Word into question. In the Wilderness the enemy misused God’s Word in an effort to appeal to the Son’s legitimate bodily needs.

When we are tempted, shall we reenact the scene in the Garden, reprising the roles of Adam and Eve? Or, shall we run to our Great Reenactor and hide ourselves in Him, allowing Him to live in us and through us, faithfully being the extension and outworking of His Incarnation?