SPECIAL TRIALS FOLLOW CONSECRATION
-MATT.
3:13-4:11.-JANUARY 17.
Golden Text:-“And lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in
whom I am well pleased.”-Matt. 8:17.
THIS lesson, relating
to our Lord’s baptism unto death and his temptations in the wilderness, which
immediately followed, illustrates the ex-periences of all who follow in his
steps. In order to be-come Jesus’ disciples at all, we must take a step which
he did not take, namely, that of justification from our sins to divine favor
and relationship through faith in the blood of Christ. Having taken this step
the call of the Gospel age has been for such as are of right condition of heart
to forsake all and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth-in trials,
difficulties, oppositions and persecutions in this present life and into the
glorious honors and divine favors of the life which is to come. Our Lord’s
experiences, therefore, furnish a good basis for reflection respecting what is
to be expected and endured by all of his faithful.
Our Lord’s baptism was more than “John’s baptism.” The latter was merely
for sinners against the Mosaic Law, and indicated a return to harmony with that
Law and to the relationship with God which that Law Covenant through Moses
established. Our Lord Jesus needed no such repentance and reformation, being
holy, harmless, and separate from sinners; hence it was that John was
astonished when he presented himself for baptism. At first John declined,
asserting that of the two he himself rather than Jesus needed that baptism,
since they were both heartily obedient to the divine arrange-ment and had not
at any time been open transgressors of the Law.
LIKE A DOVE.
Without explaining to John what the latter would not have understood respecting
the new dispensation and the appropriateness of water immersion as a symbol of
his consecration unto death, our Lord merely said, Permit the service to
proceed, John. I have a reason for so desir-ing it, and it is proper that I
should do it in the fulfillment of certain things which I recognize to be
right. Then John baptized him, and immediately after Jesus’ baptism was
finished and he had come up from the water John beheld and heard peculiar
things, which apparently others thereabouts knew nothing of. He saw as it were
an opening in the heavens, and something which he un-derstood to represent the
holy Spirit, the power of God, descending upon Jesus. This was possibly a
stream of light, which came not violently, like the lightning, but gently, like
a dove, and he heard a voice saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.”
Whatever sentiments John entertained toward his cousin Jesus previously, he was
now convinced by what he witnessed that his cousin was the Messiah. Then he
bore record, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world,” and testified that when he was sent with the mission to baptize, and to
preach the King-dom of heaven at hand, he was distinctly informed that in due
time he would know the Messiah by seeing the holy Spirit from God come upon
him. Nothing in the account indicates that others than John saw this vision,
nor was it necessary for others to see it. John was to bear record, and those
who heard him had the same opportunity that we today have of knowing about this
matter.
CONSECRATION AND BEGETTING.
To Jesus this was a great moment-the moment of his begetting of the Spirit. He
had left the spirit condition that he might fulfill the Father’s will and plan
by becom-ing man’s representative, substitute, ransom price; but he had been
promised that the faithful performance of this would bring to him again the
spirit nature, with added glory and greatness and divine favor. Now at thirty
years of age, as soon as was possible for him to begin his ministries under the
Law, he had made a full consecra-tion of himself as a man-to give his time, his
influence, his energy, his life, “all that he had,” to purchase the forfeited
life and inheritance of father Adam and his entire posterity. The consecration
made by our Lord at the moment of his baptism is represented in the Scriptures
in these words, “Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to
do thy will O my God; thy law is written in my heart.” This full consecration
to death involved every human power, and there-as sealing the engagement-the
Father gave him the holy Spirit as firstfruits of the new spiritual nature,
which he would receive completely in his resurrection. That anointing of the
holy Spirit was the begetting which, in due time, our lord being faithful,
would bring him to the birth of the Spirit in the resurrection. We know from
the Scriptures that he was faithful and thus became the firstfruits of them
that slept, the firstborn from the dead.
Immediately he was led into the wilderness-Mark expresses it “driven into the
wilderness”-by the Spirit, the holy Spirit, which was now his own spirit or
mind or will. We can readily understand why the spirit thus forced him away
from the society of others. Jesus realized that he had a special mission in
the world, different from others; that he had left the spirit plane of being
and had become a man, that he might accomplish a work for mankind. He realized
that this work was an important one in the Father’s sight, and that already for
centuries his coming and the great work he was to do had been foretold in the
types of the Law and in the words of the prophecies. Even at the early age of
twelve years he had felt anxious to be about the Father’s business, and as soon
as the legal age for his engaging in the Father’s business had arrived, he had
hastened to make his vow of consecration to do the Father’s will in
everything. As a man he could not understand and comprehend clearly and fully
the meaning of the various prophecies, even as the prophets did not themselves
understand these; and, although familiar with the letter of the Scriptures, he
had been obliged to wait for a clear understanding of them until the time of
his anointing of the spirit;-be-cause “the natural man [however pure and
perfect] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Cor. 2:10.
“LORD WHAT WOULDST THOU
HAVE ME TO DO?”
Jesus then hastened into the wilderness, away from friends and acquaintances
and every distracting thing, that he might make use of the power of the holy
Spirit that had come upon him, that he might use the new sight. The eyes of
his understanding had been opened to com-prehend the lengths and breadths and
heights and depths of the divine love and plan which he was to fulfill. He
must not confer with flesh and blood respecting his future course, even if
there had been any one perfect like him-self with whom he might have
conferred. He must con-fer with the Father. He must take the Father’s words
through the prophecies, and the lessons through the types, and must hear and
see in these the great work mapped out for him. He must make no mistake at the
beginning of his mission. He must not hastily conclude that the suggestions of
others respecting the course Messiah would pursue were correct. He must not
even take his own previous conceptions of his work. He must look at everything
from the new standpoint of the spirit. No wonder he wished to be alone with
God, and with the Word of God, which he had treasured up in his heart from
infancy, and which, having a perfect mind, he un-questionably had before him as
plainly as though he had the printed book.
Forty days passed, yet so intent was he upon the study of the work the
Father had given him to do, and so perfect was he physically, that he did not
hunger until then, as it is written, “He afterward hungered.” The season had
been a precious one, and undoubtedly the close of that forty-day period saw the
Lord fairly well equipped in an understanding of the divine arrangement
respecting the necessity for his death. He understood that the payment of the
ransom price for the world was a prerequisite to his coming reign of glory and
to its privilege of blessing all the families of the earth with an opportunity
for attaining all that had been lost through father Adam’s disobedience. But
just at that juncture, when he was weak from his long fast and probably also
from lack of sleep-for he probably was so deeply engrossed respecting the study
of the divine plan that he neither ate nor slept those forty days-at this
juncture of his extreme physical enervation came the adversary’s chief
besetments. True, through the forty days, while thinking of the divine arrangements,
there were opportunities for questioning the wisdom of the divine arrangement;
but these apparently were all nullified in the Lord’s zeal to know and do the
Father’s will, and hence the temptations that are recorded are those following
the fasting.
“HE WAS A MURDERER FROM THE BEGINNING”
We may well suppose that the great Adversary-through whose deception mother Eve
fell into disobedience, which brought in its train the wreck and ruin of the
race-was an interested spectator in everything pertaining to the divine plan.
Of course he knew the prophecies. Of course he knew of our Lord’s birth and
the annunciation of the heavenly hosts that the babe born at Bethlehem was to
be the Savior of the world, the one whose coming was intimated to mother Eve -the
seed of the woman who was to bruise the serpent’s head. No doubt Satan had
watched Jesus in all of his course up to this present time, had seen his
baptism of consecration and had seen the Father’s recognition of him by the
anointing of the Spirit. No doubt he had kept track of him while in the
wilderness. All this is intimated in the words of one of the fallen angels or
demons, who subsequently said, “We know thee who thou art, the Holy One of
God.” It may be noted here, however, that the Greek word daimonion
(demons) is the word generally translated devils when speaking of the evil
spirits which our Lord and the apostles cast out of many, but in the narrative
of our lesson this is not the word used. Here we have the word diabolus,
preceded by the Greek article thus making it the diabolus, the
devil, the one whom the Jews sometimes called Beelzebub, the prince of
the devils-the one referred to in the Hebrew as Satan, an opponent of God and
of righteousness.
Satan realized that the most favorable time for an attack upon the
anointed Jesus would be when he was weak from his long fast and vigilance, and
hence it was at the close of the forty days that the temptations mentioned in
this lesson were set before the Lord. It may be wondered by some why the
Father would permit temptations, or why they would be nec-essary, or how they
could be temptations to a perfect one. There is a
difference between temptations which the Father considers proper and the
temptations which come of the adver-sary. The former are tests of loyalty to
God and to the prin-ciples of righteousness, and are intended to be a blessing
and a help to all those who withstand them, and who thus demon-strate their
loyalty to righteousness. The temptations of Satan, on the contrary, are in
the nature of pitfalls and snares in evil and wrongdoing, temptations to make
right appear wrong and wrong right, putting light for darkness and darkness for
light. In this sense of misrepresentation and ensnarements in evil, God
tempteth no man. (Jas. 1:12, 13) It was nec-essary that our Lord
should be tested, and he was tested all through the three and one-half years of
his ministry. Since he had consecrated himself and entered upon his work, it
was necessary that these testings should begin at once, for if he manifested
disloyalty to the Father, if he had a will of his own, a will that was not
fully submitted to the Father’s will in all points, he would not be worthy to
be the Leader, the Captain of salvation to the many sons God intended to bring
to glory. And unless proved perfect by testing his death should not have been
accepted as an offset, the ransom price for the sin of Adam and for the sins of
the whole world. To experience temptation does not imply sin, but it does
imply liberty and freedom of will.
The three temptations here recorded practically illustrate all the temptations
that came to our Lord during the three and a half years of self sacrifice, and
likewise they illustrate all the trials and temptations that come to his
followers. We are not to think of the Lord Jesus as being tempted by the
weaknesses of the flesh, for he had no such weakness. We are not to think of
his being tempted as a father, for he was not a father. We are to remember the
statement that he was tempted in all points as we are-not we the world, not we
believers merely, but we the consecrated believers, who are likewise be-gotten
of the Spirit and therefore subject to the besetments of the adversary along
the lines in which the interests of the spirit clash with the interests of the
flesh, however good and pure the latter may be.
“COMMAND THAT THESE STONES
BE MADE BREAD.”
The first of these temptations related to the Lord’s hunger. He had
possibly been hungry before, but not until endued with the holy Spirit after
his baptism had he that divine miracu-lous power at his command which would
have permitted him to turn stones into bread. This temptation, therefore, did
not signify that it is wrong to eat nor that bread is an improper food, but
merely that the method of obtaining the food would not have been a proper or
legitimate one. But why not, if he had the power, if he were the Son of God
and God had given him this ability-why not use this power to satisfy his legiti-mate
cravings? We reply, that the power that was given him was to enable him to
carry out the consecration which he had made, and which involved the sacrifice
of his flesh instead of its preservation. He might use this holy power upon
others, to demonstrate his mission and to draw the attention of the people to
the glorious restitution times prefigured in his miracles; but he might not use
this holy power in any selfish manner for anything personal. To have done so
would have been to misuse it and would therefore have meant sin.
Let us stop here and notice the lesson there is in this temptation for the
Lord’s followers. We also have received of the begetting of the Spirit; and
although we have the Spirit in less measure than our Master, it is for the same
purpose--not to be used selfishly for the feeding of our material bodies nor
for the healing of our bodily ailments, but simply and only for the service of
the Lord, the brethren, the Truth. As our Lord declared in the garden, he
could have asked the Father and have had twelve legions of angels to protect
him; and so he could have asked the Father and have had the stones turned into
bread, which would have nourished his body; but as our Lord declined to do both
of these possible things, so should his followers, having consecrated their
lives to the Lord, refuse to ask for divine interference for their own personal
and temporal convenience or ad-vantage. To do so would be to ask amiss, to ask
selfishly, to ask what would be in opposition to the consecration made.
“THOU SHALT NOT TEMPT THE LORD.”
Satan then tried another plan, suggesting a use of our Lord’s divine protection
which would bring him suddenly into notoriety amongst the people, and
demonstrate that he was not an ordinary person but a special object of divine
care. The suggestion was that he should go to the highest part of the temple
structure, which over-looked the Valley of Hinnom, at a height of six hundred
feet from its bottom-that he should leap from this prominent place in the sight
of the people, and thus demonstrate his own faith in the Lord and in his
mission as the Messiah, and attach to himself the awe and reverence of the
people who would see the transaction or hear about it;-for all would know that
without divine protection such a leap would mean certain death. The temptation
had its plausible side. It seemed to imply great faith in the Almighty, and a
refusal to follow the thought would seem to imply doubt on our Lord’s part
respecting his Messiahship and lack of faith in the divine power. It was a
shrewdly put proposition. Ad-ditionally, it was backed up by Scripture texts:
for Sa-tan can quote Scripture when it suits his purpose just as, under his
guidance, Spiritualists and Christian Scientists and other rejecters of the
Word of God are ready at times to quote what they think will serve their
purposes. The Scripture quoted was a very able one, “He shall give his angels
charge concerning thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up lest at any
time thou shouldst dash thy foot against a stone.” (Psa. 91:11,12.) It would
almost appear that this Scripture implied that our Lord was to make such an
exhibit as Satan proposed.
First we inquire wherein such a course would have been an improper one-what
Scriptural injunction or righteous principle would have been violated? We reply
that if our Lord had been pushed from the pinnacle of the temple, or if he had
been in a dangerous position in discharge of duty and his foot had slipped, and
he thus had been precipitated to the valley below, he would have been quite
right in assuming that the divine power could protect his interests and cause
that all things should work for his good according to promise. But to
de-liberately place oneself in danger and to call upon or expect God to offset
the deliberate act with divine pro-tection would be a mistake. It would be
tempting God. And this was our Lord’s reply to Satan, “It is written again,
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
We are here furnished a practical lesson in the inter-pretation of Scripture.
Where two Scriptures seem to conflict we must examine the principles which
underlie them, and the spirit of a sound mind, the holy spirit of loyalty to
God and reverence for him, must assist us in determining the proper relationship
of these Scriptures, or which one should be followed when they seem to be in
conflict. It is quite possible that the time had not yet come for the
Scripture which Satan quoted to be rightly understood. It is possible,
therefore, that our Lord at that time did not know the proper interpretation of
the words quoted by Satan; for if he had there would have been little
temptation in the suggestion. He was guided by the principles of righteousness
as well as by the Scriptural testimony which he quoted. He perceived that it
would be wrong to do a foolish act and to tempt the Lord to shield him from the
natural consequences of the act. This conclusion of our Lord’s mind was fully
backed up by the Scripture which he quoted.
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH.
The Scripture quoted by Satan we may now under-stand clearly, and this proves
that the due time for its comprehension has come. We now see that the Psalm
from which this is taken refers to the whole Church of this Gospel age-Jesus
the Head, and his faithful, the members of the body. We now see that while
there have been feet members in some respects all the way down through this
Gospel age, yet in a particular sense the Lord’s people of this present time
are the “feet of him that bringeth good tidings of peace.” (Isa. 52:7.) We see
that as the feet, the last members of the Jewish house, stumbled over Christ as
the stone of stumbling and rock of offense in the end of the Jewish age, so now
we see the feet members of the spiritual Israel in the harvest or end of this
Gospel age will be in danger of stumbling over the rock of offense. As it is
written, “He shall be for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to
both the houses of Israel”-the fleshly and the spiritual. (Isa. 8:1,4.) We see
that as the fleshly house stumbled over the cross (1Cor. 1:23), so the
spiritual house is to stumble over the same obstacle-the cross.
We see this stumbling now taking place, that higher criticism is undermining
true faith in all denominations, and that the Evolution theories are making the
cross of Christ of none effect-implying that Jesus and the sacrifice for sins
was wholly unnecessary, that men have been evolving and progressing upward
under a natural law of progression and evolution, that he needed no re-demption,
and that restitution to a former estate (Acts. 3:21) would be the worst thing
which could happen to him. We see that in fulfillment of this promise the Lord
has given his ministers a message for the feet class, designed to be helpful to
them and to assist them over these peculiar stumbling stones of our day-to
enable them to “stand” (Eph. 6:13); and this we see corresponds exactly to the
assistance rendered to the feet members of the Jewish house-the Israelites
indeed of that time. We remember how the Lord’s dark sayings were not for any
except those in a special at-titude of heart, so that others hearing might hear
and not understand, and seeing they might not perceive. So it is now: the
great mass of Churchianity hear not, see not, and rejoice in conditions which
they fail to recognize as stumblings and in falling away from the faith once
delivered to the saints.
“TEMPTED IN ALL POINTS LIKE
AS WE ARE.”
Coming back now to the temptation, let us see whether or not there
are temptations before the body of Christ similar to this one recorded of our
Head. There are. Temptations continually assail the
Lord’s people-sug-gestions to do some wonderful works in his name, and to thus
prove to themselves and to others that they are heaven’s favorites. The lesson
for us to learn is that the work which the Father has given us to do is not a
work of convincing the world of showing his favor toward us and our greatness
in him, but rather-“Hast thou faith, have it to thy self,” as the Apostle
says. Rather that we should quietly and humbly, yet as effectively as reason
and propriety will permit, let our lights shine, and show forth the praises of
him who hath called us from darkness into his marvelous light, and from a
desire to be wonder-workers to the reasonable position of servants, ministers
of the Truth. Let us fix our Lord’s answer clearly in our minds, “It is
written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Let us as members of the feet
of Christ not accept outward deliverances from the trials and difficulties and
responsibilities of life, but expect that our protection, our upholding, will
be along spiritual lines-that we shall be kept from falling and from injury as
New Creatures in Christ Jesus, because our faith is stayed on him.
We do not know that Satan was personally visible to our Lord during these
temptations: we must assume that he was not visible, that he did not appear as
a man, nor in any other tangible form. Undoubtedly, as the holy angels had
power to appear as men, Satan and the fallen angels at one time had the same
power or privilege. But the divine sentence against them after the flood is
distinctly recorded in the Scriptures. They are “restrained in chains of
darkness” until the judg-ment of the great day, until the dawning of the
Millen-nial morning. However, it matters not to us in what way Satan
communicated to our Lord these tempting suggestions. In the third temptation,
however, it is evident that the taking of our Lord to a high mountain and
showing him therefrom all the kingdoms of the earth, was not a literal taking,
but a taking in spirit or in mind or in thought. There is no mountain in the
world from which all the earth could be seen, and even if the Roman world were
understood there was no moun-tain anywhere in Palestine from which any
considerable portion of the Roman world could be seen. But the mind can be
projected to any part of the world in an instant or to any part of the universe
in imagination.
Satan called to our Lord’s mind, imagination, a great mountain or great
kingdom, having supervision of the entire world. He suggested to our Lord that
his mission would be accomplished if he should succeed in thus establishing a
kingdom over all the kingdoms of the earth. This to some extent is the spirit
of prophecy; namely that it is God’s purpose to establish through Christ a
world dominion which will rule all the people of the earth to their blessing
and uplifting from sin and degradation to life, joy, and peace-or so many of
them as will respond to the blessed influences of that Millen-nial Kingdom.
Our Lord certainly understood that this was his mission-to lay the foundation
for such a King-dom: we cannot, however, suppose that he as yet fully
understood or comprehended all the steps incidental to that Kingdom’s
establishment. Had he understood this, there would have been no temptation in
Satan’s presen-tation.
SATAN AS AN ANGEL OF LIGHT WOULD MISLEAD.
Having stated the proposition in a form that would at once appeal to our Lord
as being largely in accord with the Father’s plans he had come to execute,
Satan would have our Lord feel that he sympathized with Jehovah’s project and
with our Lord Jesus in the execution of it, and was willing to render
co-operation and assistance. In effect he said, Such a universal Kingdom, for
the civilization, enlightenment, uplifting and blessing of all the world I know
is your proposition, and I am fully in sympathy with it; but there are
different ways of getting at the matter. If you attempt this great work in the
wrong way you will merely bring disaster upon yourself and failure to your
plans, but if you get at the matter in the proper manner you will succeed. I
am the master of the situation-the whole world is under my influence. I admit
that in many respects it is a painful influence, and I shall be very glad
indeed to have it rectified and the world’s government made righteous. My
leading of mankind into sin and rebellion and superstition was not so much
because I wish them evil as because I knew that only in this way could I hold
my power over them. Now all that I ask for co-operation with you in this
scheme of a great kingdom to bless the world is that I receive a share of the
dignity and honor with you-that you recognize me. Let us be partners. I will
recognize you and you will recognize me, and together we will effect this great
work of reformation for the whole world, for which you have so grandly and
nobly sacrificed every interest up to this moment. Now be wise, for I assure
you that any other method will meet only with disaster and bring needless and
fruitless pain upon yourself.
As already intimated, the Lord had been studying the Scriptures from childhood;
his perfect memory had grasped every detail of the prophecies, and now, since
his anointing with the holy Spirit, he had come into the wilderness to
determine this very point-how the great object of his coming into the world was
to be made effective to the blessing of mankind-how he must pro-ceed in order
to fulfill the divine projects and become King of kings and Lord of lords
amongst men for their blessing and uplifting. He heard Satan’s proposition
carefully, he noted the weight of the argument, he realized the truthfulness of
much that Satan had said; but he saw in the Scriptures enough to indicate to
him that the Father’s plan was not the smooth one that Satan had suggested. He
noticed in the Scriptures suggestions not only about glory, honor, dominion and
power, and the bowing of every knee, and the confessing of every tongue, and
the desire of all nations coming, and the knowledge of the Lord filling the
whole earth, and the time coming when there would be no need to say to one’s
neighbor and to one’s brother, Know thou the Lord, be-cause all should know him
from the least even unto the greatest; but he noticed also Scriptures and types
which clearly intimated that there was to be a sacrificing work accomplished.
All the sin-offerings implied this, and the testimony, “he shall be led as a
lamb to the slaughter,” etc.
Reasoning on the question he could readily see that this sacrificing,
slaughtering, etc. could not come after the glory and blessing and
enlightenment of the world, and hence that it must precede the glory; for, as
the Apostle Peter points out, the prophets “spake of the sufferings of Christ
and the glory which should follow.” Doubtless by this time the Lord had come to
see that it was a clear teaching of Scripture that without the shedding of
blood there could be no remission of sins, and that this meant that in some
manner he should die for the people. Supposing that he saw this at the time,
it meant that the temptation he experienced was all the stronger, because here
Satan was proposing to him a method for dealing with the question from the
opposite standpoint, without suffering, with exaltation and honor from the very
commencement.
COMPLETE CONSECRATION ESSENTIAL
TO VICTORY.
Our Lord was saved from any vacillation or manifesta-tion of weakness on this
subject by reason of the fullness, the completeness of his consecration, which
he had symbolized at Jordan. There he had said, in heart at least, “I delight
to do thy will, O my God, thy law is written in my heart.” This desire to
please the Father, to obey the divine law in his heart saved our dear Re-deemer
from any yielding to Satan’s wiles, and similarly our consecration as members
of his body must be thorough if we would hope to stand the testing which must
come to each one of us as we pass along the narrow way, following in his
footsteps, seeking the glory, honor and immortality which he has promised us.
Our Lord’s prompt and allsufficient answer was, Leave me, Ad-versary; for it is
written, the Lord thy God shalt thou worship and him only shalt thou serve. I
cannot be a co-worker with you in any sense of the word; to do so would be
disloyalty to the great Jehovah. I must be loyal to the Lord and to the
commission he has given me and to the doing of his will in his way whatever the
cost.
Members of the body of Christ following in his foot-steps have temptations from
the Adversary along similar lines. Not that he offers to divide the kingdom of
earth with us, for so great a proposition would not appeal to us, being
incredible; but to us he does propose deviation from the close following in the
Master’s footsteps. He suggests continually to the Lord’s followers easier
ways by which as much or more good can be accomplished and without sacrifice
and self-denial. These ways of avoid-ing sacrifice and yet of seemingly
attaining good ends always imply more or less of co-partnership with the
Adversary directly or indirectly, an acknowledgment of him, a bending to
evil-to evil men or evil principles.
Under such circumstances we should note carefully the Lord’s method and walk in
his steps. We should re-fuse to have any partnership with sin or evil
influences or methods in our endeavors to serve the Lord and his Truth. Satan
does not approach us in human form nor in diabolic form, but generally through
human agencies, through human ambitions, parties, sects, etc. If our Lord had
made inquiry of Satan as to what would be the program, doubtless he would have
advised him to be-come a Pharisee of the Pharisees at once, and through such
steps gradually he would have proceeded to elevate our Lord over the Jewish
people and ultimately over the world-if indeed he who was a murderer from the
be-ginning and abode not in the Truth could be trusted in respect to any
promise.
Similarly, today, he proposes to the Lord’s followers identification with
nominal Churchianity. He flatters them with some trifling office larger in
name than in fact or service; he persuades them that they have a large
influence and that to withdraw from Babylon would be to incur suffering upon
themselves and their families and to do general injury to the work which they
seek to forward. By this means, if he cannot lead them onward step by step to
full co-operation with him in the blinding of others, he at least can hinder
those who yield to his propositions from ever stepping out boldly and courage-ously
on the Lord’s side and in opposition to superstition and error. He can hinder
them from being more than conquerors and having a place in the body of Christ.
What shall our answer be to his suggestions? Let us answer with our Lord that
we can enter into no partner-ship, be members of the institution, nor
co-operate with any along lines that would be either dishonoring to the
character of our heavenly Father or in any measure contrary to those which he
has marked out as the path-way for those who love him-the pathway of
self-denial, and incidentally of suffering for the cause of right and truth.
“ADD TO YOUR FAITH, FORTITUDE.”
Another thought: one great difficulty with the Lord’s
people is that, even when determined for a right course and thus resisting the
temptation, they do not take sufficiently positive action. Many say to the
tempter, I have concluded not to yield at this time. Thus they leave in their
own minds an opportunity open by which the tempter may return. Our Lord’s
course was the proper one: we should dismiss the tempter once and forever. We
should take our stand so firmly that even the Adversary would not think it
worth while to come back at us along that line; “Leave me, Adversary,” I will
worship and serve my God alone.
Our Lord’s temptations thus terminated. Henceforth he had Satan for his
Adversary, but the Father his pro-tector and ultimately his deliverer. Had he
not reached this final decision we may presume that Satan’s tempta-tions would
have continued for days or weeks or years, and would have been a hindrance to
the Lord in the work he had come to do. So with us, we must settle it if we
would be on the Lord’s side; we must decide that in no sense of the word will
we yield to the Adversary, either from policy or to enter into any transaction
either to protect life, name or fame. Our decision must be a firm one,
somewhat as expressed by the poet:-
-“Vain, delusive world, adieu,
With all thou callest good!
To my Lord I would be true,
Who bought me with his blood.”
“MARVEL NOT IF THE WORLD HATE YOU.”
When the Lord’s followers take a firm stand on this subject as their
Leader did, the results are the same. Satan is their implacable opponent; he
will see to it that they do suffer, that there will be opposition not only by
himself but by the world, which is largely under the influence of his spirit
and in various ways. Taking this stand they must not marvel if the world hate
them, and if all manner of evil be said against them falsely for Christ’s
sake. And the more prominent they may be, as in our Lord’s case, the more
virulent we may expect attacks against them to be-the more interested will the
great Adversary be in overcoming them. This thought
of Satan’s opposition to us, and that we are contending not merely with flesh
and blood but with principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high
positions of power, would be appalling to us did we not on the other hand
realize that by this same positiveness of decision we acquire great helps and
assistances by other unseen powers. From that moment of our positive
resistance of temptation and positive standing up for the Lord and his cause,
we become stronger in the Lord and in the power of his might, and greater is he
that is for us than all that be against us.
It was so in our Lord’s case. At once he was ministered to by the
unseen messengers of Jehovah, and whatever terror lay in the intimated
opposition of the Adversary was more than counterbalanced by the as-surances of
divine favor and assistance. So it is with us. If God be for us who can be
against us-what will all the oppositions of the world, the flesh and the devil
amount to since God declares that we are his and all things are ours, for we
are Christ’s and Christ is God’s?-1 Cor. 3:21-23.