We can't fight on our own. When we
face temptation, when we run up against a choice to either live
faithfully or fleshly, when those moments come and we fail, it's
because we tried to do battle on our own strength. We're only human
and so we lack the ability to succeed in a war against evil if for no
other reason than evil is within us! We are born of shadow and will
run from the light given the slightest chance. Thanks to Jesus'
redemptive work we aren't “cured” from sin but brought from death
to life; not sick men made better but dead men made alive. We need
God to get us through those difficult moments.
Our example in this, like in all
things, is Jesus. We see in the pages of scripture that while He was
on earth He limited Himself. He did not exercise the full range of
His Godhood so as to be a proper example and a fit sacrifice. When
we see Jesus perform miracles, we often see Him praying before hand
asking for these miracles from the Father. Jesus, just like we must
do, sought the Father and relied on the Spirit to do what He needed
to do. The primary example for our discussion today is Jesus
temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-10).
The devil appears and presents Jesus
with several scenarios, different forms or avenues of temptation
designed to push Jesus away into sin. It's quite fascinating that no
where does Jesus simply tell satan to bugger off or even cast Him
away; this of course is well within His power and authority as a part
of the God-head. What Jesus does do is use the Word of God. Each
time He is presented with a temptation He replies with a piece of
Scripture. Jesus knew in that time that no lies can supplant the
pure truth of God and that we find that truth in the Word given to
us. Again, He didn't simply cast satan away but used the same
resources we have available to us: the Word of God and the Holy
Spirit.
We need to learn, to train ourselves
to go to God and His word when we are under temptation. More than
that we need to ask God to keep us aware of what's going on around
us, to make us sensitive to temptation so that we recognize it when
it rears its ugly head. If we continue to rely on our own strength
we will never see anything more than failure. We were dead before,
and dead men cannot fight a war; if we cut ourselves off from that
which makes us alive in the first place what do we think will happen?
No comments:
Post a Comment