{"id":39372,"date":"2019-10-17T04:28:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T09:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?p=39372"},"modified":"2019-10-15T21:11:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T02:11:42","slug":"jesuss-temptations-and-ours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/jesuss-temptations-and-ours\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus’s temptations and ours"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blessed is anyone who endures temptation.<\/strong> Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. No one, when tempted, should say, \u201cI am being tempted by God\u201d; for God cannot be tempted<\/strong> by evil and he himself tempts no one. (James 1:12-13, NRSV)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God can’t be tempted; this makes sense, given that he is essentially omniscient and omnipotent. How could such a being ever view a morally wrong action as desirable? If you can’t suffer from that defect, then in principle, you can’t be tempted.<\/p>\n

\"\"But Jesus, according to Matthew 4:1-11, was tempted.<\/strong> As he is our model, what were his temptations, and how are they relevant to us?<\/p>\n

Jesus is tempted,<\/strong> by Satan in person, to (1) turn stones to bread, (2) cast himself off of the temple so that God will catch him somehow, and (3) submit to Satan, gaining the kingdoms of the world in return.  I suggest that since he is “one who in every respect has been tested as we are” (Hebrews 4:15), we can consider these as examples of more abstract types:<\/p>\n

(1) Sinfully, faithlessly, attempting to provide for your own needs.<\/p>\n

(2) Presumptuously acting, so as to put God to the test (i.e. to manipulate him into acting on your behalf).<\/p>\n

(3) Betraying God in order to align with the kingdoms of the world, to gain the benefits they promise.<\/p>\n

How did Jesus win? How did he resist these temptations?<\/strong><\/p>\n

(1) By holding closely to God\u2019s word, to his promises. Life depends on bread, yes, but real life depends also on God\u2019s word – and he has<\/em> that! So he won\u2019t sin, won\u2019t try an unauthorized miracle, to get the bread he needs. The bread will be sent in God’s time.<\/p>\n

(2) He refuses to put God to the test, recognizing that the Devil is twisting scripture. He humbly submits to God, and doesn\u2019t give in to that temptation. Scripture in fact never authorizes that the Messiah or anyone else should hurl himself off a building so that God can miraculously save him.<\/p>\n

(3) And he holds fast to the main thing in all of Jewish scripture – loyalty to Yahweh, in opposition to the ruling forces of this world, forsaking all the power, wealth, and fame which they might dangle in front of him.<\/p>\n

Note that the Devil was very cleverly trying to get a hold of Jesus by means of his special calling<\/strong>, which Jesus knew. He will<\/em> do miracles, and will<\/em> get his \u201cbread;\u201d God will provide for his needs. He will<\/em> be dramatically rescued by God. And he will<\/em> get all the kingdoms of the world. As Messiah, Jesus has been predestined to get all these things and more. (John 17:5) But he decides that he will only get these by the hand of God, by trusting in God and awaiting his timing. For the present, Jesus submits to suffering.<\/strong> And he is supernaturally sustained through it. (Matthew 4: 11)<\/p>\n

What’s your<\/em> special calling?<\/strong> Do you have the great blessing of knowing what it is? If so, great! But then, you’re not the only one who knows. Your enemies will seek to turn it around on you, to destroy you. How are you tempted to disobey or betray God in order to make those things happen? Are you going to try to make that stone a loaf? Are you going to foolishly leap off that cliff, telling yourself it is faith? If you want to know what faith\/trust in God looks like, look at Jesus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Do you embrace the suffering<\/strong>, or do you seek, foolishly, to escape it? In truth, suffering can’t<\/em> be escaped. Either you suffer in faith and thereby are molded into a true servant of God, or you suffer because of your own foolish flailings through life, trying to steer your own ship. Better to march right into the teeth of death, than to try to escape suffering by running from God, and trying to be your own god.<\/p>\n

Which will it be? You know what Jesus did, and how it worked out for him. (Philippians 2:8-11) Is he your model, or have you found some better one?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"default","neve_meta_container":"default","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"off","neve_meta_disable_footer":"off","neve_meta_disable_title":"off","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,15,75,80,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-christology","category-divine-attributes","category-faith","category-repost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39372"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41765,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39372\/revisions\/41765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}