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It is contrary to the teaching of Scripture to affirm that when a Christian falls into such
temptations he can count on the "sympathy" of the Saviour. In such circumstances he
needs, not sympathy and succour, but forgiveness and restoration. To expect sympathy
after being ensnared by hurtful lusts is to hold a very low estimate of the enormity of sin
or of the attitude of the Saviour towards it. In the temptations that assail the believer in
his journey through the wilderness that intervenes between initial conversion and the
attainment of "perfection", he will always receive sympathetic help, for it was temptation
of this character that the Saviour shared and endured.
We now have the Gospels, the Acts, and the Revelation to examine, and then every
occurrence of "temptation" will have been surveyed. In the light of all that we have
learned on the subject it will then be our responsibility to entertain sound conceptions of
this most important subject; important because it affects both the doctrine of the
Saviour's unfallen and sinless humanity, and the nature of the temptations that come from
God.
#4.
pp. 201 - 204
We have examined the teaching of all the Epistles on the subject of temptation, and to
complete the survey there now remain the Gospels, the Acts and the Revelation. For our
present purpose there will be no point in giving separate consideration to the three
accounts of the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, or of the three records of "The
Lord's prayer". The Gospel according to Matthew will provide a full account, and we
need only to consider in the other Gospels any statement regarding temptation that may
be peculiar to any one of those Gospels.
Taking the occurrences in order of their appearance, we come first to the temptation of
the Saviour as recorded in Matthew:
"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil . . .
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" (Matt. 4: 4).
The heavens had just opened and the voice had been heard saying, "This is My
beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased", and the first temptation is based upon the
declaration.
Every experience through which the Saviour passed was for our sakes, for He needed
not the testing, the suffering, the agony or the cross, for anything of, or for, Himself
alone.
Adam had failed in a garden of plenty; Christ prevailed in a wilderness of want.
Moreover, the Lord was in special relationship with Israel. This ancient people had been