THE TEMPTATIONS (2)
[p. 118] THE TEMPTATIONS (2)
It is a great favour from God that we should be brought to know things in divine perfection. One feels how precious it is to see all that is suitable to God without a flaw. The true character and blessedness that is our portion through Christ is patterned in Him. You see the thing perfectly patterned in Him, so we can learn our own true character, and our true place and blessedness in perfection as patterned in Christ.
Luke writes with method. There is divine method in the way he writes, and he puts things in moral order. We learn first how such a Man as Jesus lives, and then how such a Man worships and serves; and next we see the perfect way in which such a Man confides in the known love of God. Now this is the true character of our life as being of Christ, and we have to admit as believers that we are of Christ. So I have to learn my true character according to grace, in Christ. As to the life of our spirits, we live by what God has spoken to us; and this comes out in connection with the first temptation, that man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We live by what God has spoken to us, and that constitutes the life of our souls; God has spoken to us in Christ, and it is what comes to us from God that constitutes our life, whether we have fed on it little or much. Every communication from God enlarges our capacity to live Godward, and it is very interesting to see this. He speaks to us so that we might live on it, and that principle runs right through the Christian’s life: we live by what God speaks to us. The thought of God is that we should live in relation to Him, in the conscious appreciation of every word that He has been pleased to speak. The Lord actually did live on every word that proceeded from God’s mouth — it formed His life morally as a Man down here. We have,
perhaps, received very few of God’s words to live upon, but they constitute the measure of our life. What we should seek to get hold of is the positive features which the temptations brought out — they brought out positive features in Christ. As believers we are no longer listening to the serpent; those who are of Christ are closed to Satan and open to God. I should like the youngest believer to set that down as a definite spiritual fact, that he is after Christ by the grace of God. God speaks to us that we might be free to worship and serve Him.
In the first temptation what comes out is how God has moved towards man to speak to him in such a way that he can live by what God says, and the measure in which we have appreciated what God has said is the measure by which we live spiritually. But God has spoken to us because He wanted worshippers and servers; He wants us to do homage to Him, and it is His pleasure that we should serve Him.
In the second temptation we see that all the power and glory of the world’s system has no attraction for Jesus, and it is interesting to note that the thought of worshipping and serving God is set against all the power and glory of the world, which would be the full scope of man’s ambition as a fallen creature: God sets against it the power and glory of being able to worship and serve Him.
There is an infinitely greater power and glory in worshipping and serving God than in anything that the devil can confer. So one sees it is infinitely greater and nobler to serve Him than to receive all the glory and power that belongs to this world. This is the true way of deliverance from all human ambitions. If our hearts have fed upon what God has spoken to us we shall have affection for Him. To covet the power and glory of the present world system requires that one should become a worshipper of the devil: it demands that we shall do homage to the one who holds it out as the great prize to the ambitions of men.
How does God see us? How are we known of God? Now let each of us consider, how does God know me? If [p. 120] I have believed ever so feebly and simply on Christ as God’s salvation, then the way that God knows me is as one who stands in all the value of redemption, and the one who has received the Spirit, so as to be formed after Christ. God does not know me according to the flesh; He knows me in Christ. And we have to rise up to the thoughts of God. God’s thoughts are that we are of Christ, we are blest through Christ, in Christ, and for Christ, and Christ is in us, and we are to be with Christ and like Christ through all eternity. We learn that the object God has in view for us is to learn an entirely new power and glory. There is power which lies in the gift of the devil, but we want nothing to do with it; we want as little to do with it as Christ did; we want no more of the power and glory of this world than Christ had. Can each one of us say, ‘It is true of me through God’s infinite grace’? As Christians we have a new thought of glory; we are attracted by an entirely new kind of power and glory, which the natural man never wants, but Christ wanted it and we want it.
The sanctuary is the place where God is worshipped and served, and what a mercy it is to be transferred into such a region as that. The devil has not got a jot or tittle that is spiritual; he has nothing to offer beyond death, nothing of true value.
That blessed Man of Luke 4 was in the brightness of the sphere where God is worshipped and served in the beauty of holiness, and what belonged to the world system had not the least attraction to Him; and that should be true of everyone who has the knowledge of Him. I think the glory of doing homage to God, and serving Him, would put the glory of the world out of hearts and keep it out. The glory of the world is for a moment: there is nothing abiding, nothing of true value. That system of things has gone: it has lost its hold on our hearts, and what holds us now is God speaking to us, and we now live to God. What a moment it will be for me when I open my eyes in a scene where there is no distraction! God has thoughts about me that transcend all human conception [p. 121] and I shall then know as I am known. What a comfort it is to know that we are known of God; and as such we are able to serve God, and to do homage to Him. I have had a thought from God and I have just closed my eyes and said, ‘Glory to God’. That is doing homage to God.
The world is the full limit of man’s ambition, but we learn there is a greater glory in serving God. He has delivered us out of the hands of all our enemies, to serve Him in holiness; He has delivered us in the power of redemption, to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives. I came to this meeting with the thought of being spiritually enlarged. I do not believe in coming to a meeting and going out again in the same manner as I came in. The more I receive the more I can give, and I worship and serve in the light of what God has spoken to me.
The third temptation brings out the restful assurance of divine love in which the Lord Jesus was kept while here below. The devil comes and quotes Scripture, and asks the Lord to put it to the test and see if it was true or not! There is always the subtle tendency in our hearts to want proof that God loves and cares for us. The great danger is that we may be like the Jews desiring a sign; when the Lord was here, they came to Him asking for signs, and it is very often Satan’s way to want us to acquire some evidence that God really does love and care for us. Christ is our evidence, and we do not want evidence of the love and care of the blessed God other than Christ.