Orange Moon Cafe "Tempted... Triumphant!

The Special of the Day... From the Orange Moon Cafe...

   "Tempted... Triumphant!"

     The Lord Jesus Christ experienced temptation more than any other human being who has ever lived.  Moreover, despite retaining His divinity when becoming incarnate, Scripture clearly teaches He was tempted and overcame as a man.

    "God cannot be tempted with evil" (James 1:13).

    "We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).

     Since "God cannot be tempted with evil," the Lord Jesus did not face temptation in His Divine nature.  He was tempted "like as we are," and thus faced temptation in His humanity.  He trusted and submitted to His Father when challenged, remembering and affirming the Scriptures, and relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to provide more than adequate enabling to overcome.  This He did over and over for thirty three years, never once succumbing to thousands upon thousands of devilish challenges to compromise His Father's will.  "Christ... did no sin" (I Peter 2:21-22).

   No contemplation of our wondrous Savior should more drive us to our knees and faces than His overcoming - as a man - every temptation He ever faced.  Had the Lord Jesus sinned even once, He could not have died for our sins.  He would have had to die for His own sin.  "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4).  Ponder also how incessantly and savagely Satan must have attacked our Lord with enticements: "tempted in all points like as we are." Of no one else can this be said.  Finally, let us realize He could not have identified with us as our High Priest who was "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" had He did not experienced temptation in the same way we face the challenge (Hebrews 4:15).  Certainly this transcends our understanding as we ponder the earthly experience of the God who became man, and the man who remains God.  However, we can be sure the Lord Jesus knows what it means to be tempted in the same way we know it.  Even more.

    Most importantly, He also knows what it means to overcome temptation.  Every time.  For a lifetime.  Little wonder He is the beloved of His Father, and the beloved of His trusting children.  Little wonder the hymnwriter exulted, "Hallelujah, what a Savior!"  What a Savior indeed, and what grateful remembrance should fill our hearts upon every contemplation of so wondrous a Redeemer.  Tempted in all points?  Yes, but far more, triumphant in all points!  Let us in this moment direct our hearts and voices Heavenward, where the victorious Captain of our salvation sits in glory at the right hand of His Father.  And let us rejoice that His Spirit dwells within our hearts to enable our overcoming as we access His triumph as our own.

"In the world ye shall have much tribulation.  But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

(John 16:33)

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

(I Corinthians 10:13)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "His commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world."

(I John 5:3-4)

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