How We Are Defeated But Can Be Victorious (Part 3)


There are threads in these three temptations (Matthew 4:1-11) for they appeal to genuine human needs and aspirations. This is part of what makes them so appealing. All three urge for a person to be self-dependent and self-assertive in order to satisfy one’s own self-love to get what one needs or desires. All three temptations are countered with the necessity of trusting God to meet one’s needs and to faithfully listen with obedience to his word and his way of acting (“righteousness”) in and for his children.  
At one of my former workplaces, I was able to drive company vehicles. But my use of those vehicles is restricted to the specific activities I do in the course of completing my work for the company. I can use vehicles only in the way specified in my job description. This is because the vehicles do not belong to me but the company. THE SAME RULE APPLIES IN THE KINGDOM—THE LORD FOLLOWED IT AND WE MUST TOO.
The Lord overcame the trial and did not yield to the tempter’s deception. He stood strong and kept the faith according to the Word of God. What was his secret? What made this possible? Let us go to another place in the Gospels for a clue. (See John 14:30-31)
The evil one, “the ruler of this world” (v.30), was coming again to confront Jesus. For after being vanquished in the desert Luke notes that he departed from Jesus “until an opportune time.” (Luke 4:13, NRSV) Now that the Lord’s suffering was nearing he was coming again. However, according to our Lord, “in me he has nothing.” (v.31, Literal Greek) He had no means to nab or pull him over to do evil because he did not sin in any way. He always did as God his Father commanded him. And this obedience to God his Father was to reveal to all that “I love the Father.” (v.31)
This is what fundamentally makes us different from our Lord; we do sin and we do as we please. Thus we give to the enemy a hold in ourselves; thus we are not able to stand as the Lord did and force the devil to flee. But our Lord is patient and he is there to make us stand as we learn to submit to him and walk in dignity and spiritual authority which he suffered to give his children. He is ready to strengthen us in the midst of our trials, to teach us wisdom to effectively minster in his Name, and to deliver us from all evil.
            As disciples we must understand that to fully function as member of Kingdom we must obey God. For this is the “family business” and Jesus is the King who we answer to. He is exalted the King because in the time when he lived like us on earth he obeyed God the Father and kept the commands of his Father while carrying out the work of the Kingdom. He became our example in the practice of faith because he walked in total dependence as a man upon the Holy Spirit in obedience to God the Father. For he loved the Father.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discernment

Some writers and some lives are so God-filled that they are granted special insights and abilities by the living God. St. John of the Cross was one of those persons. I share a quote here that has helped me tremendously in different circumstances when I needed to understand what was happening with others--and particularly in different Christian communities.  This is a recalled statement of John of the Cross, something he said in conversation and which was written down and preserved. The citation can be found in T he Complete Works of St. John of the Cross , Vol. 3, p.315) i leave this for the reader to ponder.    “I sometimes heard him say that there is no lie so carefully devised and composed that, if we study it carefully, we cannot tell it in one way or in another to be a lie.   Nor, he would say, is there any devil so completely transfigured as an angel of light as not to be recognizable if he be looked at carefully.    Nor is there a...
Read more

The New Tribalism

The era of human history in which most human beings live now (or have been profoundly influenced by) is known as “modernity” or simply the “modern era.” This period of history can be differentiated from eras prior in at least one primary way: The modern era is dominated by ideology rather than theology. On the one hand, theology is a conviction and perspective about the nature of reality, of the meaning and purpose of human life and the reasons for ethical and moral imperatives; this is explicitly rooted in a particular understanding of God and revelation granted to humans by God. On the other hand, ideology can be described as a comprehensive philosophy which asserts an explanation about the nature of reality, the meaning and purpose of human life, and gives an explanation for the ethical and moral imperatives people recognize and value. What makes an ideology different from a theology is simply that ideology allows no space for the Deity which its philosophical framework and e...
Read more

Struggling Under the Blessing (Part 1)

One of the general lessons from the Genesis narratives regarding Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph is this: Simply that God’s grace supersedes human will, human scheming and human sin. God has a purpose for which he is working—the redemption of a people who will belong to him. He is forming from among those who will respond to God’s call his own people to be a treasured possession from humanity. This purpose has culminated in the coming of the Lord Jesus and his proclamation of the Kingdom of God. The Scriptures give us multiple examples of people’s faith response to God and his revealed word. In this I want to look at Jacob. He was a man who believed in God but who trusted more in himself and his ability to save his own neck when he was in trouble. But God met him and changed him into a man of faith whose life became pivotal for the well-being of his family and millions of his descendants. Let us see what we can learn from the life of Jacob. Some background information...
Read more