The temptation of Christ

Handling temptation and sin the Savior’s way

Matthew 4:1-11

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you have heard and responded to the call of the gospel, then you are at war with sin! When the angel commanded Joseph to name the baby Jesus, he did so because, “he will save his people from their sins”. To come to Jesus as savior then is to take a side in the war with sin. We can praise God that ultimate victory over sin’s punishment was accomplished on the cross by Jesus. And we are promised by that same Jesus that we would have the comfort and power of the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit to help us. Yet here we find ourselves between now and the rapture in a daily and moment by moment struggle with temptation.

If there is any doubt about that, here’s Hebrews 12:4 “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” The struggle is real, and the fight is on. Like it or not, we’re called to it, and there are godly reasons for that. For now, let’s just acknowledge a couple things: First, as children of God through faith in Christ, we are on God’s side, and He’s against sin! Second, until we enter glory, while we are in this world and in thes bodies of flesh, temptation to not do God’s revealed will is going to come at us from three sources: The world/culture, our own flesh, and the Devil.

Today let’s see how our Lord Jesus blessed us with his own actions in the face of temptation, and then went on to bless us with his own sacrifice for our sin so that its guilt would not stick with or stain us. His shed blood cleansed us once and for all before the Father, and it cleanses us when we do fall to temptation in sin, contrary to our calling and status as His own beloved children and saints.