The Submissive Soul

In Matthew Mondays, we’ve been looking at the temptation of Christ and how Jesus was tempted in all the ways we are within the trinity of man: body, spirit, and soul as per Hebrews 4:15 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

In the previous weeks we’ve looked at how Satan tempted Christ in body and how Satan tempted Christ in spirit.  This week we’re going to look at how Satan tempted Christ in soul.

The soul of a human being is the seat of the mind, will, and emotions.  And while temptations affecting the body are often about survival and comfort and temptations affecting spirit are often about the supernatural, temptations that lure our soul are all about control.

Let’s look at how the temptation plays out:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." (Matthew 4:8-9)

Satan’s offer is to give Jesus control of the whole world in exchange for worshiping him instead of God, basically submitting to Satan rather than God. 

This is the last and perhaps the greatest of the temptations.  It’s easy to empathize with the first temptation.  We all get hungry.  We all want to live comfortably.  Only a crazy person says, “boy, I’d sure like to experience some pain and suffering today.”  The second temptation of the spirit is easy to understand too.  Who doesn’t want to see something miraculous?  Ask any atheist what it would take to convince them that God exists, and they’ll give you some impossible sign for proof.

The last one is a bit more subversive because it is a temptation that we rarely recognize as such.  It’s the temptation of free will.  Will we submit to God every moment of every day, or will we pursue our own agendas and try to control our own lives?  Will we be driven by our own desires, swayed by flippant emotions, or led by our own understandings, or will we seek God’s desires, God’s emotions, and God’s understanding, and let these be what guide our path.

What makes this particular temptation so hard is that sometimes we know what God wants, but we think we can speed up His process and do things on our own.  That’s what Satan is tempting Jesus with in this example.

Ultimately the submission and obedience of our body, soul, and spirit to the Almighty God are what worship is all about, which is why Jesus responds to Satan the way He does:

Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"  (Matthew 4:10)

Rebuffing Spiritual Temptation

In our Matthew Mondays we’ve been looking at Matthew 4, and the temptations of Christ, particularly through the lens of Hebrews 4:15: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin”, and the trinity of man: body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23) in that these three temptations of Christ represent every way we are tempted.

Last week we looked at how the devil tries to tempt Jesus physically with food, and the way Jesus rebuffs Him by explaining the nature of the physical world: it’s God’s word.  God spoke it into being; thus man is not sustained by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).

This week we’re going to look at the second temptation of Jesus.

Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You; and 'on their hand they will bear You up, so that Your foot will not strike a stone.'" (Matthew 4:5-6)

Now let’s take just a moment before getting into Jesus’ response here to look at exactly what the devil is asking Jesus to do.

Satan took Him to the temple.  This is the spiritual center of the world.  Even the New Testament talks about Jerusalem and the temple as being the spiritual central.  The Gospel would eventually radiate out from this point into the entire world, and it continues to be the major focus of the Judeo-Christian religions. 

If Satan had just wanted to see if angels would swoop down and rescue Jesus, there were hundreds of other places he could have taken Him.  Mount Everest might have been a good choice.  Satan knew as well as Jesus did that the angels would have saved Him.  This temptation wasn’t about the action any more than the first one was about bread. 

The temptation on the temple top had a spiritual element to it. 

Imagine you were standing at church waiting to go in, and this guy comes hurtling down off the steeple, and before his foot hits the ground, a bunch of angels appear, catch him, and gently set him down.  You ask why the angels caught him, and he says because I’m the Son of God—hard to argue with that don’t you think? 

If Jesus had fallen for Satan’s temptation, He would have immediately become the spiritual leader of Israel.  Caiaphas (a goon appointed by Rome) would have been tossed out on his head, and there would have been no crucifixion, no redemption of sin, and no spiritual regeneration for any of us.  But God had other plans.

And so Jesus responds, “On the other hand, it is written, “you shall not put your Lord to the test” (Matthew 4:7).

Often times when it comes to spiritual temptation we experience, it comes in the form of testing God, and the test is for the wrong reasons.  It’s never just to prove to ourselves that God is true to His word and that He abides in us.  It’s to prove ourselves to others around us.  We pray for God to do x, y, or z in our lives.  Make us rich.  Heal us.  Help us teach, preach, and prophesy.  But our imaginations are running a mile a minute about what others will say or do when God moves so mysteriously/miraculously in our lives.

This is spiritual temptation.  God’s power is not meant to bring us glory; it’s meant to bring Him glory.  When you pray for these things, pray that God would glorify Himself however He wants and then be obedient.  Maybe He wants to use someone else to accomplish His work, and maybe He has other plans entirely.

Obedience to God’s plans is the key and the beauty of overcoming spiritual temptation.  Because in obedience there is humility, in humility God is glorified, and when God is glorified, He raises our spirits.

Next week, we look at the temptation of the soul.

Physics 101

In the last Matthew Monday, we looked at Matthew 4 and how Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan.  Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” 

How does the temptation of Christ in the wilderness equate to “being tempted in all things”? 

It has to do with the trinity of man: body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

The first temptation that Satan issues is directed toward Jesus’s body.  Jesus has been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, and Satan walks up and says, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread” (Matthew 4:3).

Jesus answers, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).

Often times Satan uses our body to tempt us into sinning against God: food, sex, adverting pain and suffering, etc. 

But Jesus says, listen God spoke the world into existence.  His words are not just some kind of sustenance; they are life.  There’s nothing our body needs that God’s spoken word hasn’t provided: plants and animals exist because He spoke them into being, the opposite sex exists because of His word, and pain and suffering exist because we challenged His command in the garden, but with a word from Him they can end just as surely as they began.

The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-4, 14).

This physical world is a product of God’s spoken word.  Jesus is God’s word made manifest in flesh.  Satan doesn’t use physical temptation for the simple act of making us suffer physically; He uses it to get us to deny the very word of God, and this is why Jesus rebuffs the physical temptation with the scripture He does. 

We live and have our being because God speaks.  Understanding this truth is the key to overcoming the temptation of the flesh. 

Next week we'll look at the temptation of the spirit.

Led Into Temptation

It’s Matthew Monday again, and we’re moving into Matthew 4.  Last week we looked at the Trinity and that rare moment when Father, Son, and Holy Spirit when observable during Jesus’ baptism.  How empowered Jesus must have felt at this moment, with the Holy Spirit’s anointing and the Father’s pronouncement of pleasure in His life.

But then in chapter 4, what happens?

The Spirit leads Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1).

Notice that God is not doing the tempting.  In fact in James it says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” (James 1:13-15).

But God does allow us to be tempted, and He does put us into positions were the devil will have opportunity to tempt us via our own natures.  I mean if He did it to Jesus why are we any different?

But God also promises that “no temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Jesus had a way out when it came to His temptation.  He did three things: fasted, prayed, and meditated on the scriptures, and when the devil came calling, Jesus was well-prepared to resist the evil one’s temptations.

So when Jesus teaches us to pray, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13), He’s speaking from experience.  Experience that says temptation isn’t easy.  “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), and thus He teaches us to ask for grace in not being tempted in the first place, and freedom from the weakness within us, so we may persevere when Satan employs his pernicious wiles.

And we may have faith in God to answer this prayer because this is His kingdom, in His power, for His glory, forever and ever. Amen

Next week, we'll look at the specific temptations and why it is that these three temptations equate to being "tempted in all things as we are"; it's interesting stuff, and you won't want to miss it.

Why Was Jesus Baptized?

It’s Matthew Monday, and we’re looking at Matthew chapter 3 today.

The big thing that happens in Matthew chapter 3 is that Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist.

Now John has been out baptizing people, preaching “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.”  There were a couple of reasons why people are baptized in terms of Jewish culture in those days: the first was for conversion to Judaism, the second was for Milkveh or purification.  The Essenes who lived in the wilderness near John baptized for renewal or a return to a pure Jewish faith without the Roman appointed high priest, and it’s suggested that John picked up his message and reason for baptizing from them.

Whatever the case, baptism was meant for purification purposes, whether into a purer religion or just general purification from becoming unclean by transgressing the law. 

The question that comes up here for me is “why did Jesus have to be baptized?”

I mean Jesus was without sin (Hebrews 4:15).  When He touched unclean people, He didn’t become unclean, He cleaned them (Matthew 8:1-4).   The man was perfect religion; He didn’t need to convert.  Why in the world would He need to be baptized?

Jesus says, “it’s to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15), but what does that mean?

There are quite a few thoughts on the why.  Maybe Jesus was fulfilling the ministry of John (John 1:32).  Maybe He was identifying with us as sinners and setting the precedence for baptism (Romans 6).  Maybe He was emulating the crossing of the Jordan as He fulfilled and redeemed Israel’s history (Joshua 3:14).  And all of these may be true.

I think the reason has to do with John’s lineage.  His parents were both descendants of Aaron (Luke 1:5).  His father learns of John’s conception while in the temple performing his priestly duties burning incense (Luke 1:8-20).  What this means is that John was a priest.  He grew up with a father who was a Levite, who served in the temple.  He would have learned the trade of being a priest.  He would have been educated profusely in the Law and the Old Testament, and He should have served in the temple when it was his family’s time to serve.

Instead John was out baptizing people in a dirty river just so that Jesus would come to him one day and be baptized. 

In light of this I think the best explanation for Jesus’ baptism is found in Hebrews 4:13-5:10, which I won’t reprint here, but I encourage you to read.  It talks about Jesus being our high priest who offers atonement for our sin.  In the Old Testament the high priest was “baptized” before entering office (Exodus 29:4), and I think that’s what we’re seeing the baptism of Christ: a christening into the office of high priest, an act that is approved by God Himself when He speaks from heaven and anoints Jesus with the Holy Spirit, something we’ll look at more next week.

Practically in our lives, Jesus fulfilling righteousness in being baptized by a priest, so He might be our high priest is summed up in 1 John 1:9-10 and 2:1: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. My little children I am writing these things so that you may not sin, but if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 

If you fall short, and we all do.  Confess and repent and be cleansed by the propitiation for our sins, our Lord Jesus Christ.

God's Telling Our Story

Welcome to Matthew Mondays Part 2.  There’s a lot that could be said about Matthew Chapter 2 and the birth of Jesus Christ, but let’s start with a contemplation:

Have you ever thought about Jesus’ conception?  I mean never mind that Mary’s a teenage virgin, consider for a moment that the infinite God mashed His essence into one cell inside of that teenage virgin, and she didn’t explode!  How crazy is that? 

I’m going to just let you think about that for awhile for two reasons: first two millennium have been spent trying to understand the whole fully God, fully man thing, and secondly I have nothing new to offer.  I’m as amazed and confused by the whole thing as anyone else.  What a powerful and humble God we serve!

So then, since there's no good way to transition from the awe of the incarnation, let's just jump right in; shall we?  When we look at chapter 2, the story of Jesus’ birth in Matthew’s Gospel is as significant in what he leaves out as what he chooses to include. 

Matthew doesn’t mention the census, the manger, the shepherds, the dedication at the temple, or Anna and Simeon.  Instead Matthew’s main focus is to show that Jesus is a descendant of David and heir to the crown, and he does it with the story of the Magi.

The Magi ask, “where is he who is born king of the Jews?” This brings up an important point.  Herod is not the true king of Israel.  Herod was not a descendant of David. He was an Edomite (a descendant of Esau) that the Roman government had set in place: a puppet king.  He had converted to Judaism for the sake of ruling Judah, but he was not of the kingly lineage. 

And he was aware, as was all of Jerusalem, that there was a descendant of David out there.  The Jewish people kept copious records of genealogy at the temple, many of which were destroyed by Rome in 70 A.D. 

Who was that descendant?

Now you’d be tempted to jump and say, “Jesus”, and while you’re not wrong, let’s not forget the genealogy in chapter one.  Joseph, as a son of David and a direct descendant of the kingly line, had a legitimate claim to the throne, and there would have been record on hand to prove it.  Thus his son, Jesus, would have record on hand to prove it.   In fact Jewish scholars from antiquity back up Joseph and Mary’s lineage, though they do so while denying Christ.

The fact that Joseph was a carpenter and not the king shows the situation Israel found itself in during Jesus’ birth.  It was occupied.  Its rulers were appointed by and subservient to Rome.   But the Jewish people were ready to revolt, and if they had a king, a descendant of David, they would have at the drop of a hat.  In fact, all through the Gospels the disciples are itching for war and missing the point of Jesus’ incarnation, which we’ll see in later chapters. 

So, when the Magi show up spouting off about a king, the king of the Jews.  Herod is understandably put on edge, which leads to the child killing and all that.

I guess the part that I find intriguing about the whole scenario is that God picks this point in history to send the Messiah: the One who will free His people from their sins.  This point where the Jewish people are not only figuratively captive in their sin, they’re literally captive, occupied by a foreign power.  And after all the cycles of blessing and cursing, plenty and little, freedom and captivity, God picks this point to send the One to end the cycle, first for the Jew and then the Gentile.

And He does it humbly in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, so that we might once and all be free from sin, so the King of kings and Lord of lords would not just be the literal king of the Jews who overthrew an earthly oppressor, but the King of all, who took the keys to hell and death, who set us free from ourselves, and who will reign forever and ever.

Could the timing have been better?  I don’t think so.  God is an amazing storyteller, and I can tell you this much, He’s telling your story right now.  The more you listen to the storyteller, the more you’ll get out of this life.

God Is In Control

In our Sunday School class we’ve been going through the book of Matthew, and so I’ve decided to start posting our lessons in condensed form here on the Manifest Blog.  I think we’ll call them Matthew Mondays.

So let’s start in Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew starts out with the genealogy of Christ.  Early on in my walk with Christ I looked up what the names in the genealogy meant and was amazed to find that from Adam to Jesus the names come together to present the salvation story.  Here is the translation below:

Man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the Blessed of God will come down teaching that his death shall bring the despairing rest and comfort. He will be a renowned healer, possessing a mission that joins division. God’s shepherd will twine the branches, through the exhalation of His spirit.

The father of a great multitude laughs; he prevails with God through the praise of the Lord breaching divisions. Rise up; my people is liberated by a helper that rewards a servant with strength, a gift well-beloved who pays the price to enlarge the people. The father of the Lord is the physician.

The Lord is a judge elevated with strength from God. He is the perfection, the faithfulness, the fire, and the stability of God. He was asked of God to break up confusion. He is the father of praise, the resurrection of God. In court, He is just in His preparation, His vengeance, and His confirmation. God is His praise. In the courts of God, His gift undermines wrath and increases salvation.

You can see the break down of this translation on the post entitled The Genealogy of Christ (Matthew).

Secondly, there’s the virgin birth.   There’s some speculation that Mary had to be born without sin in order for Jesus to be born without sin, but that wouldn’t make any sense unless her parents were born without sin, and their parents, and their parents . . . all the way back to Adam.  Of course that isn’t the case. 

However, God does say that He visits the iniquities of the fathers onto the third and fourth generation, and not the iniquities of the mothers, which means that a virgin birth would in essence not pass on original sin and give Jesus a clean slate at birth.  He wasn’t born into sin, and unlike Adam, He resisted the temptation to sin when it was presented. You can read more about this idea in the post entitled Why a Virgin Birth?

The application we can take away from these two points in Matthew chapter one is that God is in control of every detail.  He knew what His plan was before Adam and Eve ever ate the apple, and He knows every detail about your life: past present and future.  He knew what everyone’s names would be in Jesus’ genealogy, and some of them He audibly gave before they were born, and some of them He changed while the person was alive.  He knew that sin would be passed on through the fathers and that there would be a virgin birth.  We know because it’s prophesied hundreds of years in advance. 

Here’s the rub:  You’ll never do anything that surprises Him, and though things might surprise you, He saw them coming before time began and has plans for everything that happens in your life.

I for one find this incredibly comforting.  There is rest in God’s omniscience.