Mark 1:11-13
And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
Tag: Temptation and Suffering
People who don't know God in a personal way and have had no relationship with Christ often approach suffering (and temptation, to an extent) as something odd to understand in the context of "religion" or "faith." Some believers struggle with this area. The logic goes: If you have God on your side why do you have any issues in life. They might believe, "If God is for you what can be against you?" They might say,, "If you end up suffering and being overly tempted then it must be because God is too weak to help or you are too shallow and sinful and deserve it, or God is so uncaring He won't help." The truth is, as we can see in the above passage, that God was "well pleased" with Christ and STILL was, by the Spirit, taken into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Jesus was on the earth to take our place and represent us. He was there take away our suffering and to live a perfect life, die in our place and be raised in newness of life. This shows that suffering is part of life. Jesus was tempted by Satan to assure that, as 100% man, He would still love and obey His Father. Job was tempted and suffered by Satan to assure he would love and obey and, by faith, love the Father, above all else. Temptation and suffering a tools used by Satan, with God's limits, to separate us from the Love of Christ. If Christ suffered this way, we, too, will suffer.
No comments:
Post a Comment