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Wednesday January 12, 2022

Temptation: The Highway to Victory!

“As light cannot be seen to shine except in contrast to darkness, nor heat felt to warm except in contrast to cold, so man cannot know his nature fixed Godward except by his refusal to fix it devilward. So Jesus met Satan on that mount. His body had natural instincts. Only through a right use of these instincts could He be preserved fit for its exacting ministry: He must eat, drink, sleep. In the fierceness of the conflict and the choice to be made, He had not eaten food for forty days. He was hungry; and then the suggestion stabbed home to Him: ‘Your new powers over nature. Use them. Make bread.’ In a moment the battle was joined. Was His body to be master or servant? Was He to move at its dictates, or was it to move at the dictates of the Spirit who controlled Him? The word was spoken. Not a powerless negative, a mere ‘No’ which leaves the nagging temptation unrelieved; but a triumphant positive that swallows up the negative: ‘Man lives by every Word of God.’ That temptation was the highway, the only highway to bodily victory. It ‘drove’ the Savior to a choice: that Spirit should control body, not body Spirit. It was settled. Henceforth His body was an instrument of God’s glory: His appetites were the natural means by which it could be kept in working order.”

Taken from–The Law of Faith

By Norman Grubb

Pages 114-115