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Tag Archives: The Temptation of Christ

James Denney, The Death of Christ (The Temptation)

15 Friday Apr 2022

Posted by memoirandremains in James Denney

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James Denney, The Death of Christ, The Temptation of Christ

Denney makes an interesting observation concerning the Temptation of Christ: it was not just an event which took place at the outset of his ministry, rather it framed his ministry:

 It does not matter that the temptations which are here described actually assailed Jesus at later stages in His life. Of course they did. They are the temptations of the Christ, and they not only assailed Him at particular moments, some of which we can still identify (Matt. 16:22 f.; John 6:15), they must in some way have haunted Him incessantly. But they were present to His mind from the outset of His career; that is the very meaning of the temptation story, standing where it stands. The Christ sees the two paths that lie before Him, and He chooses at the outset, in spiritual conflict, that which He knows will set Him in irreconcilable antagonism to the hopes and expectations of those to whom He is to appeal.

James Denney, The Death of Christ: Its Place and Interpretation in the New Testament (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1902), 17. What then does that do to him:

A soul which sees its vocation shadowed out in the Servant of the Lord, which is driven of the Spirit into the wilderness to face the dreadful alternatives raised by that vocation, and which takes the side which Jesus took in conflict with the enemy, does not enter on its life-work with any superficial illusions: it has looked Satan and all he can do in the face; it is prepared for conflict; it may shrink from death, when death confronts it in the path of its vocation, as hideous and unnatural, but it cannot be startled by it as by an unthought of, unfamiliar thing. The possibility, at least, of a tragic issue to His work—when we remember the Servant of the Lord, far more than the possibility—belongs to the consciousness of Jesus from the first

James Denney, The Death of Christ: Its Place and Interpretation in the New Testament (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1902), 17–18.

Thomas Manton, The Temptation of Christ, Sermon 1.c

17 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by memoirandremains in Thomas Manton

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Matthew, Sermon, The Temptation of Christ, Thomas Manton'

The prior post on this sermon may be found here.

Here, Manton ends with the practical application:

III. The good of this to us. 

It teacheth us divers things, four I shall instance in.

1. To show us who is our grand enemy, the devil, who sought the misery and destruction of mankind, as Christ did our salvation. (Matt. 13:19 & 39; John 8:44)

2. That all men, none excepted, are subject to temptations. (If Jesus was not exempt form temptation, than neither shall we)

3. It showeth us the manner of conflict, both of Satan’s fight and our Saviour’s defence.

[1.] Of Satan’s fight. It is some advantage not to be ignorant of his enterprises: …He assaulted Christ by the same kind of temptations by which usually he assaults us. The kinds of temptations are reckoned up: 1 John 2:16, ‘The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life.’ …

What then shall we do, knowing that we will be tempted and knowing something of how we will be tempted. The answer comes from the way in which Christ defendanted himself

[2.] The manner of Christ’s defence, and so it instructeth us how to overcome and carry ourselves in temptations. And here are two things whereby we evercome:—

(1.) By scripture….

But not as a talisman which is raised to chase off the Devil. That is evident, because the Devil quoted Scripture as part of his temptation. 

It is good to have the word of God abide in our memories, but chiefly in our hearts, by a sound belief and fervent love to the truth.

The Scripture is effective because it is embedded and is an automatic element of our thinking. It sets out an intellectual habit. This leads to the next element of defense noted by Manton:

(2.) Partly by resolution: 1 Pet. 4:1, ‘Arm yourselves with the same mind,’ viz., that was in Christ. When Satan grew bold and troublesome, Christ rejects him with indignation. Now the conscience of our duty should thus prevail with us to be resolute therein; the double-minded are as it were torn in pieces between God and the devil: James 1:8, ‘A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.’ Therefore, being in God’s way, we should resolve to be deaf to all temptations.

He ends with encouragement. This sermon could easily be discouraging: The Devil will assault you. He is powerful and intelligent. If it was merely make sure you remember enough Bible and stiffen you spine, this could easily become a matter of discouragement, because then it would make it seem as the power lay wholly with us. Instead, he sets out the example as proof that we will prevail:

4. The hopes of success. God would set Christ before us as a pattern of trust and confidence, that when we address ourselves to serve God, we might not fear the temptations of Satan. We have an example of overcoming the devil in our glorious head and chief. If he pleaded, John 16:33, ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world;’ the same holdeth good here, for the enemies of our salvation are combined. He overcame the devil in our natures, that we might not be discouraged: we fight against the same adversaries in the same cause, and he will give power to us, his weak members, being full of compassion, which certainly is a great comfort to us.

Having provided a general statement of the case, he proceeds to some particulars. 

Use. Of instruction to us:—

1. To reckon upon temptations. As soon as we mind our baptismal covenant, we must expect that Satan will be our professed foe, seeking to terrify or allure us from the banner of our captain, Jesus Christ. 

He then tallies up the types that immediately give way to temptation and return to “Satan’s camp.”

One type do not renounce Christ. Rather, they merely live as if Christ did not matter.

Now these are the devil’s agents, and the more dangerous because they use Christ’s name against his offices, and the form of his religion to destroy the power thereof; 

A second sort give way in a passive manner. They are not set against Christ in any obvious way; Christ simply does not matter to them.  They

tamely yield to the lusts of the flesh, and go ‘like an ox to the slaughter, and a fool to the correction of the stocks,’ Prov. 7:22 ….

A third sort begin well:

But then there is a third sort of men, that begin to be serious, and to mind their recovery by Christ: they have many good motions and convictions of the danger of sin, excellency of Christ, necessity of holiness; they have many purposes to leave sin and enter upon a holy course of life, but ‘the wicked one cometh, and cateheth away that which was sown in his heart,’ Matt. 13:19. He beginneth betimes to oppose the work, before we are confirmed and settled in a course of godliness, as he did set upon Christ presently upon his baptism. Baptism in us implieth avowed dying unto sin and living unto God; now God permitteth temptation to try our resolution. 

A fourth sort may not fall like the first three, but they will not leave the battle without a battle:

There is a fourth sort, of such as have made some progress in religion, even to a degree of eminency: these are not altogether free; for if the devil had confidence to assault the declared Son of God, will he be afraid of a mere mortal man? No; these he assaulteth many times very sorely: pirates venture on the greatest booty. These he seeketh to draw off from Christ, as Pharaoh sought to bring back the Israelites after their escape; or to foil them by some scandalous fall, to do religion a mischief: 2 Sam. 12:14, ‘By this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme;’ or at least to vex them and torment them, to make the service of God tedious and uncomfortable to them: Luke 22:31, ‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat’—to toss and vex you, as wheat in a sieve. So that no sort of Christians can promise themselves exemption; and God permitteth it, because to whom much is given, of them the more is required.

Second, we need to realize that anything can and will be used to temptation, wealth or poverty. We are tempted by ease and affliction.

Third, 

His end is to dissuade us from good, and persuade us to evil. 

On one hand, he 

Dissuade[s] us from good by representing the impossibility, trouble, and small necessity of it. 

He also tempts us to evil:

He persuadeth us to evil by profit, pleasure, necessity; we cannot live without it in the world. He hideth the hook, and showeth the bait only; he concealeth the hell, the horror, the eternal pains that follow sin, and only telleth you how beneficial, profitable, and delightful the sin will be to you:

This quotation is remarkably similar to a passage in Thomas Brooks

Device (1). To present the bait and hide the hook; to present the golden cup, and hide the poison; to present the sweet, the pleasure, and the profit that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin, and by hiding from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow the committing of sin. By this device he took our first parents: Gen. 3:4, 5, ‘And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’ Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods! Here is the bait, the sweet, the pleasure, the profit. Oh, but he hides the hook,—the shame, the wrath, and the loss that would certainly follow!

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 1 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 12–13.

And again, Manton returns to a note of encouragement to close the entire sermon:

4. While we are striving against temptations, let us remember our general. We do but follow the Captain of our salvation, who hath vanquished the enemy, and will give us the victory if we keep striving: ‘The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly,’ Rom. 16:2. Not his feet, but ours: we shall be conquerors. Our enemy is vigilant and strong: it is enough for us that our Redeemer is merciful and faithful in succouring the tempted, and able to master the tempter, and defeat all his methods. Christ hath conquered him, both as a lamb and as a lion: Rev. 5:5, 8. The notion of a lamb intimateth his sacrifice, the notion of a lion his victory: in the lamb is merit, in the lion strength; by the one he maketh satisfaction to God, by the other he rescueth sinners out of the paw of the roaring lion, and maintaineth his interest in their hearts. Therefore let us not be discouraged, but closely adhere to him.

The most applauded position

23 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Christology, G. Campbell Morgan, John Milton, Matthew, Self-Denial, Submission

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Devil, G. Campbell Morgan, John Milton, Matthew 4, Paradise Lost, Reign, Satan, Submission, Temptation of Christ, The Crises of Christ, The Temptation of Christ

And yet consider still more closely. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.“‘Weak from the hunger following upon forty days of fasting, the devil suggested that He should strengthen Himself with bread. His reply, “It is written,” is a revelation of the true sources of strength. The strength of manhood does not lie in the assertion of rights, but in submission to the will of God. Mark well how that answer of the perfect One drags into light the false philosophy of evil, which the fallen race has universally accepted. The most applauded position that man takes is that in which he declares, I drove my manhood by the assertion of my rights; but this perfect Man declares that the strength of manhood lies in the absolute abandonment of His will to the will of God, that being the only right He possesses.

In the last analysis the argument of the devil had been a presupposition that all man needed for his sustenance was food for his physical life. That unwarrantable assumption Christ answered by declaring that no man’s whole life can be fed by bread that perishes. He needs more, that his spirit shall be fed, and its strength sustained by feeding upon the word proceeding from the mouth of God, and its safety ensured by abiding within the will of God.

G. Campbell Morgan, The Crises of Christ (170-171).  The applauded philosophy was set forth well by Milton in Satan’s speech found in Book I of Paradise Lost:

Here at least
We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: [ 260 ]
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.

 

If tempted … remember

26 Saturday Oct 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Matthew, Providence, temptation, Thomas Manton

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God, providence, Satan, temptation, The Temptation of Christ, Thomas Manton

That temptations come not by chance, not out of the earth, nor merely from the devil; but God ordereth them for his own glory and our good. Satan was fain to beg leave to tempt Job: Job 1:12, ‘And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand;’ there is a concession with a limitation. Till God exposeth us to trials, the devil cannot trouble us, nor touch us. . . . This cruel spirit is held in the chains of an irresistible providence, that he cannot molest any creature of God without his permission; which is a great satisfaction to the faithful: all things which concern our trial are determined and ordered by God. If we be free, let us bless God for it, and pray that he would not ‘lead us into temptation:’ if tempted, when we are in Satan’s hands, remember Satan is in God’s hand.

Thomas Manton, “The Temptation of Christ”, sermon 1 (Collected Works, vol. 1, p. 259)

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