Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
When Satan came to Christ when He was fasting in the wilderness and tormented Him with the suggestion, "IF Thou be the Son of God ..." was that a real temptation for Him? (Matt. 4:3, 6). Didn't He already KNOW that He was the Son of God? Hadn't He just heard a few days before when the Father announced from heaven, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"? (Matt. 3:17). If Satan came to tell you to doubt that the earth is round, would that be a real temptation for you? You KNOW that the earth is round!
This introduces us to the heart of our identity problems, as it introduced Jesus to His. There is comfort for us in understanding the truth about this temptation of Jesus. It was necessary for Him at the very beginning of His ministry not only to KNOW who He was, but to BELIEVE who He was. There is a vast difference between the two.
Just hearing an audible voice from Heaven declaring that He was the Son of God was not good enough for Jesus of Nazareth--and all kinds of miracles telling you that God has accepted you and that you are His child and that He has "adopted" you--all this is not good enough for you. John clearly distinguishes between KNOWING and BELIEVING truth: "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have (1) KNOWN and (2) BELIEVED the love (agape) that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love (agape) dwelleth in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:15, 16). It was not good enough for the two disciples walking to Emmaus to SEE the resurrected Jesus in the flesh with their physical eyes; He must give them a Bible study: "Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24:13-32). Only then did their "hearts burn within them." Only then did they truly BELIEVE.
What settled Jesus in the conviction that He was indeed the Son of God was not the physical VOICE from heaven (Satan could counterfeit that!); but "in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself." KNOWING must be supplemented by BELIEVING agape. It's faith in the Word, not feeling, that says you are "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6). The Bible truth of agape is far stronger than any superficial emotion we may feel.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 26, 2002.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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