Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Have you ever thought that Jesus was tempted to regard Himself as a total failure? As His name was "Immanuel, ... 'God with us'" (Matt. 1:23), He took upon His divine nature our complete human nature which involved the full extent of our temptability. That means that "in all points [He was] tempted like as we are [tempted]," but thank God, "yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15, King James Version).
Satan wrung His soul with that awful feeling on His cross that He had been mistaken about Himself. It was a nameless horror that prompted His shriek, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). He had to listen to the people taunting Him, "If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross"! (vss. 40, 42). That was a cruel suggestion for He could not help but realize that His career had ended with the most ignominious failure any human could experience--death as a criminal! His faith was stretched.
In fact, more than once in His life and ministry, Isaiah 49:4 had been fulfilled in His experience: "Then I said, 'I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and in vain.'" And this fierce temptation comes just as the Father assures Him through the Holy Spirit, "You are My servant, ... in whom I will be glorified." He gives Himself to His Father: "Surely My just reward is with the Lord, and My work with My God" (vss. 3, 4).
Even on the cross before He took His last breath, Jesus' hope was restored by faith: The Lord "formed Me from the womb, ... I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, ... [to be His] salvation to the ends of the earth" (vss. 5, 6). Though tempted to despair, Jesus ended His life in glorious triumph by faith.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 19, 2005.
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