His Temptation and Ours

We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin —Hebrews 4:15

Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” But through regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to us as unbelievers because they were not at home in our human nature. Our Lord’s temptations and ours are in different realms until we are born again and become His brothers. The temptations of Jesus are not those of a mere man, but the temptations of God as Man. Through regeneration, the Son of God is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19), and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us just to make us do wrong things— he tempts us to make us lose what God has put into us through regeneration, namely, the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come to us on the premise of tempting us to sin, but on the premise of shifting our point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.

Temptation means a test of the possessions held within the inner, spiritual part of our being by a power outside us and foreign to us. This makes the temptation of our Lord explainable. After Jesus’ baptism, having accepted His mission of being the One “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) He “was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Matthew 4:1) and into the testing devices of the devil. Yet He did not become weary or exhausted. He went through the temptation “without sin,” and He retained all the possessions of His spiritual nature completely intact.

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他的試探與我們的試探

因我們的大祭司，並非不能體恤我們的軟弱，他也曾凡事受過試探，與我們一樣，只是他沒有犯罪。 （來四15）

未重生之前，我們唯一的試探是雅各所說的：[各人被試探，乃是被自己的私慾牽引誘惑的。 ]可是重生之後，便被提升到另一範圍的試探，就是面對主所受的試探。主耶穌受的試探對我們並不吸引，再人性中全無地位。主的試探與我們的試探是兩個完全不同的領域，直等到我們重生了，成為他的弟兄。主耶穌的試探不是人的試探，乃是神成為人的試探。我們重生之後，神的兒子在我們裡面成形，他在我們的肉身生命中，面對他昔日在地上所面對的。撒旦並不引誘我們去做壞事，乃是要我們失去神藉重生放進我們裡面的生命，就是在神手中成為貴重合用的潛能。它並不是要引誘人犯罪，乃是要改變人的觀點。惟有聖靈才可以偵察出這是魔鬼的試探。

試探是外在勢力對人的考驗，要攻擊人性中所擁有的。這就解明了主耶穌所受的試探。耶穌受洗之後，接受了除去世人罪孽的責任，神的靈就立即把他放在魔鬼的考驗場裡。不過他沒有被打倒，他經過試探，卻沒有犯罪，仍然保持他人格的完整。

祈禱◆噢，主啊，對於與你一同守望、與你一同經歷試探的意義，我所了解的是何等膚淺。願你在今天早上吸引我靠近你，以你的大能使我專注於你，直至我的生活言談只為了你。