Holy Boldness

ence to the Spirit of God left Him weak and vulnerable so that His only resource would be His training in the word and His dependence upon God by the Spirit. All to say that there were no shortcuts for Jesus. God led Him to a place of weakness and vulnerability that He might fully identify with the temptations and trials of mankind. But ultimately the temptations were a proving ground for Jesus to put on display how a man is supposed to endure temptation. And therefore, it was perfectly appro priate in God’s big scheme to put His son to the test. As we stated already, at His baptism God spoke to Jesus directly saying, “You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” Through this statement, the Father was not only affirming His love for Jesus but His pleasure and approval of Him. In the temptations of Jesus, Satan sought to challenge that very declaration by provoking Jesus into a self-initiated action apart from the will of the Father. It was Jesus’ own sense of being the son of God that set him apart from every other person. Indeed, He was truly the son as no one else ever will be or ever has been. It was His trust in His Father’s declaration and His desire to please and live before Him alone that kept Him steady and secure amid physical weakness and Satanic contempt and attack. The thing Satan was after was Jesus’ status as “son” and so he tried to get him to act in such a way as would be unbecoming of a son. He tried to provoke Jesus into testing His sonship or proving it apart from the Father. And why was this so important? “Sonship status” was the prize! To be called “son” and to restore the authority of sonship to mankind was the purpose for which Jesus came into the earth. The fullness of sonship cannot be apprehended without con formity to the will of the Father. Rebellion will never lead to sonship. Authority comes through submission. This is a rather subtle point because most people are so used to doing whatever pleases them without a thought. However, the Lord Jesus was on mission and that mission was to restore the meaning of sonship in mankind through submission to the Father’s will. So He became a man, entered into all the weaknesses, vul nerabilities, and temptations of man, to redeem mankind fully through obedience. For it was fitting that He (God), for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation What was at stake?

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