SPARE YOURSELF

TEMPTATION OF MYSELF AND PETER AND CHRIST

“But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savor not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” Matt. 16:23

The last Adam (Christ) was tempted and Satan used Peter to accomplish this vocational temptation of Jesus. And I feel as if myself was included in this group as I was used by Satan also. By an infinite mystery God created a New Man in the creation of Jesus.

Through all the years of youth and manhood up to this moment, He had faced all the temptations to which man must be subject, mastering them, being victorious over them: physical, spiritual, and last, the most subtlest of them all, vocational temptation. (Victory of the mission without suffering) (Luke 2:49. Psa. 40:8). He never deviated from the Father's will. (Phil. 2:8). He was following the plan formed before the foundation of the world (Heb. 9:26; 1 Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8). He told them He must go to Jerusalem and Satan heard those words.

The last breath of the temptation had come to Him when Peter has said, God have mercy on Thee, not this way of the cross! With stern and absolute heroism Jesus has said, "Get thee hence, Satan, thou art an offense to Me." That was the last victory over vocational temptation. He had already heard the method Satan had for Christ and the Kingdom in Matt. 4:8; Luke 4:6. This was the plan of Satan to maintain his control of the world and its residents.

Following then, immediately passing to the mount, His life perfect, complete; every temptation having been met and mastered; the whole citadel of His manhood held through, all the prior period of years, inviolate; He was transfigured before them. And verified by the words of the Father Who was well-pleased with His Son (Matt. 17:5). And as well He said that we should hear Him for He speaks truth concerning life that is eternal in its fabric. His words can transform you to perfection if you believe and listen.

The way of men always use the wide gate, the easy pathway, with no pain or suffering, with no Cross as Satan hoped to have myself, Peter, and Jesus take. This is the way of the flesh and its leadership, the carnal solution to the temptation that we also face and fail to recognize. Therefore the flesh lives on and the spirit remains dead. And if a man wishes to die to this way of life with its shallowness he must follow the lead of the One Who possesses life that is eternal and deep in its makeup. If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it (vss. 24-25).  Drop self and live for Him which is the secret revealed for attainment of real life. Let the Master teach you (John 6:45) as Adam in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8).

Death is here taught by the Master as the pathway to life. The importance of this principle is indicated by the fact that Christ cites it probably more than any other of His teachings. See also Matt. 10:39; 16:24-25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24; 17:33. In slightly different form, it is also enunciated frequently by Paul (Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; 6:9-10; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 2:5-11; 2 Tim. 2:11-12). It is when a man shuns the cross that he passes out of intimate fellowship and begins the downward course.

When you submit to sin, you become the slave to sin. The demand of sin is death. The only way to escape the hold of sin is through its verdict which is death. Christ showed the pathway to freedom. He took up His cross. It was not by the way of Satan expressed in the words of Peter. But by following the file Leader and His way, the way of death, there is the harvest of freedom after the sowing. Peter was absolutely honest and poured out in the word he spoke to his Lord his own thought and conception of life and the way it should be lived in vs.22. Jesus, in His first declaration, and then in His answer to Peter, which clearly revealed His thought and His conception of life, and what it ought to be. This is a permanent antagonism.