That the enemy of God and man has for his constant object not only the destruction of men, but even more the dishonor of the Lord Jesus Christ is a fact that we will do well to heed. In accomplishing the ruin of earth's fairest creature at the beginning he was aiming a blow at the very throne of God and the One who by His blood has vindicated that throne and become the deliverer of many, and who on this very account is the special object of Satan's attacks.

That there are many ways in connection with our walk as Christians by which Satan gains advantage, and brings dishonor upon Christ is, alas, too often verified in our experience; and this, in the measure that we love Him, will cause us to feel as Peter did when he " went out and wept bitterly." It is not of this, however, but of false views as to Christ's holy nature, that we wish to speak at this time.

Every one born of God possesses a true knowledge of Christ. This divine life and consequent illumination of the Holy Spirit is essential to escape the wiles of him who "deceiveth the whole world." To be safe from his deception, we must know Christ as "the way, the truth, and the life." Apart from this we are but a prey to the enemy, no matter what we profess to be or to have. Nor has God withheld this from any of His children. It is to the "little children"-the "babes"-that John says, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth" (i John 2:20, 21). Christ's sheep "know His voice," they "hear Him "; and that is evidently what the apostle means when he says, "Ye know all things." The sheep do not, and need not, know any other voice than that of the Good Shepherd; and this is their security. Their safety lies in their simplicity, as Paul says to the Christians at Rome, "I would have you to be wise concerning that which is good, and simple concerning evil."

Those born of God then know Christ, and hence, in that sense, "know all things," for " Christ is all." It is, however, the -word of God by which we are guided into "all the truth"; hence, though we may be born of God, and be thus "partakers of the divine nature," we are absolutely dependent upon the Word ministered to us by the Spirit of God to enjoy our relationship with God, or to discern between truth and falsehood. Our God and Father has qualified us therefore; has given us by new birth the capacity for this; besides, He has given us His Holy Spirit, who constitutes us thus "spiritual," so that we are able to "discern all things," even though we are not "discerned" in our true character by the world.

But do all the children of God realize that they are thus competent, or rather that they possess that which, if realized, makes them competent, to judge as to whatever is brought before them, whether it be truth or error? Do all realize that "ye have not need that any man teach you," in the sense of men putting themselves in the place of the Word and the Spirit of God? (Of course, we do need "teachers," and the Lord has Himself given us these as "gifts" to be recognized and to profit by (Eph. 4; i Thess. 5, etc.). Is it not true, however, that many of them are preyed upon by the enemy and being led astray by not realizing their God-given ability of discerning whether the doctrine brought to them is really the voice of the Good Shepherd, or whether it is Satan appearing to them as an "angel of light" ?
One thing, however, is certain:No one who is born of God can be indifferent to what concerns the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, or His work of atonement. There is that family trait, so to speak, in God's children, that they are jealous of Christ's honor when realizing anything that would degrade Him. It is not meant by this, of course, that they do feel everything that dishonors Him. Alas, how very different the fact is we see everywhere apparent; and it is because they have not, as Scripture says, their "senses exercised to discern good and evil" that they are so often led astray by the enemy into doctrine and practice that works for the dishonor of Christ. They have the spiritual faculties needful to discern, but in some way those faculties have been blunted.

The ministry of the word of God from day to day is what alone can properly exercise our renewed natures. Let us not neglect this great gift of God- His Word; nor the "gifts" He has given to minister it to us, to perfect our souls in the faith. His Word alone is authoritative:"Ye have not need that any man teach you." The work of the servant of Christ is to unfold the word of God; ours is to "prove all things, and hold fast that which is good."

It is not necessary to be among Unitarians, "Christian Scientists," or other openly antichristian sects, to meet with Christ-dishonoring doctrines. There are religious bodies to-day, especially among those who are advocates of so-called "holiness," "sinless perfection,"etc., who regard the Lord Jesus as having had a nature capable of sinning! This error is supposed to rest on the passage in Hebrews, 4:15, where we read that " He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." ^If the meaning is what is by many claimed to be the import of the passage, then it is clear that we have not in our Lord and Saviour one who is absolutely perfect. If Christ might have yielded to sin; if the temptations spoken of in this passage were of this character, then it is plain that we are robbed of the one "who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21); yea, of the one who said, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me" (John 14:30).

Temptations are of two kinds; one from within, the other from without. Those from without are temptations, or trials, such as James speaks of when he calls upon the saints of God to rejoice in them. Sin is not the source of these temptations, for God could not tell us to rejoice in that to which sin prompted us. The other temptations have their source in our own heart; and Christians are subject to them, for James is writing to the people of God when he says, " Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God:for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man:but every man is tempted when he is led away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

It is commonly supposed that when a person is tempted to sin it is the devil who is tempting. This is not necessarily the case; for while all sin has come in through the devil, yet man's heart is of itself evil, and needs no outside agency to tempt it; but, as James says, "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." No doubt there are occasions when Satan does act upon the heart of man in a direct way, not simply as "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." For instance, those "by the wayside are they that hear " the word of God; "then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved." Even this may be by presenting something to the mind and heart of the hearer so that the word is forgotten, or its effect annulled. There is also a direct work of the devil:it was Satan that put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray the Lord. When the awful thought met with that man's approval, then " Satan entered into him," for he needed more than human energy to carry out the awful scheme.

Heb. 4 :15 speaks of the temptations (trials) through which the Lord Jesus passed when here on earth. It distinctly says that they were " apart from sin." (See New Trans.)

In the first part of the chapter we have "the word of God, quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, … a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, "and making "all things naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Where is the sincere and upright Christian who would desire the Lord's sympathy with what is revealed of his old self to himself in the presence of God by this operation of the word of God ? It but makes him loathe himself, judge himself, and bless the Saviour for having gone to the cross for it all. But what pain, what trial, what tears, these results of man's sin bring upon him ? This our Saviour passed through as He met all the results of evil along His pathway. In this we have His sympathy, and in this only our hearts can rightly desire it. Death, the result of sin, came into the household of Bethany; and "Jesus wept" with those who wept over Lazarus' death. Peter denied his Lord. It was sin. Jesus died for that. But in result Peter wept bitterly, and Jesus sympathized with that, and prayed for Peter.

Nor are the temptations He endured at Satan's hands referred to in Heb. 4:15; for while they were an attempt on the devil's part to find, if possible, something in the Lord Jesus akin to himself (which only served to bring out the Lord's absolute perfection), they were of a peculiar character, and not such as are "common to man," neither in that sense to which we are liable through infirmity, nor, assuredly, was it from within, as, alas, is so often the case with us. For we need to realize that while, in that limited sense mentioned here, the Lord Jesus was tempted as we are; on the other hand, He was tempted by Satan in a manner such as God in mercy shields man from. Even at the beginning, man was tempted by a creature beneath him; and while Satan made use of the serpent to accomplish his ends, yet we can see the goodness of God in not allowing a direct assault by a being so much superior to man in wisdom and power.

There is thus a sense in which the Lord endured temptation such as we never know it-by the direct power of Satan himself. There is also, as we have seen, that temptation (from lust) to which He was an utter stranger. To maintain that the Holy One was tempted in that sense is to blaspheme Him; for it involves Him in sin. It would mean that His nature was not holy-a thing most abhorrent to Scripture. He was the "Lamb without blemish, and without spot." " He knew no sin." Not simply did He not yield to it, but, as He said Himself, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me." In the most absolute sense of the word was it true of Him that " He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." Thus we see fulfilled in His entire life below that He was that "holy thing that is born of thee " – "the Son of God." He was indeed "made sin for us " (or, a sin-offering). But this was the very thing that made the cross what it was to Him-that He who was an utter stranger to sin should nevertheless, and for that very reason, take the place where He was charged with it all, and confess it as His, and meet God in wrath against it, to glorify God, to vindicate His throne in righteousness, and thus make it for us, for all who believe on Him, the mercy-seat, the throne of grace. Oh for hearts to honor Him who thus honored God!

If you, dear reader, have been in the habit of thinking of the Lord Jesus' temptations in the way many do, which we have sought to bring to the light, may you have that sense of the honor due Him which will lead you to judge it as utterly hateful to God, and to yourself; for no one who is born of God could persist in such a thought after having its character and origin laid bare. Let us remember that "He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father that sent Him"; and it is God's will "that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." To accomplish this in those even who refuse now to submit to Him, God the Father has placed all judgment in His hands, not as the Son of God- for in that sense He is equal with God-but as the Son of Man. As a righteous answer to the Son's love to the Father in carrying out at such cost to" Himself all the Father's perfect will, therefore has He "highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus " (the name by which He was known in His lowly life here below, and by which He is still spoken against)-"that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [beings] in heaven, and [beings] on earth, and [beings] under the earth:and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:9-11).

Reader, " What think ye of Christ ?" On the answer to this question hangs man's eternal destiny. " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:and he that believeth not the Son (is not subject to the Son) shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him " (John 3:36). If as yet He is unknown to you, dear reader, may you be led of God to a true knowledge of Him! If you know Him
already, may you "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of" Him! "Children, keep yourselves from idols." W. H.