The Model of Dependence
The Model of Dependence
"If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread" (Matthew 4:3)
When Satan said, "If Thou be the Son of God," there was certainly no doubt expressed. The temptation of our Lord might be paraphrased as follows: "You have the very nature of God, which you received from Your Father. Use this nature and its power to help out the poor hungering body of Your human nature. You have the power to turn these stones into bread because You are the Son of God. Use that power to live a comfortable life." With His very first word the Lord Jesus answered the tempter. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). If we were to paraphrase this answer it would be as follows: "No. I will not use the divine nature to come to the aid of the human nature. It is as a man that I am going to meet these temptations and overcome them." Christ had spent forty days in the wilderness, fasting, and He was hungry. Satan came and tempted Him to use His divine nature to help out His human nature. "If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread" (Matthew 4:3).
In exactly the same way Satan approached our Lord. In other words, the power that issued in the holy life of the Lord Jesus Christ was not the arbitrary choice of the divine nature of our Lord. And we see why this must be, for, in all reverence, we may say that any of us could live a life as holy as that of the Lord Jesus if we had only a divine nature with which to live it. But the Lord Jesus Christ lived on earth as a man. It was a life that was lived in a power which did not find its first impulsion in the divine nature of the Son of God. It was a life lived as a man depending upon the divine nature. It was a momentary, constant dependence upon the God–nature.
In this way the manhood of our Lord Jesus becomes a perfect example for us. We, too, may live in constant dependence upon our Lord, and if we do not, we are doomed to failure. True victory over sin can come only from that gaze fixed upon our Lord, which keeps us constantly yielded to His will. So, as a man, our Lord Jesus Christ overcame the tempter, and thus the firstborn was without spot or blemish, and might rightfully go to the cross and die in our place.
Dr. Barnhouse has shown us that as Christ lived depending on God so we must also live that way. Since He did not resort to using His own innate deity to deal with life’s problems and temptations, are we so foolish to trust our frail human nature to overcome victoriously?
Further Reading: Matthew 4: 1-11
