I BET YOU CANNOT DO IT

 Matthew chapter four is about the temptations of Christ by the Devil. Jesus was the “last Adam” — “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” (1 Cor 15:45); “There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body… the natural body is sown, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:44).

Hence, Adam was sown by the breath of God, and Jesus was raised from Adam an alive (quickening) Spirit to make us truly alive again. All that to say two things: (1) Jesus was the second man made in the image of God, and (2) His body was not only natural as Adam’s kind but spiritual as well, as God’s Kind, and without a flaw!

Whereas the first Adam was tempted and failed, the last Adam was tempted but overcame temptation. The two first Adams — the man and the woman — were both Adam’s kind who were made glorious but failed due to temptation. The last Adam, Jesus, was tempted but did not fail God. Jesus remained glorious whereas both Adam and Eve became inglorious.

About sin, James wrote: 

⁸ If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” ye do well: ⁹ But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (Jas 2:8-10)

 The point to that scripture is that love by itself is not efficacious for salvation. Adam and Eve loved God in the sense that they had no ill will for their Maker, but they also showed respect for the “Serpent.” Mankind’s issue all along is not that they did not love God but loved to transgress as well. With that said, although Jesus loved His Father, if He had loved the things that He was tempted with, He would have failed.

Jesus was tempted: 

1.       He was hungry and Satan offered Him bread.He did not take it.

2.       Upon the pinnacle, Satan asked Jesus to prove Himself to be God by daring God. It was a test of whether Jesus would trust His Father in Heaven.

3.       He was taken up to a high mountain and shown the world, specifically the Garden of God within the Kingdom of David. Satan said it could be all His if he only worshiped him. It already was His, albeit His real Kingdom was not of this world. 

Now look at the sins of the first Adam: 

1.       He was offered food (the fruit of the forbidden tree) and he took it.

2.       He was tested in whom he believed. He failed to believe God and trusted the Serpent by disobeying God and not doubting the Serpent.

3.       Hidden in Adam’s sin was whose Garden it was. Adam was already king and high priest in the Garden, having dominion over all things. However, it was the Garden of God (Gen 2:8) and Adam and Eve were only to rule and tend it. The Serpent planted the idea that the two could be “as gods,” hinting that the Garden could be their kingdom! 

Adam and Eve (the first two “Adam’s”) broke one law — they ate of the forbidden tree but by breaking that one Law, they broke as many as Jesus was tempted. Adam and Eve as well have broken all the Laws of God by breaking one Law because even one Law broken makes the difference who is the Last Adam and who is not.

Adam was created glorious since the two were made in the image of God. Think of glorious as one with a perfect image (with the genetics of God); their genes would be without any depravity at all. Adam and Eve were created genetically pure just like Jesus who was of the same “Image” as the first Adams.

Sin was not discarding the Image of God but taking on a secondary image (nahas in the Hebrew). Whereas Jesus is the Son of God and the son of man (Adam), the original Adams were the sons (genetically speaking) of God and the sons of the Wicked One since their nature (DNA) changed. They kept their desire for God and even wanted to be like Him, but they took on a second nature as well as children of the Wicked One. Their father and lover had become the Devil as they fornicated against God with another invisible being.

Jesus proved that He was God by overcoming the world that was offered Him. Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Jesus had overcome the Devil and the world that he offered Him. You could not have done that! Most of us cannot go two weeks without food, but Jesus overcame the Devil with His hands tied and even nailed down. He overcame death for us, and if we eat of the Tree of Life from that wooden yoke, then we are made free of the world.

We are sons of Adam and are as such failures, not gods. Jesus is the last Adam — our last hope. Whereas Adam failed and so do all of us of his kind, Jesus overcame temptation, the Devil, and Hell on our behalf!

Those temptations that Jesus overcame; they were tribulations. Those temptations that we have; they are tribulations. They are nothing compared to the “Great Tribulation” wherein we must choose who our master will be.

So, you think that you are saved? Then you think that the rapture will precede the Great Tribulation. That is our hope but that is the “assurance” that Calvinists need for their doctrine.

What if we must endure the Great Tribulation? How well will you do? Will you overcome the world and the Devil inside the Antichrist? Our hope is that you need not because Jesus has already done that!

If you were to do it on your own; commence now: Go forty days and decline food, cling to God like you will die, and lastly deny the world and what it has to offer. Turn your backs on entertainment, luxury, the social programs of the government, your home, your automobiles, and even your fun-loving friends. Can you do that? I bet not because you have not! Neither have I; and that is the reason that Jesus has done so for us! The world is in our nature and only Jesus can change who we are.

(Picture credit; Wikimedia Commons)