“he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15b niv
Here we are at the end of the Lord’s prayer just as we reach the final week before Christmas. It feels quite fitting that the end of the prayer leads us to Jesus himself.
Temptation feels quite a modern topic we are surrounded by things to entice us away from God’s good purposes. For someone who has been plagued throughout my life by addictions and seeking ways of feeling better about who I am, what I have done or even what has been done to me the Lord’s prayer brings clarity and comfort.
Temptation isn’t a sin, the act is something that is done against us by the evil one. Here we are in good company after all Jesus himself was tempted as soon as his ministry was declared by God, Jesus was taken by the Holy Spirit into the desert. It is the accepting of the temptation to trust in anything other than God’s good purposes that is the sin.
It is not God who is doing the tempting but God is using the temptation to highlight the hidden sin within so it can be brought out into the light to be destroyed. With God sin is ultimately destroyed without God sin ultimately destroys us.
The reason Jesus wants us to pray this is to challenge us to question do we want to be tempted or do we want Jesus to rescue us. Sometimes the enticement of sin is attractive and exciting…..just like Edmund and his turkish delight!
Why would God send Jesus to be tested, why would God allow Jesus his own son to face the temptation of the evil one?
Believe it or not for our good!
We needed to know he was the chosen one, we needed to know that he was the promised one, we needed to know that through his testing he was perfect, without sin, without rejection of God’s goodness, willing to do God’s will.
It was declared in Genesis 3 that an offspring/child would come to crush the head of Satan, the one who came to destroy God’s relationship with his created people. Here in Genesis 3 verse 15 is hope for every human being, that God would send one who would put enmity between Satan and humanity and crush Satan’s head.
This is the reverse of the curse instead of humanity being separated from God, Jesus would come from heaven to earth. From glory into the pit of sin to provide the means to pull us out of the pit eternally separating Satan and humanity bringing us back into relationship with Father God. In God’s goodness he made this promise at the moment humanity rejected Him.
Only Satan is destined to stay in the pit, there is no rescue plan for him. Jesus not only came to rescue us but to destroy the devil. The devil and sin would be eternally destroyed.
Believe it or not this is for our good!
The moment Jesus was tempted in the desert we see the demise of Satan, we see the lack of power he actually has. Jesus faced the real excruciating hunger from no food or drink for 40 days and nights which made him vulnerable to the temptation to seek the quick way out of his suffering.
If any of you have faced suffering of any kind whether circumstantial, self-inflicted or emotional we seem to be motivated to do anything we can to protect ourselves from the pain. We want the quick way out, it seems our drive is to be at the end of the suffering and we can’t see any good that would ever come out of it. Sometimes we can reflect looking back and see some perspective but, in the moment, we just want it to stop.
At the moment of Jesus temptation we see that his heart is for the Father’s will, it is the words of God that has the power to stop temptation in its track. ‘It is written’ these powerful words from Jesus were the fire filled darts aimed at the devil’s evil plans.
Believe it or not this is for our good!
Trusting in the promises of God is the place of our victory because of what Jesus accomplished at the cross.
At the cross Jesus demonstrated his humanity in asking God to remove the cup of suffering if it is his will. This excruciating suffering moment of Christ is the place of sacrifice that he came for on that first Christmas morn. Would he choose to stop the pain, or would he choose to do whatever it takes to fulfil God’s will?
Often, we think about this moment as Good verse Evil. However, this gives a sense of equality, that goodness wins out over evil because goodness pays off, goodness is what we all hope for. However the truth is that God’s goodness is the only power at play, it is his goodness that created all we see, it is his goodness that demonstrates his grace to move towards us despite our sin, it is God’s goodness that sent his Son to die on the cross so that we wouldn’t have to, it is God’s goodness that would use the weakness of humanity to destroy the power of the devil, it is God’s goodness that destroys sin.
The only power the devil has is the power to tempt humanity and we have a choice either to believe the lies of the devil against God, or to recognise the goodness of God who sent Jesus to rescue us for our good.
This Christmas time as we celebrate the arrival of the child who came to die for our sins let us remember all that we have been given, all we are is because God is good and wants good for us.
The temptation of Christ demonstrates to us the pure heart of Christ that in his humanity he was perfect, not being in this for himself but to stand in our place, a sacrificial love for the Father’s will and for the good of God’s people.
And as we face temptation let us ask the Holy Spirit to give us the strength of Christ to reject the temptation to turn away from God and instead willingly live lives with a thankful heart even in the face of suffering, or loss, or rejection knowing with confidence that Jesus will accomplish all that the Father has promised for his glory and our good.
1 Peter 5:10 says, “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you”.
Dear Father lead us not unto temptation but deliver us from evil for yours is the kingdom, the power and glory for ever and ever Amen.
Living His Word 