A Side Lesson on Staying on the Cross
Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself and come down from the cross! Mark 15:29, 30, NKJV.
Jesus had two great core TEMPTATIONS in His life: (1) not to go to His cross, (2) once there to get off of it.
He battled the first of those TEMPTATIONS throughout His life. The great climactic points of that struggle were at His wilderness temptations, in which Satan offered Him all of the world of He would just bow to him; after the feeding of the 5,000, when the crowd and the disciples wanted to crown Him King on the spot; at Caesarea Philippi, when Peter played the role of Satan by telling Jesus that He didn't need to go to the cross; and in Gethsemane, at which time Christ prayed desperately to be released from going to the cross, but finally surrendered to God's will. Each of those episodes was a TEMPTATION to avoid the cross, to achieve the crown without the Crucifixion.
The second aspect of His great TEMPTATION didn't take place until He was already on the cross. At that point TEMPTATION shifted to getting off the cross and using His dormant divine powers to give His hecklers exactly what they deserved.
TEMPTATION in our lives follows the same course as it did in Christ's. Too many of us seem to think that it is the urge to perform some evil act. Wrong! Those may be temptations, but they are not the essence of TEMPTATION.
As was the case for Jesus, the first avenue of my personal TEMPTATION is not to go to my cross. That is, the devil tempts me to live my own life, be my own person, and exert my own will rather than surrendering my life to God and living a life of service that represents the character of God and does His will. Avoiding the cross is the first great TEMPTATION for every person. But, as with Jesus, the only way to life eternal is to die to self, to be raised to a new way of life, and to live that life for Him.
That last point brings us to the second major area of our personal TEMPTATION--to get off our cross. Once we have finally decided to get on our cross and live God's will, the devil then constantly hounds us to step off our crosses and give people who have irritated us or wronged us exactly what they deserve.
Father in heaven, help me today not only to go to the cross but, through Your power, to stay on it.
Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself and come down from the cross! Mark 15:29, 30, NKJV.
Jesus had two great core TEMPTATIONS in His life: (1) not to go to His cross, (2) once there to get off of it.
He battled the first of those TEMPTATIONS throughout His life. The great climactic points of that struggle were at His wilderness temptations, in which Satan offered Him all of the world of He would just bow to him; after the feeding of the 5,000, when the crowd and the disciples wanted to crown Him King on the spot; at Caesarea Philippi, when Peter played the role of Satan by telling Jesus that He didn't need to go to the cross; and in Gethsemane, at which time Christ prayed desperately to be released from going to the cross, but finally surrendered to God's will. Each of those episodes was a TEMPTATION to avoid the cross, to achieve the crown without the Crucifixion.
The second aspect of His great TEMPTATION didn't take place until He was already on the cross. At that point TEMPTATION shifted to getting off the cross and using His dormant divine powers to give His hecklers exactly what they deserved.
TEMPTATION in our lives follows the same course as it did in Christ's. Too many of us seem to think that it is the urge to perform some evil act. Wrong! Those may be temptations, but they are not the essence of TEMPTATION.
As was the case for Jesus, the first avenue of my personal TEMPTATION is not to go to my cross. That is, the devil tempts me to live my own life, be my own person, and exert my own will rather than surrendering my life to God and living a life of service that represents the character of God and does His will. Avoiding the cross is the first great TEMPTATION for every person. But, as with Jesus, the only way to life eternal is to die to self, to be raised to a new way of life, and to live that life for Him.
That last point brings us to the second major area of our personal TEMPTATION--to get off our cross. Once we have finally decided to get on our cross and live God's will, the devil then constantly hounds us to step off our crosses and give people who have irritated us or wronged us exactly what they deserve.
Father in heaven, help me today not only to go to the cross but, through Your power, to stay on it.
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