DAD'S RAMBLINGS – THE LITTLE WORD "IF"
"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil….Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, 'If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.' " (Matthew 4:1, 3)
"If." It is a little word but it is jam-packed with question. It implies that something may be true, or it may not be true. Satan used this little word to try to cast doubt on whether Jesus was really the Son of God.
Satan used this question three times to tempt Jesus: "If You are the Son of God" (vss. 3 and 6), and verse 9, "If You will fall down and worship me."
Jesus did not fall for the trap. He knew who He was. He not only from the innate sense of His personhood, but surely His mother, Mary had told Him often about His miraculous birth. And He had just come from His baptism by John the Baptist who had declared, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," and John's testimony, "I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God" (John 1:29, 34). And then there was the voice from heaven which thundered, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). Jesus was not shaken in his assurance of who He was.
One of the tactics that Satan uses to get people to turn from the truth is to cause doubt to arise. It has been that way from the beginning when the serpent said to Eve, "Has God said?" (Genesis 3:2). The temptation is to get us to question what God has spoken. "Is the Bible true? Are you really saved?" Many people fall for this tactic. They question whether the Gospel is true or not, and turn from the faith.
We can be confident of who we are in Christ because God has declared it. He said that as many as received Christ would be children of God. He said that since we believe in Christ, we are saved. When the enemy of our soul comes with the temptation to doubt our salvation, we can respond just as Jesus did, "It is written." God said it, and that settles it. There are no "ifs."
Love, Dad
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