0918 祂的试探和我们的试探
因我们的大祭司并非不能体恤我们的软弱，祂也曾凡事受过试探，与我们一样，只是祂没有犯罪。 《希伯来书 4:15》
在我们重生之前，我们所理解的试探种类，就只有雅各书1:14中提到的那种，「各人被试探，乃是被自己的私欲牵引、诱惑的。」但通过重生，我们被提升到另一个领域，在那里要面对另一种试探，即我们的主所面对的那种试探。耶稣的试探对我们这些不信者没有吸引力，因为在我们的人性中不习惯它们。我们主的试探和我们的试探处是在不同的领域，直到我们重生并成为祂的兄弟为止。耶稣所受的试探不是普通人所受的试探，是神成为人所受的试探。借着重生，神的儿子成形在我们里面（见加拉太书 4:19），并且祂在我们肉身生命中，祂的处境与祂在地上时的处境相同。撒但试探我们不仅是让我们做错事——祂引诱我们要让我们失去神藉着重生赋予我们的东西，即，成为对神有价值有用之人的可能性。牠不是以引诱我们犯罪为前提来就近我们，而是以转移我们观点的前提来就近我们，只有神的灵能侦测出魔鬼的试探。
试探意味着我们本体内在灵性部分的拥有物，被外在我们不熟悉的力量所测试，这使得我们主的试探变得可以解释。耶稣受洗后，接受了「除去世人罪孽」的使命（约翰福音 1:29），「就被圣灵引到旷野」（马太福音 4:1）并进入魔鬼的测试花招里。然而祂并没有变得疲惫或精疲力竭，祂经历了试探却「没有犯罪」，且完整地保留了祂灵性的所有产业。
来自章伯斯的智慧
随着年龄的增长，我是否变得更高尚、更好、更有帮助、更谦卑呢？我是否展现出让人认识到与耶稣同在的生命？或者我是否变得更加自我主张，更加有意地坚持自己的方式？对自己说真话是一件很伟大的事情。《帮助之地》
0918 His Temptation and Ours
We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. —Hebrews 4:15
Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” But through regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to us as unbelievers because they were not at home in our human nature. Our Lord’s temptations and ours are in different realms until we are born again and become His brothers. The temptations of Jesus are not those of a mere man, but the temptations of God as Man. Through regeneration, the Son of God is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19), and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us just to make us do wrong things— he tempts us to make us lose what God has put into us through regeneration, namely, the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come to us on the premise of tempting us to sin, but on the premise of shifting our point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.
Temptation means a test of the possessions held within the inner, spiritual part of our being by a power outside us and foreign to us. This makes the temptation of our Lord explainable. After Jesus’ baptism, having accepted His mission of being the One “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) He “was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Matthew 4:1) and into the testing devices of the devil. Yet He did not become weary or exhausted. He went through the temptation “without sin,” and He retained all the possessions of His spiritual nature completely intact.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.–The Place of Help