0918 祂的試探和我們的試探
因我們的大祭司並非不能體恤我們的軟弱，祂也曾凡事受過試探，與我們一樣，只是祂沒有犯罪。 《希伯來書 4:15》
在我們重生之前，我們所理解的試探種類，就只有雅各書1:14中提到的那種，「各人被試探，乃是被自己的私慾牽引、誘惑的。」但通過重生，我們被提升到另一個領域，在那裡要面對另一種試探，即我們的主所面對的那種試探。耶穌的試探對我們這些不信者沒有吸引力，因為在我們的人性中不習慣它們。我們主的試探和我們的試探處是在不同的領域，直到我們重生並成為祂的兄弟為止。耶穌所受的試探不是普通人所受的試探，是神成為人所受的試探。藉著重生，神的兒子成形在我們裡面（見加拉太書 4:19），並且祂在我們肉身生命中，祂的處境與祂在地上時的處境相同。撒但試探我們不僅是讓我們做錯事——祂引誘我們要讓我們失去神藉着重生賦予我們的東西，即，成為對神有價值有用之人的可能性。牠不是以引誘我們犯罪為前提來就近我們，而是以轉移我們觀點的前提來就近我們，只有神的靈能偵測出魔鬼的試探。
試探意味着我們本體內在靈性部分的擁有物，被外在我們不熟悉的力量所測試，這使得我們主的試探變得可以解釋。耶穌受洗後，接受了「除去世人罪孽」的使命（約翰福音 1:29），「就被聖靈引到曠野」（馬太福音 4:1）並進入魔鬼的測試花招里。然而祂並沒有變得疲憊或精疲力竭，祂經歷了試探卻「沒有犯罪」，且完整地保留了祂靈性的所有產業。
來自章伯斯的智慧
隨着年齡的增長，我是否變得更高尚、更好、更有幫助、更謙卑呢？我是否展現出讓人認識到與耶穌同在的生命？或者我是否變得更加自我主張，更加有意地堅持自己的方式？對自己說真話是一件很偉大的事情。《幫助之地》
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