#DailyDevotion When Tempted We Turn To Jesus The Victor Over Lusts
Hebrews 214Now since all these children have flesh and blood, He in the same way took on flesh and blood in order to die and so take away all the powers of him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and to free those who, terrified by death, had to be slaves all their lives. 16It is clear He didn’t come to help angels but Abraham’s descendants. 17And so in every way He had to become like His brothers to be merciful and faithful as High Priest before God and to pay for the sins of the people. 18Because He Himself suffered when He was tested, He can help others when they’re tested.
Oh what a grand and marvelous mystery we have here. The Infinite has taken on the finite. How can the omnipresent God take on human flesh? Yet that is what he does. Yet God did not change here but rather took humanity into God. The son of God becomes incarnate, takes our human flesh and blood in order to die. We children of God have flesh and blood. In order to redeem us from our sin, God becomes man to shed his blood, to die our death to pay the penalty for our sin, i.e. death. So Peter proclaims, “You have killed the Author of Life” and Paul proclaims, “We crucified the Lord of Glory.” At first glance it is quite a horror to behold.
Yet by his dying and rising from the dead Jesus has taken away the power of the devil who had the power of death. The devil has the authority to inflict the penalty of our sins, death, upon us. He also, in our fallen nature, incites our sinful flesh to rebel against the Almighty like him so he can kill us, because he hates us. We were made in the image and likeness of God and he hates God and therefore he hates us. He wants to kill us because he can’t touch God. But by the atoning and redeeming work of Jesus, our sins have been atoned for. We have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore all who are in Christ, who believe on him, their sins can no longer cause them eternal death. The devil can no longer incite us to sin any further, he can only tempt us. This body of death will still suffer its fate because it is totally corrupted by sin but Christ will raise it on the Last Day pure and undefiled.
Because of this we are no longer slaves to the fear of death nor to sin. The fear of death caused us to commit all sorts of sins which actually makes our death all the more sure and certain. We did not trust God our Father to forgive us. We thought we must get whatever we want our of life no matter what, no matter the harm it causes others or the offense it gives to God. We were going to hell anyway, so what was the point in not sinning. Now that God has become one of us, redeemed us from death and atoned for our sins by the shedding of his blood, we have been set free from that slavery. We need not fear death and hell any longer nor do we have to obey the lusts of our flesh. We are free.
Jesus became like us in every way. He was tested and tempted in every way just like us. Jesus overcame those temptations and then paid the price as if he did not. He suffered death on the cross. He experienced for us the exact penalty in his flesh, in his soul and spirit that we deserve. He spilt his blood and in doing so he paid for the sins of his people but not only his people but for all mankind. He therefore can help when you are tempted. When tempted we do not turn to the law to overcome it but to Jesus who is full of grace and truth who overcame temptation for us.
Heavenly Father, when we are tested, grant that we may have faith to turn to Jesus so that in his victory over sin, we too may overcome the lusts that afflict us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.