p. 657 | JOY IN TEMPTATION by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 8, 1901

JOY IN TEMPTATION.

By L. A. S.

The most that the devil can bring to any person is temptation; and we are to “count it all joy” when we “fall into divers temptations.” Therefore, to the Christian, “all things work together for good,” and even the evil one himself can only promote the Christian’s joy by his machinations.

The Christian’s joy is in his fellowship with Christ; but this means also “the fellowship of His sufferings.” Fellowship with Christ brings the Christian in touch with “the power of God unto salvation,” but this is realized by him in times of temptation. The “Captain of our salvation” was made “perfect through sufferings;” and “in that He himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.” Christ suffered when He was tempted; likewise the Christian suffers when he is tempted. But Christ suffered the temptations of our human life, and was “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” in order that He might deliver His people when they are tempted, and turn their suffering into joyfulness by the sense of His fellowship with them. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and “like unto His brethren” in all things, that He might make himself real to us, and become a High Priest who could be our mediator before the throne of God.

For the joy that was set before Him, Jesus Christ endured the sufferings of this life, and now, when His followers are afflicted, points them to the “eternal weight of glory” set before the overcomer. Therefore, we may indeed “count it all joy” when we “fall into divers temptations;” for the Captain of our salvation has placed himself in every place where the devil, by his persecutions and temptations, can place us, so that all these things can only bring us, if we do not lose our faith, into closer touch with Him, and make more real to us His presence and His salvation. L. A. S.