ASSAULTED WITH AN “IF.”
By Uriah Smith
This is the weapon with which the archenemy made war upon our Lord. He has no better. It is the one, therefore, with which he will make his assaults upon us. “If thou be the Son of God,” he said to Christ, “command that these stones be made bread.” Matt. 4:3. That little word “if” is more potent for evil than any other word of its size in the English language. It forms the well-framed introduction to the subtlest and most malignant temptations which the devil can plan and spring upon mankind. This great foe is too shrewd to openly denounce as false, the plain declarations of Scripture, or the positive experiences of our own natures, as a general thing. He can conceal himself, and cover his tracks much better, by seeking to insinuate into some crevice of our minds, the evil seed of doubt, of distrust and unbelief, with the intention that it may take root, and with its powerful fibers of destruction may work ruin,—like the seed which has taken root in the roof of one of the Buddhist temples of India, and by its growth, is so prying the stones apart that it threatens to bring down the whole structure in ruins. So doubt and distrust will disintegrate and destroy every structure of faith in the heart, if it is allowed to get a foothold there. God had said of Christ, and to Christ, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” It would not do for Satan to come to Christ with a flat denial of that assurance, and say outright, You are not the Son of God, and that voice was all a cheat and falsehood. No; but, “If thou be the Son of God,” let us consider this matter, and reason about it a little, and see if it is really so. But our Lord gave the enemy no foothold here. He recognized no pretext for reasoning about the question. As soon as we begin to reason with the enemy, we have given up half the battle. But our Lord gave him no advantage here. And he once said of him: “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” John 14:30. But, “If thou be the Son of God,” do so and so. What he was asked to do, was only something which he could easily do, if occasion required, and which there was quite an apparent necessity that he should do; for he was greatly an hungered. There could be no doubt as to his power; and was he not weary and faint with fasting? But he refrained from performing that miracle; and this leads Archbishop Trench to say that “the miracles which Christ refrained from doing are as wonderful as those which he performed.” So Christ did not ask that a miracle be performed then, in his behalf; and God will not work a miracle now to rescue us from the temptations of the enemy, when we will not avail ourselves of the defense he has already provided. And what is our defense?—It is to have the word of God so fixed in our hearts that we can meet the enemy, as Christ met him on this occasion, by a direct appeal to its testimony: “It is written.” God had plainly declared, “Thou art my Son.” There was therefore no occasion to raise the inquiry, “If thou be the Son of God.” “Oh, this word ‘If,’” exclaims Robinson; “oh, that I could tear it out of my heart. O, thou poison of all my pleasure. Thou cold icy hand that touchest me so often, and freezest me with thy touch: If! If!” In the same way the enemy will attack us. He will try to make us doubt our sonship, as he endeavored to make the Lord doubt his. If thou be the Son of God, if thou art a child of God, if you have been converted, why are you so troubled with doubts and fears? Why are you so often cast down? Why are you beset with so many troubles and afflictions? “If,” but if you have joined yourself to him in the everlasting covenant, you are his; and that settles it. “Him that cometh to me,” he declares, “I will in no wise cast out.” “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This is the text with which Luther once summarily, as the report goes, dismissed the devil, when he was arraying before the reformer a long chapter of his transgressions. Having given him the text, Luther said to him, “That disposes of my sins. Now begone with all your black catalogue.” We can tell the tempter the same thing. Again the tempter will say to us, If the seventh day be the Sabbath, why has the whole religious world, almost, turned from it to the keeping of the first day of the week? and why is it that we have to keep a day on a world where time differs east and west, and north and south? and why do you have so much trouble in adjusting the matter? The answer is that there is no trouble; but that is not the question. The Lord has declared positively, that the seventh day is the Sabbath; and all the “ifs” of all the doubters in the world can never overthrow that. This experience of our Lord, in breaking through the ranks of the devil’s “ifs,” contains important lessons for us. It teaches us that temptation is not sin. The sin is in dallying with it, parleying with the enemy, and at length yielding to his snare. Our Lord was tempted in all points like as we are, and yet the record is that he was “without sin.” As the hymn says,— “He knows what sore temptations mean;
For he hath felt the same.”
Temptations are often permitted for our good. If properly borne, they put to a profitable test our faith, love, and patience. They develop and increase our spiritual strength and Christian graces; they make us able to comfort others by our own progress, and warn others by the dangers we have met. God secures glory through us, by them; for he shows how Satan can be vanquished by feeble man. It teaches us that we can not avoid temptation by following the course of the misguided votaries of Romish asceticism, and plunging into retirement and solitude; for Christ, in this time of his most severe temptation, was off by himself, away from the busy world, in the wilderness. Nor should we be surprised if temptation follows right on after the most rigid performance of Christian duties, and after great spiritual victories; for this trial of our Lord immediately succeeded his baptism, when the Spirit descended like a dove upon him, and the voice from heaven declared that he was God’s beloved Son, with whom he was well pleased. A talented author knows how to preface his books; so Satan knows how to preface his temptations. The whole series with which he made his assaults upon Christ was prefaced by casting a subtle doubt upon his sonship, through a crafty quotation from the Scriptures. He seldom comes with point-blank denials. That would be too startling, and arouse the fears of his victim. A sly doubt suggested is much better for his purpose; and it does not make any difference where he tries to graft in his “if.” By this means he makes the doubt look like a holy anxiety to be just right. He will place his “if” in such a way as to contradict the plainest scripture. He will make it antagonize a former, and even recent, manifestation of divine communion, as in the case of Christ. At Christ’s baptism, God had said, plainly, “Thou art my beloved Son;” and yet the devil had the impudence to suggest, “If thou be the Son of God.” And if the tempter could thus unblushingly assail the perfect character of Christ, with his insinuations, how much more will he make his attacks upon us, with all our weaknesses, imperfections, and shortcomings. To make his “ifs” more potent, he supports them with all the collateral evidence of our environment; brings up all the circumstances which seem to support his contention. Note how he worked this plan in reference to Christ: “If thou be the Son of God;” but you are out here alone in the wilderness. If you are his Son, would he desert you thus? And here you are in a desert; is this a proper place to bring one who has such a mission to perform, as you claim to have? And you are with the wild beasts; is that a proper companionship for the Son of God? And you are greatly an hungered; would a loving Father permit his beloved Son to hunger in this manner?—No; you can not, thus situated, be the Son of God. Thus the temptation comes home with tremendous force, as in the case of Esau, who, in like circumstances, sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.10 How differently does our Lord make use of this little monosyllable “if.” Satan uses it to cast doubt and discouragement; our Lord uses it to inspire faith and hope and courage. Take two examples: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again [and we do believe this], even so them also, which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” Again: “If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven [we know that this is so], shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” What a contrast between this challenge to faith and confidence in God, and the malicious insinuations of the enemy against him! But if overcome, all these efforts to prostrate us with an “if,” become so many sources of help, encouragement, and comfort. For Satan would not try to make anyone believe he is not a Son of God, if that were not, already, really the case; for Satan makes his assaults only upon the truth. His work is to promote and cultivate lies, of which he is the father. This, then, becomes good testimony to our real relation with God. God had one Son without corruption, but he has none without temptation; and the more nearly we live to God, the more the enemy will attempt to harass us with his evil suggestions, doubts, and insinuations. Are we in such relation to God, and making such advancement in spiritual things, that Satan would feel it to be worth his while to try to raise a question about our sonship, our regeneration, and connection with God, and so try to cast us down and destroy us? If so, let us take courage, and press bravely onward; for our Lord has left us this word: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.