22 — TEMPTED WITH DOUBTS

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 29, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 38.

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22 — TEMPTED WITH DOUBTS

Are there any statements in the Bible from which it can be gathered that Christ was doubtful about the consummation, efficiency, or success of the plan of salvation?
There are passages which would seem to indicate that His human heart and human feelings trembled in the balance; that He questioned not God, but whether He Himself was sufficient for the work. One can read Psalm 22 in this light with interest. That is a psalm that is prophetic of Christ in His humanity. In John 12:27 we read, in the prayer of Jesus: "Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name." A. R. V., margin. In other words, Jesus came to that place where seemingly His human limitations shut from Him the knowledge of His triumph, and all He could do was to leave His case in the hand of God. The prayer in Gethsemane indicates some of the same intense feeling He had. And His words upon the cross, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" show that He Himself was suffering the very agony of the lost. Heb. 5:7, 8 reads: "Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered." And again Heb. 2:17, 18: "Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted." But in all the temptations and all the doubts that harassed Him, there was no sin, no distrust of God.