In the artistic rendering portion of the
video this week, we see Jesus’ three-fold temptation in the desert. The way
that Jesus confronted temptation was that He used Scripture to defeat the devil
… and we should too!
The Power of Scripture. Our memory
verse, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, says that Scripture is God-inspired, all of it! Jesus
knew the power of God’s Word in battling temptation. The three temptations of the
flesh, fame and fortune (turning stones to bread, putting God to test, worshipping
Satan to possess all kingdoms) remind us of Eve’s temptation of flesh (“good
for food”), fame (“to make one wise”), and fortune (“pleasant to the eyes”). 1
John 2:16 also sees this unholy trinity of “the lust of the flesh, and the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life,” which wars against our body, soul and
spirit.
Jesus’ temptation found
in Matt. 4:1-11 was against his body (bread), soul (testing God), and spirit
(worshipping Satan, not God). Many even see parallels in Scripture to Satan’s
downfall was also found in body/flesh (beauty, Ezek. 28:17a), soul/fame/mind
& heart & will (corrupted wisdom, Ezek. 28:17b), and spirit/pride/idolatry
(Isa. 14:14).
The Purpose of Scripture. BELIEVE this
week also speaks to the “why?” of the Bible. God’s Word is not only powerful
and authoritative, but there is a reason for it. Isa. 55:6-13 says it will not
return void, but accomplishes His purpose. Too often people use God’s word for
their purposes, misquoting or manipulating it. That’s why I like the lengthy
passages in Believe; it shows the context of the text to prevent pretexts (say
that three times fast). Hebrews 4:12-13 says the Bible penetrates our soul,
spirit and joints and marrow (body). Why do we have a Bible? To teach, rebuke,
correct and train.
Think of those irritating
GPS voices. They tell us the direction. When we get off course, the voice will
rebuke us (“recalculating”), correct our course, and then once we are back on
course, those voices tell us we are on the fastest route (training). It is a
poor analogy, I know, but maybe the Navigators drawing shows it better (using the
King James version).
The Preservation of Scripture. Randy
Frazee speaks about the revelation, inspiration, transmission and translation of
Scripture. He says that out of the 24,000 copies of the New Testament (compared
to only 643 ancient copies of Homer’s The
Iliad, a distance second place finisher in extant copies) only 400 words (out
of 138,200 total Greek words) carry any question to what they meant in the
original penning, and none of those
relate to actual doctrine. That’s a 99.71 agreement or if it were a college
Grade Point Average, it would be a 3.99 GPA!
Benjamin B
Warfield said, “…not only is the New Testament unrivalled among ancient writings
in the purity of its text as actually transmitted and kept in use, but also in the
abundance of testimony which has come down to us…” Frazee concludes “It is
clear … that God himself oversaw the handling and care of his Word in a
meticulous manner. Factor in the numerous attempts at literary genocide of the
Bible, and our confidence in it only rises.” (Think, Act, Be Like Jesus, by
Randy Frazee, page 52).
No truer words were ever spoken than these: “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” (Isa. 40:8)
