130. Sonship Questioned
If thou be the Son of God. Matthew 4:3
There is no sin in being tempted; for the perfect Jesus "was in all points tempted like as we are" (Heb. 4:15).
Temptation does not necessitate sinning; for of Jesus, when tempted, we read, "yet without sin."
Not even the worst forms of it involve sin: for Jesus endured without sin the subtlest of temptations, from the evil one himself.
It may be needful for us to be tempted—
- For test. Sincerity, faith, love, patience, are thus put to proof.
- For growth. Temptation develops and increases our graces.
- For usefulness. We become able to comfort and warn others.
- For victory. How glorious to overcome the arch-enemy!
- For God's glory. He vanquishes Satan by feeble men.
Solitude will not prevent temptation.
- It may even aid it. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness.
- Nor will fasting and prayer always keep off the tempter; for these had been fully used by our Lord.
Satan knows how to write prefaces: our text is one.
- He began the whole series of his temptations by a doubt cast upon our Lord's Sonship, and a crafty quotation from Scripture.
- He caught up the echo of the Father's word at our Lord's baptism and began tempting where heavenly witness ended.
- He knew how to discharge a double-shotted temptation, and at once to suggest doubt and rebellion; this was such: "If thou be the Son of God, command," etc.
I. THE TEMPTER ASSAILS WITH AN "IF"
1. Not with point-blank denial. That would be too startling. Doubt serves the Satanic purpose better than heresy.
2. He grafts his "if" on a holy thing. He makes the doubt look like holy anxiety concerning divine Sonship.
3. He ifs a plain Scripture. "Thou art my Son" (Ps. 2:7).
4. He ifs a former manifestation. At his baptism God said, "This is my beloved Son. " Satan contradicts our spiritual experience.
5. He ifs a whole life. From the first Jesus had been about his Father's business; yet after thirty years his Sonship is questioned.
6. He ifs inner consciousness. Our Lord knew that he was the Father's Son; but the evil one is daring.
7. He ifs a perfect character. Well may he question us, whose faults are so many.
II. THE TEMPTER AIMS THE "IF" AT A VITAL PART.
1. At our sonship.
- In our Lord's case he attacks his human and divine Sonship.
- In our case he would make us doubt our regeneration.
2. At our childlike spirit. He tempts us to cater for ourselves. "Command that these stones be made bread. "
3. At our Father's honor. He tempts us to doubt our Father's providence and to blame him for letting us hunger.
4. At our comfort and strength as members of the heavenly family.
- By robbing us of our sonship, he would leave us orphans, and consequently naked, poor, and miserable.
- Thus he would have us hindered in prayer. How could we say, "Our Father" if we doubted our sonship (Matt. 6:9)?
- Thus he would destroy patience. How can we say, "Father, thy will be done," if we are not his sons (Luke 22:4)?
- Thus he would lay us open to the next shot, whatever that might be. Doubt of sonship leaves us naked to the enemy.
III. THE TEMPTER SUPPORTS THAT "IF" WITH CIRCUMSTANCES.
1. You are alone. Would a Father desert his Child?
2. You are in a desert. Is this the place for God's Heir?
3. You are with the wild beasts. Wretched company for a Son of God!
4. You are hungry. How can a loving Father let his perfect Son hunger?
Put all these together, and the tempter's question comes home with awful force to one who is hungry, and alone.
When we see others thus tried, do we think them brethren? Do we not question their sonship, as Job's friends questioned him? What wonder if we question ourselves!
IV. WHEN OVERCOME, THE TEMPTER'S "IF" IS HELPFUL.
1. As coming from Satan, it is a certificate of our true descent.
- He only questions truth: therefore we are true sons.
- He only leads sons to doubt their sonship; therefore we are sons.
2. As overcome, it may be a quietus to the enemy for years.
- It takes the sting out of manis questionings and suspicions; for if we have answered the devil himself we do not fear men.
- It puts a sweetness into all future enjoyment of OUR FATHER.
3. As past, it is usually the prelude to angels coming and ministering to us, as in our Lord's case. No calm is so deep as that which follows a great storm (Mark 4:39).
Friend, are you in such relation to God that it would be worth Satan's while to raise this question with you?
Those who are not heirs of God are heirs of wrath.
Selections
What force there is often in a single monosyllable! What force, for instance, in the monosyllable "If," with which this artful address begins! It was employed by Satan, for the purpose of insinuating into the Savior's mind a doubt of his being in reality the special object of his Father's care, and it was pronounced by him, as we may well suppose, with a cunning and malignant emphasis. How different is the use which Jesus makes of this word "if" in those lessons of Divine instruction and heavenly consolation, which he so frequently delivered to his disciples when he was on earth! He always employed it to inspire confidence; never to excite distrust. Take a single instance of this: "If God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" What a contrast between this divine remonstrance and the malicious insinuation of the great enemy of God and man! —Daniel Bagot
God had but one Son without corruption, but he had none without temptation. Such is Satan's enmity to the Father, that the nearer and dearer any child is to him, the more will Satan trouble him, and vex him with temptations. None so well-beloved as Christ; none so much tempted as he. —Thomas Brooks
Satan did not come to Christ thus, "Thou art not the Son of God"; or "That voice which gave thee that testimony was a lie or a delusion. " No, he proceeds by questioning, which might seem to grant that he was the Son of God, yet withal might possibly beget a doubt in his mind. —Richard Gilpin
Oh, this word "if"! Oh, that I could tear it out of my heart! O thou poison of all my pleasures! Thou cold icy hand, that touches me so often, and freezes me with the touch! "If! If!" —Robert Robinson
Charles Hadden Spurgeon |
130. 兒子身分受質疑
「你若是 神的兒子……」——馬太福音 4:3 （3那試探人的進前來，對他說：「你若是神的兒子，可以吩咐這些石頭變成食物。」）
受試探本身並不是罪；因為完全的耶穌「也曾凡事受過試探，與我們一樣，只是他沒有犯罪」（來 4:15 15因我們的大祭司並非不能體恤我們的軟弱。他也曾凡事受過試探，與我們一樣，只是他沒有犯罪。）。
試探並不必然導致犯罪；因為論到耶穌，聖經說：「卻沒有犯罪。」
即使是最猛烈的試探，也不包含罪；因為耶穌在最狡猾的試探中，甚至面對惡者親自的攻擊，仍然毫無罪污。
我們或許必須受試探——
- 為著試驗。 真誠、信心、愛心、忍耐，都因此被試驗。
- 為著成長。 試探使我們的恩典得以發展並增長。
- 為著有用。 我們因此能安慰並警戒他人。
- 為著得勝。 勝過那古老的仇敵，是何等榮耀！
- 為著 神的榮耀。 祂藉著軟弱的人勝過撒但。
獨處並不能防止試探，
- 甚至可能助長它；耶穌是在曠野受試探的。
- 禁食與禱告也未必總能阻擋試探者；因為我們的主已充分地運用了這些。
撒但知道如何寫「序言」：我們的經文就是如此。
- 他整個試探系列的開端，是對主兒子身分的懷疑，並巧妙地引用聖經。
- 他抓住父在主受洗時所說話語的回聲，在天上的見證停止之處開始試探。
- 他知道如何發射「雙重裝填」的試探，同時暗示懷疑與悖逆；這就是那樣的試探：「你若是 神的兒子，可以吩咐……」
一、試探者以一個「若」來攻擊
- 他不是直接否認。那樣太突兀了。懷疑比異端更能達成撒但的目的。
- 他把他的「若」嫁接在聖潔之事上，使懷疑看似是對神聖兒子身分的虔誠關切。
- 他對明明的經文加上「若」——「你是我的兒子」（詩 2:7 受膏者說：我要傳聖旨。耶和華曾對我說：你是我的兒子，我今日生你。）。
- 他對過去的顯現加上「若」。在主受洗時， 神說：「這是我的愛子。」撒但卻與我們屬靈的經歷相抵觸。
- 他對整個人生加上「若」。主從起初就以父的事為念；然而三十年後，他的兒子身分仍被質疑。
- 他對內在的確據加上「若」。我們的主知道自己是父的兒子；但惡者膽大妄為。
- 他對完全的品格加上「若」。我們過失如此之多，他質疑我們還說得過去。
二、試探者把這個「若」瞄準要害
- 針對我們的兒子身分。
- 在主的情況中，他攻擊祂人性與神性的兒子身分。
- 在我們身上，他要我們懷疑自己的重生。
- 針對我們孩童般的心。他引誘我們為自己打算：「吩咐這些石頭變成食物。」
- 針對我們天父的尊榮。他引誘我們懷疑父的眷顧，責怪祂讓我們飢餓。
- 針對我們作為天家成員的安慰與力量。
- 他若奪去我們的兒子身分，就使我們成為孤兒，因此赤裸、貧窮、可憐。
- 如此，他就使我們在禱告上受阻。若懷疑兒子身分，我們怎能說「我們在天上的父」（太 6:9 9所以，你們禱告要這樣說：我們在天上的父：願人都尊你的名為聖。）？
- 如此，他要摧毀忍耐。若我們不是祂的兒子，怎能說「父啊，願你的旨意成就」（路 22:42 42說：「父啊！你若願意，就把這杯撤去；然而，不要成就我的意思，只要成就你的意思。」 ）？
- 如此，他為下一次攻擊鋪路，不論那是什麼。懷疑兒子身分，使我們在仇敵面前赤身露體。
三、試探者用環境來支持這個「若」
- 你是孤單的。父會撇下祂的孩子嗎？
- 你在曠野。這是 神後嗣該在的地方嗎？
- 你與野獸為伍。對 神的兒子來說何等淒涼的陪伴！
- 你飢餓。慈愛的父怎會讓祂完全的兒子挨餓？
把這些合在一起，對一個又餓又孤單的人來說，試探者的問題就帶著可怕的力量。
當我們看到別人如此受試煉時，我們是否仍視他們為弟兄？我們豈不像約伯的朋友那樣質疑他們的兒子身分嗎？
那麼，我們質疑自己，又有何奇怪！
四、當勝過試探時，這個「若」反而有益
- 既出於撒但，它反成我們真實血統的證明。
- 他只質疑真理；因此我們確是兒子。
- 他只引導兒子懷疑自己；因此我們確是兒子。
- 若被勝過，它可能多年使仇敵閉口。
- 它拔去人各樣疑問與猜忌的毒刺；因為若我們曾回答過魔鬼本身，就不再懼怕人。
- 它也使我們日後對「我們的父」的享受更添甘甜。
- 既已成為過去，它常是天使來服事我們的前奏，正如主的經歷一樣。
沒有哪種平靜，比大風暴之後更深沉（可 4:39 39耶穌醒了，斥責風，向海說：「住了吧！靜了吧！」風就止住，大大地平靜了。）。
朋友，你與 神的關係是否值得撒但特意向你提出這樣的問題？
不是神後嗣的，就是忿怒的後嗣。
摘錄
一個單音節詞往往有何等大的力量！例如這個狡猾開場的單音節「若」！撒但使用它，是為了把一個懷疑暗示到救主心中，使祂懷疑自己是否真是父特別眷顧的對象；而且我們可以想像，他說這話時帶著狡詐與惡毒的重音。耶穌卻如何不同地使用「若」這個詞！在祂對門徒所傳講的神聖教訓與天上安慰中，祂常用它來激發信心，從不激起不信。請看一例：「你們這小信的人哪！野地的草，今天還在，明天就丟在爐裡， 神還給它這樣的妝飾，何況你們呢？」這神聖的勸勉，與那位神與人之大仇敵的惡意暗示，是何等鮮明的對比！——丹尼爾·巴戈特
神只有一位沒有敗壞的兒子，卻沒有一位不受試探的兒子。撒但對父的仇恨如此之深，凡越親近、越蒙愛的兒女，他越要攪擾他們，以試探折磨他們。沒有誰比基督更蒙愛；也沒有誰比祂受試探更多。
——湯瑪斯·布魯克斯
撒但並沒有對基督說：「你不是 神的兒子」；或「那為你作見證的聲音是謊言或幻覺。」不是的，他是用質問的方式，似乎承認祂是 神的兒子，卻同時可能在祂心中生出懷疑。
——理查·吉爾平
哦，這個「若」字！但願我能把它從心中撕去！你這毒害我一切喜樂的毒素！你這冰冷的手，常常觸摸我，使我在觸摸中凍結！「若！若！」——羅伯特·羅賓遜
——查爾斯·哈登·司布真 |