It is wonderful to see our Lord’s recourse to the Word of God. In Matthew, after He was baptized by John, His Father said, “This is My beloved Son” (ch. 3:17). The devil (or tempter) is soon found saying to Him, “If Thou be the Son of God.” Our Lord replies, “Man shall . . . live . . . by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
God has declared Him to be His Son. The devil questions Him as to this, and the Lord simply reclines upon those words from His Father, “This is My beloved Son.”
He, of course, knew who He was, but now as a man, being tested, He simply rests upon the Word of His Father. To allow a questioning of His person now was to question the wonderful declaration of the Father. The Father’s word was enough—no need to prove it. God had said it. To seek by means of other evidence would be to put a slight upon the Word of God at this time, and He had no word from His Father to do so.
How we need to do this too. Sometimes the tempter, in the form of accuser, comes to us questioning our relationship with our God and Father. Oh! to simply accept what our Father has told us in His Word as to the relationships His grace has brought us into! We can trust the Word of God, even when outward circumstances of life may cause us to doubt. We may at times feel the hunger (for us, spiritual hunger) and conclude that if such is the case, we must not be sons of God.
What a disarming effect it has on the tempter’s effort to cause us to doubt, if we can simply say, “I may not feel like a son of God, and it may not yet appear that I am, but He has said, ‘Beloved, now are we the sons of God’ (1 John 3:22Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)).” Oh! the preserving effect of believing His Word in spite of the circumstances of life He may lead us through!
H. Short