Sonship Questioned

There is no sin in being tempted; for the perfect Jesus “was in all points tempted like as we are:” Hebrews 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 you 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. “You are my Son”: Psalm 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? Matthew 6:9.
   • Thus he would destroy patience. How can we say, “Father, your will be done,” if we are not his sons? Luke 22:42.
   • 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 an hungered. 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 man’s 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 you 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 does not come to Christ thus, “You are not the Son of God”; or, “That voice which gave you 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 you poison of all my pleasures! You cold icy hand, that touches me so often, and freezes me with the touch! “If! If!”—Robert Robinson.