Vos Group #86 - The Lord's Temptation and Our Own

In this installment of our Vos Group, we turn to pp. 335-336 of Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to explore the uniquely messianic nature of these temptations, examining how Christ’s experiences differ significantly from human temptations. A key theme of this passage is the comparison of Christ’s temptation with Adam’s, emphasizing Christ’s role as the second Adam and the federal head encountering temptation.
Vos warns against a moralizing interpretation of the temptations, instead focusing on their theocentric character and their relation to true religion. The episode further explores the role of the Holy Spirit in these temptations, particularly in empowering Christ and highlighting the inauguration of the kingdom of God.
The discussion is rich in its exploration of redemptive history, connecting Christ’s temptations to the broader biblical narrative, from Adam’s failure to Israel’s typological sonship, leading to Christ’s successful fulfillment as the obedient Son of God. This comprehensive analysis aims to deepen understanding of Christ’s work and encourages listeners to appreciate the significance of these biblical events in the context of the entire history of salvation​​.
00:07 Introduction
04:32 The Religious Character of Jesus' Temptations
09:39 Jesus' Temptation Compared and Contrasted with Adam's
16:40 Encouragement for Sinners
19:54 The Nature of the Temptations and Jesus' Use of the Law
25:25 Satan's Strategy in Tempting Jesus
32:33 Israel's Temptation and Christ as the Obedient Son of God
40:21 The Work of the Spirit in Jesus' Temptation
53:08 Conclusion
This is Christ the Center episode 839 (www.reformedforum.org/ctc839)

[@catebursey]

Salvation through suffering I was a Pentecostal Christian for 5 years, and backslider for more, I knew the Pentecostal church I’d left wasn’t for me, and I knew that because “IT DIDN’T WORK”. It was all promises and ‘no produce.’ My Testimony So I left the Pentecostal church, I literally shook my fist at God brushed the dust off my feet , saying you won’t stop me from having what I want, I wanted a family, just what I was put on earth to do. After a few years as a backslider, I decided to go travelling, even then somewhere deep within my heart I knew I wanted to return to God I’d said to my mother, I struggle with life, I am lonely, and I want to be a Christian again. She looked at me and said “well why don’t you?” Not knowing how I’d done what the church said, to no avail, so I said “because I don’t know how to!” You see I had asked Jesus into my heart, like they said, but I couldn’t go back to the Pentecostal Church it hadn’t worked the first time, why would it work the second? Besides, when I scratched “Jesus Saved” into all my records because they were worldly having demons attached to them and my brother found them in the bin I had lost all respect from my family of unbelievers. I travelled for a couple of years, I took my Bible and one day after constantly feeling hopeless and afraid, I was listening to music and in tears of despair I told God I didn’t know how to find him, I begged him to show me how to be a Christian again, I challenged His word, His promises, I cursed Him and hated Him, and this went on for six months until I said to Him in tears of despair “I don’t know how to find you father, would you come and get me?” I thought of Him no more. 12 months later and alone (in another country), crying, and desperate I went back to reading the Bible and listening to the Christian Radio, not knowing how to get saved saw me begging God again to help me. I felt that I could not do life, that regardless of how I planned and applied myself to get what was just a natural desire for love, a family, peace, and to feel safe. Unbeknownst to me, the Holy Spirit was drawing me to the scriptures, making me hungry, teaching me via the radio, I couldn’t resist this pull to the knowledge and word of God,I began to see God’s word differently, my eyes and ears were opened up to a new perspective of the Gospel that Paul, the other Apostles, Prophets of the Old Testament had been saying all along, and I realised that Jesus, and everyone else who shared his story had said Repent!! For the Kingdom of God is at hand. “Repent for the forgiveness of sins” (I had previously asked Jesus into my heart). All I knew, was through my historical faith in Pentecostalism: speaking in tongues: gibberish, seeking healing from an infertile marriage: failure, I didn’t have enough faith, free-will to choose Jesus, expecting miracles, and believing that anyone that didn’t believe in these biblical truths of the Pentecost were lukewarm: “Lukies” The Pentecostal and Charismatic members thought the other churches who didn’t have the “gift of the spirit” or second blessing were lost, unsaved, just old church goers that knew not God, and that we as Pentecostals called them “The frozen chosen” But, as the Holy Spirit, was showing me that was not what the Bible said, it was saying things like “an evil and wicked generation seeks after a sign!” So, over the next week, the Holy Spirit continued to opened my eyes to the truth He revealed to me that in the OT it only took one false prophecy and He killed that prophet and would do the same in the future because He doesn’t change, only now in the New Testament we live under Grace so He would not intervene in Pentecostalism, until the end of time. Also, the books to the Corinthians were for chastisement, and that Paul was actually quite exasperated with them when he said much of what the Pentecostals exegete as doctrinal and theological truth. I had believed if you were Pentecostal you were not the ‘tares’ in the church that Jesus had spoken about, and they would learn this when we were raptured out of the tribulation when the days of Noah returned, the 3rd Temple was built, and Christ returned, but I was wrong! I began to see scriptures that condemned these practices, warnings about an apostate church that was to come, I began to be horrified at what the Holy Spirit was showing me, and in tears and (I’d like to say sackcloth and ashes), I begged God to forgive me of my sin against Him, for the gibberish I called my heavenly language, and the perversion of His Gospel, knowing He would not reject “a broken and contrite heart”, I sobbed to the Holy God of the universe, I repented for three days as it dawned on me how I’d sinned against God and only God, and it was through this God given event that the Holy Spirit saved me. All of a sudden I realised I was going to be fine, for the first time in may life I knew I was safe in His rest, at peace, He would never leave me, nor forsake me even to the end of the world. I saw how much He loved me (before I loved Him), that this love was the work of Jesus on the cross, that He had predestined me from the beginning of the world, chosen me, elected me to salvation, but not just that, He had taken me half way around the world to do it. I had/have no idea why He did this, I just learned that He was sovereign and did what He did, and it was to reveal His Glory. He showed me how I had been encouraged and coached into tongues, hoodwinked by the heavenly language. He revealed I’d been saved by his grace. Grace!!! It was the first time I’d even heard the word, well actually I’d heard it before but I actually didn’t know what it meant, because I’d never repented, but I now knew the Grace I received from Him was because in ‘His’ Graciousness, He decided to save me, and He did this by giving me faith, it is not ‘Grace’ He gives us: that is His, it is ‘faith’ He gives us to believe. Let me explain. You see with the free will doctrine, it’s up to you to have your own faith, in Him, I was expected have to muster up the faith to believe that Jesus would give me a miracle and heal, in my case it was an infertile marriage, others it is what ever there affliction is, which means that by doing so, you struggle to have enough faith, you become the author of your own faith, but it’s worse than that, God says without faith it is impossible to please Him, and in the scriptures in Ephesians, it says faith is a gift from Him! Which indicates predestination if He gives us what pleases Him to save us. I had always believed in Him, even non-Christians do that on there own, sadly our churches are full of them as Paul says in Romans we are without excuse for not believing, that’s the east part, so there I was in the Pentecostal Church trying to muster up enough faith for a miracle not understanding I was not even a Christian. In fact I was possibly an abomination to Him, that desolates in the Holy Place. Just saying. For the first time in my life I finally understood what “it is by GRACE you have been saved, through faith, and it is not of yourself but a gift from God that no man can boast! So here I was saved by God through His divine gift of faith, but to accept it He broke my heart to pieces, I was a broken person, the grief I suffered was like no other I’d ever known, heartbroken, feeling like I could not survive life, like a child, crying abba father. I was now a child of God and no one, no spirit, no other gospel, nothing on earth or above it could change that, I was so happy, I was astounded by this new knowledge I was held in the hand of God, Jesus had paid the price, and the Holy Spirit lived inside me, my heart was changed to flesh, by the renewing of my mind, and due to my past reading of the word, it was instant, I couldn’t wipe the smile of my face. I was a Christian. And for the first time praised God ‘in spirit AND in truth’. I then absolutely devoured the Bible within a couple of weeks, underlining passages that revealed the Spiritual revelation God had bestowed upon me, I got on the next airplane back home, which happened to be Christmas Day! With all those beautiful Christmas Carols, lights and magic everywhere. I decided I needed to “know what I believed and why, so I enrolled in Bible College to study the scriptures. I learnt through the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of me the theological principles of Gods truth, and since then, my mantra is “Theology Matters!” I pray you are blessed with the knowledge of the Grace of God our wonderful Father, His beloved Son for without Him we would all still be justifiably lost, and the comforter, the Holy Spirit, who reveals all Truth to His elect. 🤍

[@charleshowarth8461]

Thanks for hard work. PTL

[@tabithadorcas7763]

Listened this morning to the podcast. Very helpful! Thank you.

[@charleshowarth8461]

Thanks for the hard work, PTL

[@Eric_Lichtenberg]

This episode was both edifying and insightful. Thank you, brothers! One of the things that stands out to me is the way in which the Kingdom advances through suffering. I suspected Christian Nationalism, whether intentional or not, is a movement seeking to escape the very way in which the Kingdom is advanced and governed in this Age of the Spirit.

[@raymondlopez5251]

Next time you guys come to Cali I will be there!

[@Amilton5solas]

I finally got the book now I have to catch up 😅

[@trystwithchrist]

G. Campbell Morgan has 4 chapters on the temptation in his Crises of the Christ. Donald Macleod has a lecture on it too from the 2012-2013 series of his Lectures in the Faith.

[@matthewzmarzley]

This was great guys thank you

[@kpope7007]

The alpha point brought to mind when Mary told Jesus they were out of wine at the wedding and Jesus said my rime has not come yet. Ahhh but it was about to come shortly.