Tag Archives: Satan

REVELATION 20

NOTES ON REVELATION 20

Survey of the chapter

John now tells us the sequel to the coming of Christ to judge His enemies as recorded in the previous chapter. Having dealt with the leading figures, the beast and the false prophet, the Lord now deals with the one they served, and who moved men to great wickedness from behind the scenes. Then we read of those who had died during the Great Tribulation period because they refused to worship the beast, and we are assured of their blessedness as they reign with Christ for a thousand years. At the end of this period Satan is loosed, and gathers men again to rebel against God, but this is quickly dealt with. Then follows the account of the Great White Throne judgement, and the final destiny of the unsaved dead is declared.

Structure of the chapter

(a)	Verses 1-3	The binding of Satan
(b)	Verses 4-6	The martyred saints reign with Christ
(c)	Verses 7-10	The final rebellion against God
(d)	Verses 11-15	The Great White Throne judgement

THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE, THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, AS FOUND IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION CHAPTER 20, VERSES 1 TO 6:

20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

(a) Verses 1-3 The binding of Satan

20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

And I saw an angel come down from heaven- the fact that an “ordinary” angel is all that is needed to arrest the most powerful evil being there is shows that his power has been broken, for his masterpieces, the beast and the false prophet have been consigned to the Lake of Fire. The climax of his age-old manoeuvrings has failed to defeat God. Christ secured his destiny on the cross, (“now shall the prince of this world be cast out”, John 12:31), and the time for that to be realised has come.
When Moses died, Michael the archangel was not able to prevail against the Devil, but had to resort to saying, “The Lord rebuke thee”, Jude 9. When the evil angels supporting the kingdoms of Greece and Persia were in conflict with Michael, (the angel that defends the interests of Israel), he had to call for help from Gabriel, for he could not deal with them himself, Daniel 10:20-11:1.
We learn from this that in Old Testament times the angels of God had difficulty dealing with evil angels. But now it is different, for Michael and his angels defeated Satan and his hosts in Revelation 12, and in this chapter we learn that only a single angel is needed to chain and banish Satan himself. Wherein lays the difference? At Calvary Christ gave the death-blow to the forces of evil, and defeated him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil, Hebrews 2:14. The angel needs to come down from heaven because that is the scene of the Devil’s operations at the end time, having been cast out of heaven, 12:9.
Having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand- the bottomless pit, (the word is “abussou”, the abyss), is the abode of evil spirits, as we see from Luke 8:26-33, where the demons that possessed the man obviously expected to be sent into the deep, or the abyss. This key had been given to the angel that had fallen to the earth in 9:2, so possibly this is the same angel. We should not confuse the abyss, the abode of evil spirits after they have been judged by God, with hell, meaning the place where the souls of unsaved men go during this age.
The great chain is figurative language, since Satan is a spirit being. It was the demoniac that was bound with chains in Luke 8, not the demons that possessed him, although they were the reason he needed to be restrained. Peter writes of angels that sinned being delivered into chains of darkness, and Jude refers to these same angels as being in everlasting chains. They rejected the opportunity of serving God in the light of His presence and in liberty, and are punished in the darkness and in confinement.

20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

And he laid hold on the dragon- notice there is no struggle, just an arrest, for the Devil is a defeated and powerless foe. Notice also that there is no trial, for already in chapter 12 Michael and his angels have fought a battle with Satan, and won We often hear the expression “High Court battle”, when lawyers contest a case, using their best arguments so that those they represent “win” the argument. So it is here, except that the Court is the Heavenly Court of Justice. So by the mighty power of logical argument, Michael and his army of lawyers will contest the reasonings of Satan that, from the very beginning, he has used to deceive men. At last his lies and propaganda will be exposed, and those plans to exalt himself above God will be condemned. Every thought will be tested as to whether it represents obedience to Christ; if it does not, it will be cast down, see 2 Corinthians 10:4,5. At last, after sixty centuries of rebellion, Satan’s disobedience will be avenged.
He is called the dragon here because of the fierceness and cruelty with which he has fought against God since he rebelled at the beginning. Men pour scorn on the idea of dragons, but there are two hundred locations in the United Kingdom alone where the word dragon is included in the place-name. The reason why the Vikings had dragon’s head carvings on the prow of their ships was because they hoped to ward off the sea-dragons that infested the waters around their coasts. As late as two hundred years ago the Chinese Emperor had a fire-breathing dragon in his palace. Men like to say that the dinosaurs died out “millions of years ago”, but they have no evidence for this. It is all bluster, designed to defend the spurious theory of evolution, with its need for millions of years. It is ironic that those who deny the existence of the Devil are also those who deny the existence of dragons.
That old serpent- so dragons are distinguished from serpents. The emphasis with the dragon is on its cruelty, as we see from Revelation 12:4, where we read, “And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born”. The emphasis with the serpent is on craftiness. The Devil chose the serpent to deceive Eve at the beginning. As there were only two humans on earth at that time, Satan could not use another person. To come in spirit-form might arouse the suspicions of Adam and his wife. To simply speak from the air would also cause them to be on their guard. The only alternative is to use one of the animals. We read that the serpent was more subtil than the other beasts of the field. Before the fall the serpent must have showed signs of great intelligence, and no doubt Adam had noted this when he named the creature. It is the ideal vehicle, therefore, for the Devil to use as his agent. We need not assume that the serpent looked the same as it is now. When God cursed it later in the chapter, it was cursed above all cattle. They were cursed, but it was cursed more. This would suggest that the serpent was degraded to a greater degree than the other creatures. Since one of the judgements upon it was to go upon its belly, we may safely assume that it did not do so before, or else that would be no sign of judgement. There is the possibility, then, that the serpent was originally an erect and beautiful creature. There is also the possibility that the serpent was able to fly, so that it came to the woman like “an angel of light”. It is interesting to notice that that phrase comes in the passage where the apostle Paul is speaking of the tempting and beguiling of Eve, 2 Corinthians 11:3,14. Isaiah 14:29 and 30:6 speak of flying serpents, (and the word used was “saraph”, the same word as is used of the seraphim), so, strange as it may seem to us, the serpent may have been a winged creature originally, which makes the judgement of creeping along the ground even more severe and suitable. In confirmation of this, the serpent is classed, before it was used by Satan, as one of the beasts of the field, Genesis 3:1, and not one of the creeping things mentioned in Genesis 1:24,26.
Which is the Devil, and Satan- the word Devil means a false accuser, and, like Satan, is a law-court term. The title Satan, on the other hand, tells us simply that he accuses, for sometimes he has a legitimate complaint about the people of God, and he loses no time in making his accusation before God. How thankful we are for the advocacy of the Lord Jesus, as He meets every charge, whether justified or not, by reference to the blood of propitiation shed at Calvary. This precious blood answers every accusation the Devil can make, for it has met every claim the throne of God had against our sin. This does not mean that we may become complacent, and not guard against sinning. In fact, it should increase our desire to not grieve the one who suffered such pain at Calvary that we might be cleared of our guilt.
And bound him a thousand years- so the length of the initial sentence is known from the outset, with no possibility of reprieve. The thousand years in question is the duration of the manifest reign of Christ upon the earth, and is mentioned six times in this chapter. Solomon said near the beginning of his reign that “the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent”, 1 Kings 5:4. The word he used for adversary was “satan”, an opponent at law. So in our chapter the reign of Christ is being prepared for, and the great opponent of God and Christ is removed from the scene.

And cast him into the bottomless pit- this is the proper prison for those of the spirit-world who rebel against God, not to be confused with sheol, the place of the souls of all men who died in Old Testament times. There is no indication in Scripture that Satan has ever visited sheol, let alone reigns there. That is a pagan fiction.
And shut him up- using the key he has been given. At present “your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”, and believers are encourage to “resist steadfast in the faith”, 1 Peter 5:8,9. In a coming day his activities will be brought to a sudden end.
And set a seal upon him- after Daniel had been put in the lions den, we read, “and a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel”, Daniel 6:17. So the purpose of the emperor was carried out, because the stone was sealed. But God had other plans, and Daniel was saved without the stone being moved, just as the Lord Jesus emerged from His sealed tomb without the seal being broken or the stone moved. Seeing it is God’s representative who has set the seal, and there is no greater power than that of God, the seal remains intact.
That he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled- he has deceived the whole world, 12:9, but here the emphasis is on his work among the nations, inciting them to rebel against God, and to install antichrist as their leader. Sadly, there is a “till”, for he will be allowed out of his prison temporarily at the end of the reign of Christ.
And after that he must be loosed a little season- he must be loosed to allow it to be seen that even after one thousand years of the righteous reign of Christ, there are some whose hearts are unchanged, and when the Devil is loosed they will side with him against God. In the purpose of God this will only be for a little season, for all is under Divine control. The long period of one thousand years is determined by God, and so also is the little season.

(b) Verses 4-6 The martyred saints reign with Christ

And I saw thrones- having disposed of the arch-rebel against the Divine throne, the narrative can move on. Just as a single angel was all that was needed to bind Satan, so it is not the Throne-Sitter, God Himself, who conducts affairs, but His heavenly delegates who administer justice for Him.
And they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them- that is, they were in session, conducting a sitting, in legal terms. We know that all judgement has been committed unto the Son, John 5:22, so this must mean that the administration of the judgement has been delegated to them. Presumably the “they” refers to the four and twenty elders who sit on thrones before God, 4:4, and who administer justice and judgement on the earth for Him. It is said of the Lord of Hosts that “He shall reign in mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously”, Isaiah 24:23. The word ancients can be translated “elders”. So as the kingdom on earth is a reflection of the government of heaven, we may think of those who sit on these thrones as being the twenty four elders of chapter 4, who also sit on thrones.
And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus- our attention is drawn to a very specific company of people, even those who had died for their faith during the Great Tribulation. They are given particular mention because their sufferings were unparalleled, and it must be made clear that no blame attached to them for their sufferings. It was not governmental disciple that caused them to suffer, but the raging of Satanically inspired beasts. Theirs was a simple testimony, to the value of the name of Jesus. In the face of the onslaughts of the enemy, and the pressure of the apostasy all around them, they persevered in faith in the despised man of Galilee, the meek and lowly Jesus, who stands in such contrast to the wild and ferocious beasts that dominated the earth in their day. They had suffered the same death as John the Baptist had, and for the same reason, for they refused to compromise with evil and take the easy way out.
And for the word of God- John the Baptist had brought the word of God about the sin of adultery to Herod, and paid for it with his life, and these had done a similar thing. In their day the antichrist will have “a mouth speaking great things”, 13:5, but these were not impressed, because they knew that the one who gave him his mouth was Satan the deceiver, and they met his lies with the word of God.
And which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands- a similar situation had confronted Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, (to give them their Babylonian names). Despite being named after his idols by Nebuchadnezzar, they refused to bow to the image he set up. The penalty was that they were cast into the fiery furnace. The king discovered, however, that one like unto the Son of God walked with them in the fire, and they were released, Daniel Chapter 3. No doubt this is just a preview of the experience of the martyrs of our chapter, with this difference, they will not be released, but will pay the ultimate price. What they did find was that, as God promised, “When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour”, Isaiah 43:2,3.
And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years- this is their rich compensation for all the things they had endured. As Paul wrote about believers of this age, “if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him”, 2 Timothy 2:12. Instead of being dead because they were martyrs, they lived; instead of suffering, they reigned.

From these details we see how impossible it is for the thousand years referred to in this chapter to be the present age. This is what amillenialists teach, as they try to avoid the plain statements of this chapter. We could ask ourselves some questions about this present age, and answer them from Revelation chapter 20.

1. Is Satan bound at this present time, or does he still go about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, as 1 Peter 5:8 says?

2. Has the tribulation period taken place, and saints martyred during it, and have they been raised to reign with Christ?

3. Has the first resurrection taken place, or do we still await it?

4. Are saints who have died living and reigning with Christ?

The answer to all these questions is in the negative. The plain sense of Scripture is that the Lord Jesus will reign literally on the earth for one thousand literal years. It is true that the prophets most likely did not know the duration of Messiah’s kingdom, but they did speak of it in literal terms. We have no authority to “spiritualise” the prophecies, for this the apostles never did. Have we more authority than they? Even the scribes, when asked by Herod about the coming of the Messiah, Mathew 2:1-6, answered in literal terms; they did not make the prophecies figurative, but looked for them to be fulfilled in the same sense in which the prophets did. Christ was born in a literal town called Bethlehem, so Micah, when he foretold it, is to be understood as meaning a literal town. To reject this principle is to be at the mercy of the imagination of the expositor, who may make of anything what he wishes.

20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished- with church saints having been raised at the time of the Lord’s coming into the air at the rapture, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-58, and the Old Testament saints at the time of His coming to set up His kingdom, Revelation 11:18; Job 14:13-15, and the martyred saints of the Tribulation age also raised, at this point in time there will be only unjust persons in the grave. No doubt if there are believers still alive at the end of the Tribulation, (the multitude of Revelation 7:9-17 perhaps), they shall be changed as church saints that are alive at the rapture are changed, without actually passing through death, 1 Corinthians 15:51,55, (the latter verse being an allusion to Hosea 13:14, and therefore not originally spoken of church saints).
The unjust dead shall remain in the grave until the end of the reign of Christ, and one of the ways He will demonstrate that all things are under His feet is by destroying the last enemy, death, 1 Corinthians 15:25,26. At that point the unrighteous dead shall be brought back from the dead at the resurrection of damnation, John 5:29. As Job put it, “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep”, Job 14:12. Note the implication that when the heavens are no more, they shall awake.
This is the first resurrection- meaning, that the raising of these martyred saints completes the first resurrection, which only involves believers, as the next verse will make clear, for all who are raised are blessed and holy. The phrase should be seen as an introduction to the next verse, rather than a sequel to this verse.

20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection- this is another of the “Blessed” statements found throughout the book of Revelation. It is an individual blessing, “blessed is he”, and defines those who are raised in the resurrection of life. Each can be said to be blessed, and holy. The blessing is gospel blessing, which comes as a result of faith in Christ. The holiness is gospel-holiness, for those who believe are “sanctified in Christ Jesus”, 1 Corinthians 1:2. Only these have a share in any of the stages of the first resurrection.
On such the second death hath no power- the second death is the lake of fire, the final abode of the lost, verse 14, and 21:8. Those who share in the first resurrection are completely freed from all liability to death. Their bodies, the last link they had with Adam’s fallen world, have been redeemed from death, and are have now put on immortality, the state of being untouchable by death. It is inconceivable that those who possess eternal life, the life of God, should be in death. As the Lord Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die”, John 11:25,26. So if a believer should die before the Lord comes, (represented in John 11 by Lazarus), he shall live in resurrection. And those who live, meaning they have not physically died, being believers, shall never die; they shall gain the resurrection without dying, and shall never see death afterwards. The reason why the second death has no power over believers is because the Lord Jesus has the keys of hell and of death, Revelation 1:18. He uses one key to lock the door of hell to believers, so that they do not go there, and He uses the other key to open the door of death to allow His people to emerge in resurrection. He has those keys because He has destroyed him that had the power of death by going into death voluntarily, thus showing the devil had no power over Him. He has also emerged by His own authority from the grave, showing He is in total control of that as well, John 10:18. So He not only has the keys but uses them, for He has dealt with all the factors that made His people liable to death.
But they shall be priests of God and of Christ- all who share in the first resurrection, the resurrection of life, shall serve God in a priestly way. This is the highest form of service, the ministering to the heart of God those things that gratify Him. And what gratifies Him most is the setting forth in His ear of the glories of His Son. In this they will be priests of Christ, too, for their priestly worship will centre on Him.
It will not matter if they are not of the tribe of Levi, because their priesthood will not be after the order of Aaron, but of Melchizedec, see Hebrews 7. After all, the majority of them will not be of Israel at all, so they will have no tribal connections. Because the Lord Jesus is a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec, we know there is no order of priesthood other than His, the Aaronic having been superceded and made obsolete by His priesthood. Melchizedec’s priesthood was not successional, for as far as the record goes he was without father. Who his father was did not affect his priesthood, unlike the Aaronic priests. His priesthood was not natural, because we are not told who his mother was. It was not tribal, for he was without descent or ancestry, as far as the record goes. His priesthood did not depend on which tribe he was. It was not temporal, for he had no beginning of days, nor was it mortal, for he had no end of life. But of prime importance is the fact that it was continual, with no end to it. And because there is no other order, it was final. All these features were set out simply by the fact that the record in the book of Genesis is deliberately silent on them. But the New Testament is certainly not silent on the subject of the priesthood of Christ. Such is the priesthood of Christ, and such must be the priesthood of believers also, for there is no other order of priesthood.
And shall reign with him a thousand years- the Melchizedec priesthood is unique in that it combines kingship with priesthood. This was not the case with the Aaronic priesthood, for that was occupied by descendants of Aaron, whilst the throne of Israel was occupied by descendants of Judah. When King Uzziah tried to enter the Holiest of All in the temple, he was judged by God, for he had sought to be king-priest, and this is ultimately Christ’s role, 2 Chronicles 26:16-21. Significantly, of the son of Uzziah it is said, “howbeit he entered not into the temple of the Lord”, 27:2. He had learned the lesson; it is good to learn from the mistakes of others, and not repeat them.
The fact that all who take part in the first resurrection reign with Christ, shows that it is not a position reserved for an elite company of believers, but is the portion of all. John writes, “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen”, Revelation 1:5,6. So the ones who are loved and washed, are also the ones made kings and priests.

THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE, THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, AS FOUND IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION CHAPTER 20, VERSES 7 TO 15:

20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

(c) Verses 7-10 The final rebellion against God) Verses 7-10 The final rebellion against God

20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

And when the thousand years are expired- this carries on from verses 1-3, where the binding of Satan is said to be for a thousand years. Now we learn what will happen at the end of that period.
Satan shall be loosed out of his prison- note how everything is under control, for Satan is bound and Satan is loosed simply and solely because it is the will of God that it should be so. The days when he could impose his evil will on angels and men is over.

20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth- we ask ourselves why this is allowed to happen, and what are its implications? Remember this event occurs after one thousand years of the perfect and beneficent rule of Christ over the earth. When, moreover, the curse has been lifted, and creation has been delivered from the bondage of corruption, Romans 8:20,21. After all that, and much more besides, there are still hearts that can be deceived.
But who are these people that show themselves to be unbelievers, and therefore capable of being deceived? By a process of elimination we shall have to say they are the children of the ones who had helped the preachers of the gospel of the kingdom during the Tribulation Period. We read of these in Matthew 25:31-40, and they are described as righteous, (for they would not have done what they did unless they were believers). They are given a place in the kingdom prepared for them by the Father. They do not seem to be given resurrection bodies, however, so they are capable of marrying and begetting children who would have the sin-principle within. It has to be like this, or the test of ideal conditions will not be a real one, for persons in resurrection do not rebel against God as some of these children of believers do. Those who enter at first will not rebel, being believers, but their children may do so, for eternal life is not inherited from parents. It is because there will be such people on earth, that Isaiah writes of sinners in that day, Isaiah 65:20.
It is those who have gone to the four quarters of the earth that are deceived. Being unbelievers, they have found that to be near Jerusalem and the rule of the King is not congenial, and they have moved as far away as possible. It was those who were on the outskirts of the crowd as Israel travelled through the wilderness that fell prey to the enemy. There is a lesson here for today, for our only safe course is to keep close to the Lord and His people.
Gog, and Magog- these are the two names that Ezekiel uses to speak of a group of nations that will come into the land of Israel in future times, and be slaughtered there, see Ezekiel 38 and 39. They come from the north country and invade the land of Israel, so the incident in this chapter is not the same. It is important to notice that Ezekiel tells us that Gog and Magog are the subject of the prophetic writings. His words were, “(Thus saith the Lord God; art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by My servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?) 38:17. It seems from this that Gog and Magog are names for the Assyrians and the Babylonians, whom God foretold would come against Israel. Be that as it may, it is clear that the enemies that are described in our verse as Gog and Magog are not the same, but they do inherit their name and reputation. This is all the more likely if they are the names of Israel’s habitual enemies over the centuries.
To gather them together to battle- despite the utter defeat of the armies that assembled at Armageddon, Satan seeks to marshall his forces once again in a last ditch attempt to spoil Christ’s reign, and prevent it from merging into the eternal kingdom.
The number of whom is as the sand of the sea- how tragic that they should be of the same number as the seed of Abraham, Genesis 22:17. Despite one thousand years of the reign of Christ, multitudes will still side with God’s arch-enemy. What a commentary on the ingratitude and rebellion of the heart of man! It is necessary for this to happen, so that the final way in which God will deal with men is shown to end with him rejecting God. Whatever the conditions, whether innocence, conscience, law, grace or kingdom, man cannot be changed by his environment, even if that environment is ordered of God. He must be born again with a birth which is from heaven, not earth.

20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

And they went up on the breadth of the earth- so instead of being an attack on the Land of Israel, as with the God and Magog of the time of Tribulation, this is a world-wide event.
And compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city- in the book of Daniel, the saints are angels, and it seems as though there will be an angel-army encamped around the holy city, in case this very situation arises. The word camp is a military word, and was used of the Castle Antonia that watched over the city of Jerusalem in Christ’s day, and on the steps of which Paul made his defence in Acts 21:37. There will be a way of holiness allowing access to the city from earth, Isaiah 35:8-10; and see also John 1:51. We know from Revelation 21:12 that angels will stand guard at the twelve gates of the city. Notice John calls it the beloved city, for it is the home of the bride of the Lamb, His Beloved.
And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them- if they will be anticipating the excitement of battle, they will be disappointed, for they are immediately judged by fire from heaven that utterly consumes them, with no trace left. What a contrast this is to what happened when the Lord was here in grace. James and John wanted to bring fire down from heaven upon the Samaritans, and they were severely rebuked, Luke 9:54-56. In the time of these events, however, righteousness will be ruling, and God’s enemies will be quickly judged.

20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone- this is the same place as is called Gehenna, and the Lord expressly says that it is the place of “everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels”, Matthew 25:41. Again there is no trial, for the prince of this world was judged at the cross, and by His conquest at Calvary over the forces of evil, the Lord guaranteed the overthrow of Satan, and this is what is described here. Because the Devil is a spirit-being, the fire must be of such a sort as torments even spirits. The fire burns, and the brimstone chokes, twin punishment for those who rebel against God.
Where the beast and the false prophet are- even after the passing of one thousand years, they are still there, with no possibility of escape. The same is the case with the men of Sodom, for Jude tells us that they are “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire”, Jude 7. Even though they are not yet in the lake of fire, but are in hell, the fire is still eternal, telling us that there is no escape from it, for the only exit leads to the lake of fire. So it is that the trinity of evil will be utterly defeated, and consigned to a place from which they shall never emerge to spoil God’s creation.

Should any read these lines who are not saved, then please take solemn note of what is written in the sure word of God, and flee from the wrath to come. There is only one place to flee, and that is to Christ, who delivers from wrath and judgement.

And shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever- when we think of all the torment that men have endured during their lives for various reasons, it is only strict justice that the one who brought it upon them should himself be tormented, and that for ever. That the torment is day and night is the language of accommodation, for time is no longer in eternity. Yet it seems from this expression that in some strange way the passing of time will be experienced, and a sense of the length of eternity will be given to men and devils.

(d) Verses 10-15 The Great White Throne judgement

20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

And I saw a great white throne- this is not the sort of throne where rewards and rebukes are given, (for then the word used would be “bema”, the sort of seat Christ will sit on to assess the activities and attitudes of His people), but where irreversible verdicts are issued. It is a place from which judicial decisions are made known, against which there is no appeal. It is, moreover, set up on the very edge of eternity, when destinies are fixed for ever.
It is great because of the greatness of the one who sits upon it; because of the issues involved, and also because of the great number of people, alas, who shall stand there.
It is white because there is no suspicion of corruptness about this throne, for it is the throne of God. The one who sits on it is absolutely righteous, and His verdict is perfectly just. He cannot be bribed or argued with. Men will have nothing to say as they stand before it. It’s whiteness will expose the dark deeds of men as they stand before it.
It is a throne because the one who sits upon it is King of Eternity. He occupies that throne not to oversee a process of accusation and defence leading to a verdict. The verdict has been long-settled, and it only remains to issue the sentence and see it is carried out. Moreover, because the God of all the earth does right, Genesis 18:25, then there can be no appeal against the verdict. Nothing man may plead can overturn the decision of the Divine Judge.
And Him that sat on it- we are not specifically told who this is in this place. But elsewhere we learn that “the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the Son”, John 5:22. The next verse tells us the reason, “that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.” That all men do not currently honour the Son is seen in the next verse, where we read of “he that honoureth not the Son”.
So much for the direct information as to who will be the judge, but we learn by implication too, for God said through Isaiah, “I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear”, Isaiah 45:23. Yet we read in Romans 14:10 that “we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ. For it is written, ‘As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God'”. The apostle has no hesitation in saying that the one to whom every knee shall bow is Christ. The fact that he is referring to the Bema, the judgement seat where Christ shall assess His people, is not the point. The throne of God is occupied by Christ, the Son of God.
So it is that one day “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow…every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”, Philippians 2:10,11. So not only did His claim to be in the form of God not rob God in eternity past, (as we speak), verse 6, nor shall the bowing of every knee to Him rob the Father of glory either, for it will be to the glory of God that it takes place, and He will not only be glorified when it happens, but also eternally. God will see to it that Jesus is recognised as being equal with Himself, and thus He will be honoured as the Father is honoured.
From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away- the apostle Peter wrote of this when he penned, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up”, 2 Peter 3:10. Men may advance their theory about the origin of the universe being with a Big Bang, but the truth is that the universe began with a whisper, for Job, having described some of the great works of God in creation said, “Lo, these are parts of His ways, but how little a portion is heard of Him? But the thunder of His power who shall understand”, Job 26:14. The expression “how little a portion” could be rendered “what a whisper”. Having begun with a whisper, creation shall pass away with a noise. That is the only true Big Bang.
So the passing away of the heavens is followed by them being burnt up. Perhaps it is the speed at which they depart that shall result in the disintegration of all things. Be that as it may, all things shall be dissolved, as Peter goes on to say in verse 12. And the cause of this happening is the look on the face of the one who sits on the throne. In the days of His flesh His look was one of compassion, sympathy and kindness, and little children were happy to sit on His knee, but now all is different, for grace has given way to judgement. Job said that God “holdeth back the face of His throne, and spreadeth His cloud upon it”, Job 26:9. In other words, He protects men from the full glory of His throne; but in the day we are thinking of it will be otherwise.
And there was found no place for them- the purpose for their creation has been realised, and there is no place for them any more in God’s scheme of things, for He will create new heavens and a new earth. There will not even be a place in His memory for them, for God said through Isaiah, “For behold I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind”, Isaiah 65:17.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God- we read in 1 Corinthians 15:21, “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead”. Through the sin of the first man Adam physical death was inflicted on all who came from him, Romans 5:12. This being the case, it is entirely appropriate that the one who should reverse the results of the first man’s sin, Christ, should Himself be man. He must be a man to be able to die, and because by His death He dealt effectively with the consequences of the sin of the first man, He has every right to rise again. The apostle goes on, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”. As a result of Adam’s sin, men die physically, one by one. This is not a reference to being dead in trespasses and sins. We are born into that condition, we do not die to get into it. We do, however, die to get into a state of physical death. But there is a sequel, for all shall be made alive. Note that the apostle does not say “Those in Christ shall all be made alive”, even though that is true. To die in Adam means to fall in death by his instrumentality, to be made alive in Christ means to rise again from the dead through His instrumentality. All die because of something Adam did, namely, commit sin, and this brought in physical death for all who are linked to him. Christ did something too, namely, rise from the dead, and all shall rise from the dead in virtue of that. There is no reason to deny that the “all” is the same company.

This does not mean that all shall be saved, but it does mean that all, whether saint or sinner, shall be brought forth from the grave in their respective resurrection days.

Revelation 20:5 says that the wicked dead “lived not again until the thousand years was finished”, and then they stand before God, so there is support for the idea of sinners living again, as well as rising again. They will return to the natural state they were in before, ready to be consigned to damnation, for the Lord calls it “the resurrection of damnation”, John 5:29. God has given assurance to all men that He will judge the world, by raising Christ from the dead, Acts 17:31. Note also that the apostle declares that the last enemy, which is death, will be destroyed, 1 Corinthians 15:26, which happens when the unsaved dead are brought out of Hades, and death is then cast into the Lake of Fire, Revelation 20:14. It was by one man, Adam, that death came into the world, and it was by one man, Christ, that the idea of resurrection came in also. Because He rose from the dead, He established the principle that men rise, all of them, saint and sinner. And it is this that is in view in our verse.

Special note on the four main judgement days
1. There is the day the Lord Jesus suffered and died on the cross. “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only: but also for the sins of the whole world”, 1 John 2:2. Propitiation involves the Saviour satisfying the wrath of God in regard to sin, accepting the consequences of that sin in Himself, and bearing the wrath of God that was due to each sin. God must judge sin, either in the person of the sinner, or in the person of a suitable substitute. The only available, effective, and willing substitute is Christ. Relevant Scriptures are 1 John 2:2; 4:10; Romans 3:24,25; Romans 5:18,19; Romans 6:6,7; John 5:24.

2. There is the Judgement Seat of Christ, sometimes referred to as The Bema, for that is the Greek word used for seat. This will take place in heaven after the Rapture of the church saints. This is not a judicial session, for sins as deserving the wrath of God will not be in view at that time. Only believers will be present. The matters under review will be the believer’s service in relation to the local assembly; his service in relation to the world, and his attitude to fellow-believers. The result of the Lord’s assessment of His people at this time will determine the level of reward they receive for what they have done for Him. Some Scriptures referring to this are Romans 14:10-13; 1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Colossians 3:25; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 1 John 2:28; Rev. 22:12,13.

3. There is the Judgement of the Living Nations, as described by the Lord Himself in Matthew 25:31-46. This is not to be confused with the judgement at the end of time. Rather, it takes place immediately after the Lord has come in glory to set up His kingdom on earth, and those alive at that time will be assessed as to their attitude to the believers who have passed through that period. What they did will show whether they are believers are not, for as the apostle John writes, “he that doeth righteousness is righteous”, 1 John 3:7. That does not mean that righteousness may be gained by doing righteous acts, for that is contrary to the gospel, and in any case, sinners are not able to do righteous acts. The apostle is saying that a righteous nature will invariably manifest itself in righteous deeds. And this is what marked those who are blessed at this judgement, for they will have shown real faith by their attitude to suffering believers. All such will be allowed into the kingdom, those who are not such go to the Lake of Fire. Some relevant scriptures are: Matthew 25:31-46; Acts 17:30,31; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10; Hebrews 10:26,27; Jude 14,15.

4. The Great White Thone Judgement, which we are thinking of now. Other references are Acts 17:30,31; Romans 2:5-16; 2 Peter 2:9; 3:7.

Special note on the subject of death

Death is presented to us, in the main, in four different ways in the Scriptures, as follows:

1. Spiritual death. This has to do with the separation of a person from God, who warned man at the beginning that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “Thou shalt surely die”, Genesis 2:17. Sadly, man listened to the lie of the Devil, who said, “Ye shall not surely die”, 3:4. So it was that the moment Adam sinned he was separated from God, and “dead in trespasses and sins”, Ephesians 2:1. His communion with God was broken. The Lord Jesus taught the doctrine of spiritual death, for He said that he that believes in Him “is passed from death unto life”, John 5:24.

2. Physical death. As a consequence of spiritual death, man became mortal, and physical death is his lot. The apostle Paul put it like this, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”, Romans 5:12. Physical death is the separation of the spirit from the body, for James tells us that “the body without the spirit is dead”, James 2:26. The reason this happens, even to believers, is that the sin-principle, which is the cause of physical death, is in all men. Only in the moment of resurrection will believers leave the sin-principle behind, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57.

3. Moral death. This applies only to believers. The apostle wrote to the believers at Rome and said, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”, Romans 8:13. No true believer is in the flesh, (“ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit”, verse 9), but he can walk, or live his life, after the flesh, (which is his sinful side, which still remains because of the sin-principle within the body). All the while he lives like that he is not living the true Christian life, and those hours, or months, or even years spent living in this way do not count in God’s reckoning, so he is temporarily dead as to true Christian living. This is illustrated by the prodigal as he went into the far country away from fellowship with his father. When he came back, his father said, “this my son was dead, and is alive again”, Luke 15:24. The solution for the prodigal was to come back into practical fellowship with his father. And this is the answer for the believer, too.

4. The second death. This is defined for us in Revelation 21:8, where we read, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death”. We know from another scripture that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement”, Hebrews 9:27. So the second death is not a second dying, but a second state of death, the first one being when the sinner dies, and body and spirit are separated.

To return to the passage. The small and great are present at the great white throne judgement, for even though a man may not be noticed by his fellow-man, he is noticed by God, who takes account of his doings. And the great are there. Their prominence on earth has not resulted in them avoiding the judgement of the great day. They might have influenced events, and other men, while they were on earth, but they will not influence the occupier of the throne. It is not position in society that is the relevant issue here, but position before God, and sin is the great leveller, for “there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, Romans 3:22,23.

The tragedy is that all of these people might have had a standing before God far different to this one, as they stood as guilty sinners before Him, waiting to be judged. They could have believed the gospel, and might have been justified by faith, and as a result had peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and His work at Calvary, and a standing in grace before Him as a result. Here, however, they have a standing in guilt, and instead of being justified, they are judged.

And the books were opened- God takes account of every detail of the lives of men, and records it in His books of works. It does not matter if men did not know of things, or knowing them, ignored them, or worse still, did not execute true justice upon them if God’s laws were broken. All shall be remedied here, and full and fair justice will be administered. The degree of guilt will be met with the correct degree of eternal punishment. All shall be in proportion, with the level of responsibility, (which is adjusted according to the level of light known), reflected in the level of severity of judgement. It cannot be that eternity should run its course with matters outstanding, and justice not done. That would reflect on the character of God.
And another book was opened, which is the book of life- this is not to be confused with the book of the living, to which Moses and the psalmist referred. When Israel sinned by worshipping the golden calf, Moses offered to die for the nation, and said, “Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin-; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of the book which Thou hast written”, Exodus 32:32. God’s response was, “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of My book”, verse 33. In other words, Moses’ offer to die for the nation was not acceptable, (after all, he had killed an Egyptian), for each must die for his own sin. And this happened, for those who did not side with Moses in the situation were slain. Only Christ could die for the nation, for He alone was sinless.
David wrote a psalm in which he spoke of God’s omniscience. And this extended even to when he was in his mother’s womb. He wrote, “My substance was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eye did see My substance being yet unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them”, Psalm 139:13,14. So we learn that not only does God have a book in which he records all that are alive upon the earth, and blots out their names when they die, but he records the unborn also, for they are living also. Moreover, He goes into detail about the physical condition of the unborn. Those who advocate, or go through with, or carry out abortions, should take note of this, for this passage declares it to be murder. It is a sad commentary on life today in the world that you are not safe in the womb, and you are not safe in old age. There are those of murderous intent who would carry out their wicked agenda at both ends of our life-span if they could. How thankful we should be that the Spirit of God restrains the lawlessness of men.
So much for the book of the living, but our passage speaks of the book of life. Whereas the former is of those who have natural life, the latter is the catalogue of those who have eternal life. The Lord Jesus exhorted the seventy disciples He had sent forth to preach to rejoice because their names were written in heaven, Luke 10:30, and this was true of those who had helped the apostle Paul in his evangelism, Philippians 4:3. Where those names were written is learned from Revelation 13:8, which speaks of “the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”. And in case we think this means that the Lamb is slain from the foundation of the world, we learn from the later reference that there are those “whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world”, Revelation 17:8, meaning they were not believers. Of course it is true that the Lord Jesus, as God’s Lamb, was foreordained before the foundation of the world, 1 Peter 1:20, and our verse does not deny that, nor does it assert it.
So the names are written from the foundation of the world, and in God’s foreknowledge they were inscribed there to assure His people that their position before Him is secure, for their names are on His membership-roll. This book is opened to show that the names of those standing before the throne are not, in fact, inscribed there. There may be many at that day who will claim to be believers, but consultation with this book will show the falsity of their claim.
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works- even though they are in resurrection conditions, (for they are standing), these are still described as dead, for they are dead in trespasses and sins. Their judgement will be in exact proportion to the seriousness of their sins, and the assessment will be made formally by the judge by reference to the books, (for each has his own book), so they will have no excuse.

20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it- John now explains how it was that he could see the dead stand before God. Is this a metaphor of some sort, or is this real? It is real, for John goes into detail. Those who had been buried or drowned at sea, and had no known and marked grave, these are not exempt from the call of the voice of the Son of Man, as He summons them from their place. No matter if their bodies have been devoured by the beasts of the sea. The God of resurrection will recall it all. After all, the apostle, when writing of the resurrection of the saints, says, “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption”, 1 Corinthians 15:42, the “it” referring to the body. So it matters not how long a body has been disintegrating in the grave, it, (the same body that was buried), will be raised. How this will be accomplished we are not told, but it will certainly take place. There is a sense in which a man’s body is not only an item, but an idea. After all, millions of cells in that body die and are replaced every day, so we go to sleep with a different body to the one we woke up with. Yet we do not hesitate to say it is the same body.
And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them- having established that the body will be brought back from the most difficult place from which to bring it, John is now free to speak in less literal terms, and refers to the place where the body is, death, and the place where the soul is, hell. These are not only locations, but forces, and they are here compelled to give up their prey by the superior power of Christ, the raiser of the dead. Even by this action He is glorified, for He is “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”, Romans 1:4. Every time the dead are raised, whether during the ministry of Christ, or at His own resurrection, or when the church saints are raised at the rapture, or when Old Testament saints are raised at His coming, or now here at the end of time, He is glorified. The Lord Jesus taught that the unsaved will be reunited with their bodies, and will be “salted with fire”, Mark 9:48,49. This means that just as meat is salted to preserve it, so men shall find that the very fire that torments them is the fire that preserves them. They shall never be burnt up, and so escape the judgement.
And they were judged every man according to their works- the unsaved will be reunited with their bodies, so they will stand before God in the very body in which they sinned against Him, and which they used to further their own interests, not His. Again we are told that the judgement is according to their works. There will be a strict correlation between what they did and what they will receive, for “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”, Galatians 6:7.

20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire- having been emptied of their contents, death that claimed the body and hell that claimed the soul shall be forever empty, for they are here said, in figurative language, to be cast into the Lake of Fire. They will never again have a separate existence, thus warning us that the only place for the unsaved in eternity is in the Lake of Fire. This is what the apostle Paul referred to when he wrote, “For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”, 1 Corinthians 15:26. So death will be abolished, or made of no effect at the end of Christ’s reign. It will never claim anyone any more, and God will be vindicated when this happens, for He will have shown Himself stronger that all His foes as Christ defeats them one by one.
This is the second death- the “this” refers to the lake of fire, not the casting of death and hell into the lake of fire. We see this from 21:8, where sinners are said to “have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death”. So the second death is a constant state of separation from God in a place of torment. With heaven and earth gone away, death and hell abolished, there is only one place for the sinner to be.

20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire- one of the the last actions before the unsaved reach their final, eternal destination, is to consult the book of life. God knows that their names are not there, for they have never believed the truth, but to assure them that their judgement is fair and just, it is shown that their names are in fact absent from the book.

We know that just before men enter into their eternal ruin they will be required to do something. We read that God has exalted the Lord Jesus after His obedience to the extent of enduring the cross. /he has also given Him a name which is above every name. This has a purpose, namely “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”, Philippians 2:9-11. So the giving of the name is so that every knee shall bow to Christ, and every tongue should confess Him Lord. And this men will do when the proceedings of the great white throne have concluded. So it will be that every creature which is currently either in heaven, or on earth, or in hell, shall bow and confess. No being shall exist anywhere that does not acknowledge the Deity of Christ.

Is is not the wise thing to do to acknowledge this now, and receive blessing, rather than wait, and receive judgement? As the apostle wrote about the word of the gospel:

“But what saith it?

‘The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart’,

that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,

and shalt believe in thine heart

that God hath raised Him from the dead,

thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;

and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

For the scripture saith, ‘Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed’.

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek:

for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.

For ‘Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved'”, Romans 10:8-13.

THE PERSON OF CHRIST: His temptation.

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THE PERSON OF CHRIST: His temptation

“For in that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted”, Hebrews 2:18.

The verse quoted above suggests to us a way of approaching the subject of temptation. We may think of it in relation to “He Himself”. Then the fact that “He suffered, being tempted”, then the fact that “He is able to succour them that are tempted”.

He Himself

The first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews opens with seven rays of the Divine glory of Christ. Then continues with seven rights He possesses because of that glory. Then in chapter two there are seven reasons why He became man. First, to vindicate God’s trust in man, verses 5-8; then to consummate God’s purpose, verse 9; to elevate God’s people, verses 10-13; to eradicate the Devil, verse 14; to emancipate the slaves, verse 15; to propitiate sins, verses 16 and 17; to relate to their temptations, verse 18.

We must be very careful when considering the subject of the temptation of the Lord Jesus. In our earnest attempt to understand it, (insofar as it is possible to do so), we must remember the uniqueness of His person. He is the Son of God, and as such is not able to sin, or else God is able to sin. When He took manhood, He did not cease to be what He always was. Scripture teaches that He who is in the form of God took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Note that He took the likeness of men upon Himself as one who is in the form of God. He added manhood to His Deity. He did not modify His Deity to accommodate His manhood. He now possesses two natures, yet remains one person. Now it is persons that sin, not natures, so because He remains the same person He ever was, then for that reason He is not able to sin. Because He remains God, like God He cannot be tempted with evil, James 1:13, for it holds no attraction for Him at all. He does not have to weigh up the situation and make a decision whether to give in or not- for Him, sinning is not an option.

He is not able to sin for a related reason also. When He came into the world, the Son of God expressed the resolve to do God’s will, Hebrews 10:7. The fact that He did indeed perform the will of God perfectly, is not only known by His own testimony, “I do always those things which please Him”, John 8:29, and, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do”, John 17:4, (and if it were not so He would have told us, John 14:2), but also from the fact that He has returned to the throne from which He was sent, and has sat down there with Divine approval, Hebrews 10:12.

It may be objected that the Lord Jesus did certain things which it is not possible for God the Father to do. He slept, (But “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep”, Psalm 121:4), He hungered and thirsted, (but God needeth not anything, Acts 17:25), and He died, (but God is from everlasting to everlasting, Psalm 90:2; the Living God, Acts 14:15). Christ did indeed experience these things, but He did so, not because His Deity was weakened or modified, but precisely because He was God, and as such could will to do these things. It was part of what He willingly accepted when He became man.

We are told by those who believe that Christ did not sin, but could have done so, that He needs to be like that to relate to His people, who are capable of sinning. The people of God, however, are born of God, and as such do not practice sin as a habit. 1 John 3:9. They do, alas, commit sins, but they do so when acting after the flesh, and God does not look on His people as if they are in the flesh, but in the Spirit, Romans 8:9. When believers commit sins they need, and have, an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, who pleads the value of His work at Calvary.

It is true that the statement, “Jesus Christ could not sin”, is not found in Scripture. But the truth is certainly found there, and it is implied overwhelmingly by the whole doctrine about Christ and his Person. Is it realistic to suggest that a person who could sin would be able to pass through this world with all its temptations, be assailed by the wickedest, cleverest force for evil in the world, even the Devil himself, and not succumb? Also, if He could sin when on earth, how are we sure that He cannot sin now? His condition has changed, it is true, but His person has not; if He could sin then, He could sin now. This is unthinkable.

He hath suffered, being tempted

We should remember that because a person is tempted, it should not be assumed that he is able to give in to temptation, for there may be infinite ability to resist. This is the case with Christ. Because too often we do give in to temptation, we tend to think that this is part of the idea in the word. It is not so, however. After all, the children of Israel tempted God in the wilderness, Hebrews 3:9, but there is no possibility of God sinning. It is one of the things He cannot do, for He cannot deny Himself, and He is holy and righteous.

The word for tempt is the sort of word that in Bible times a metal refiner would use. In 1 Peter 1:6,7, the apostle refers to manifold temptations, and these temptations put faith to the test. Now just as a metal refiner put his metal through the test of the fire, so that he could skim off the dross that floated to the surface, so the trial of our faith has a like effect in the moral sphere. Job could say, “When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold”, Job 23:10. The refiner would continue heating and skimming until he could see his own face reflected without distortion in the molten metal. In like manner the Lord allows us to go through trials so that the dross of likeness to Adam may be removed, and the likeness of Christ may be seen reflected in the metal. If we respond to this process, then when the Lord comes there will be a discovery, (hence the word “found” in 1 Peter 1:7), of conformity to Christ, and this will be to His praise. Men refine gold to adorn their own persons, but this “gold” is for the praise, honour and glory of the one who brings the trial. Ordinary gold, even when it has been tried many times in the fire until the dross has all been removed, will, despite its preciousness, still perish at the dissolution of all things, 2 Peter 3:10,11. Spiritual gold, however, which results from the testing of our faith, will last for ever.

With the Lord Jesus there was no dross, but that did not prevent the fire of temptation putting Him to the test in order that it might be evident that this was the case. As He Himself said, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me”, John 14:30.

Note the gospel records of the temptation that came at the beginning of Christ’s public ministry. Matthew records them because he wishes to show us the King who is perfectly fitted to rule over men, and require them to obey His law. He has not the moral right to demand this if He is liable to sin. As David said, “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God”, 2 Samuel 23:3.

Matthew records the final three temptations of the forty days in the order in which they occurred, so the climax, appropriately for the Gospel of the King, is the refusal of the kingdoms of the world. These will be Christ’s one day, not from the Devil, but from His Father, as Psalm 2:8 says, “Ask of me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession”. The word Matthew uses for the leading into the wilderness is the same as is used of Israel being led in the wilderness, Psalm 80:1, thus he is continuing his contrast between Israel of old, and the true Israel, Christ Himself, Isaiah 49:3. He has already applied “Out of Egypt have I called My son”, to Christ, Matthew 2:15, and then recorded the baptism of Christ, in effect His crossing of the Jordan. Now He is led into the wilderness. But note the order, for Israel were brought out of Egypt, led into the wilderness to be tested, (to see whether they would walk in God’s way or not, Deuteronomy 8:2), and then commanded to cross the Jordan into the land. But the word from heaven at Christ’s baptism assures us that there does not need to be a wilderness experience to see if He will walk in God’s ways, for that is already established, and the word from heaven confirms it. The book of Deuteronomy, from which Christ quoted twice in this incident, was the preparation of the people for entry into the land, but He mused upon it, confident that He was, Joshua-like, fit to enter into the work of God, and introduce others into the kingdom of God.

Whilst Mark gives us no detail of the temptation itself, he does mention three things. First, that Christ was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. Does this mean He was reluctant? This cannot be. Mark presents us with Christ as Jehovah’s perfect servant, and as such He was ever willing. But as a servant, He had made Himself of no reputation, Philippians 2:7, and His triumph in the wilderness will mean reputation. Thus, whilst willing, He also is continuing to make Himself of no reputation, and needs to be urged on by the Spirit. There is a contrast with Adam, whom God drove out of the garden because of his failure to resist temptation

The second thing is the mention of wild beasts. What an evidence of the failure of the first man to serve God! The animals had been brought to Adam, and he had served God by naming them, but at that point no trace of wildness was in them. Now it is different, for sin has come in, and with it the corruption of creation, Romans 8:20,21, so that the animals are now wild. Christ began His ministry amongst the wild beasts, and finished it by riding into Jerusalem on an untamed ass, for He is the one who has all things under His feet, including the beasts of the field, Psalm 8:7, the sheep and oxen, John 2:14, and the birds of the air, Mark 14:30, and the fish of the sea, whether the shoals or the individual fish, Luke 5:4-7; Matthew 17:27. He shows clearly by this that He is God’s millenial man.

Thirdly, we learn that angels ministered unto Him. The ministry that Jacob knew, He knew too. But with this difference. Jacob was ministered to by angels before his temptations, in order to strengthen him for the trial. See Genesis 28:12; 31:11; 32:1. However, it was after the temptation in the wilderness had been successfully dealt with by Christ that the angels came, as Matthew 4:11 makes clear. He met the temptations, and overcame them, by the use of the same means as is available to believers, namely, the indwelling Spirit and the word of God.

John gives to us no mention of the Temptation, but he does give us the sequel. Having been tempted, the Lord Jesus came up out of the wilderness to meet John the Baptist, who, seeing Him come unto him in that way, exclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”, John 1:29. Here is the testimony of the son of a priest, that the Lord Jesus is not only the counterpart of the fit man of Leviticus 16:21, but also the scapegoat-in-waiting as well. He is shown to be without blemish by His experience in the wilderness, and thus is both fit and suitable for the task of bearing sin at God’s appointed time.

Coming to Luke’s account, we notice that he puts the genealogy of Christ immediately preceding the temptation. Matthew had begun with the King’s genealogy, and started at the baseline of Abraham and David, the two who had received promises from God about the future kingdom, Abraham receiving the promise of the Seed and the Land, David receiving promise concerning the House and the Throne. Matthew starts in the past, and finishes with Christ, for He represents the hope for the future.

Luke’s genealogy of Christ goes back in time, right back to Adam, described as son of God. Luke is clearly contrasting Christ, not with Israel in the wilderness, as Matthew does, but with Adam in the garden, surrounded by every tree that was good for food. Adam fell when surrounded by plenty, yet Christ, the second man, 1 Corinthians 15:47, triumphed when in want. Luke therefore ranges over the whole of human history up to that point, and challenges any to restore that which Adam took away, see Psalm 69:4. His extensive genealogy of Christ, going back to the beginning as it does, (Luke’s intention was to go back to the beginning of things, Luke 1:2,3), is also a challenge to Satan, to fail where he succeeded before.

Just as Goliath had challenged Israel for forty days to give him a man to fight, 1 Samuel 17:16, so Satan for forty centuries had challenged God to do the same. At last there is one who can meet the challenge. Just as David defeated Goliath with just one of the five stones he had hidden in his shepherd’s bag, so Christ defeated the Devil with the use of just one of the five books of Moses, which He had hidden in His shepherd heart. And why did David choose five stones? Goliath had four sons, 2 Samuel 21:15-22, and David was ready for them, too. So Christ knew that the Devil, although defeated in the wilderness, would come again, and the rest of Scripture would defeat him then.

Note that He is tempted of the Devil, which name means accuser. Yet he does not come with accusations, but temptations. He can bring no charge concerning those silent years in Nazareth, any more that the men of Nazareth could when the Lord went back there to the synagogue, Luke 4:16. Their objection to Him lay in what He said about the Gentiles, not about any character-fault during His years amongst them. No doubt if Christ had sinned when tempted, the Devil would have been quick to accuse before God, but it was not to be. The most evil and most wise created being is now attacking Christ, in order that he might overthrow God’s purpose through Him. Many had been his attempts to destroy the seed of the woman in Old Testament times. These had all failed, so now his scheme is to divert the Lord from the pathway of obedience, trust, and confidence, which led to the cross.

We note too the word that Luke uses for led, for it is the same one that is used of believers being led of the Spirit, in Romans 8:14. So He is moving into the temptation experience confident of the guidance of the Spirit in the matter. He does not act independently either of His Father or the Spirit, for Divine Persons by definition cannot act independently of one another, for God is One.

The order of the temptations in Luke is significant. It is body, soul, spirit, the same order in which Luke, a doctor, would have assessed his patients. First their bodily condition, then the soul-attitude, and then, as a Christian doctor, their spiritual condition. So first of all there is a temptation to do with physical hunger, then one to do with mental ambition, then to do with spiritual attitudes to God. It is worth noting that it was only after the temptations were over, that He felt hunger, as Luke 4:2 makes clear. John the Baptist had been sustained in the desert by locusts and wild honey, so it was not that there was no food in the place. The point is that Christ was so absorbed by the word of God that the pangs of hunger did not affect Him. He was without food willingly, not by force of circumstances. So when the temptation about food came, the response was based on the Scriptures that fed His soul. He was the perfect example of one to whom the word of God was more important than necessary food, for “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God”, Luke 4:4.

So, too, with the temptation to accept the kingdoms of the world immediately. His baptism had been His re-commitment to Calvary, so He had already given His answer to the idea that He was willing to escape death. And He had gone into the wilderness with His Father’s endorsement ringing in His ears. There was no doubt that His Father was on His side, so there was no need to test this out.

Of course, his temptations did not begin or finish with the temptation in the wilderness. Throughout His life He was tested. As to the body He knew hunger, thirst, tiredness and pain. As to the soul he knew sadness, joy, a sense of anticipation, a sense of disappointment, and loneliness, rejection and trouble. As to the spirit He knew the unbelief of men, the slowness of His disciples to learn, but also He rejoiced in spirit that all things were in the Father’s hand. He knew, too, what it was to groan in spirit as He neared the grave of a friend, and the ravages that sin had wrought in the earth were borne in upon Him. Borne in upon Him also, the thought that soon He too was to be in the cold dark tomb.

He can be tempted in all points, because He has been made in all things like unto His brethren, (the word “things” is the same as “points” in 4:15), Hebrews 2:17, and thus suffers as a real man. Although His temptations are over, He has taken His sympathetic heart to heaven, and fully knowing what our trials are like, can minister just the help we need. Are we tempted to doubt God’s goodness? He has been tempted by the Devil in that regard. His suggestion that Christ should turn a stone into bread carried with it the implication that His Father had not been caring for Him enough. The promise to the Messiah was “I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son”, Hebrews 1:5, but the Devil suggested that the Father had not been true to His pledge, and had left His Son without resources.

God had provided for multitudes of Israelites for forty years in the wilderness, yet His own Son had only been there for forty days, and there was no food! Later on in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, He would point out that fathers do not give their sons stones when they ask for bread, Luke 11:11, yet here was the Son Himself, surrounded by stones, yet He had no bread! What a trial this was, far greater than the temptation that had come to Adam with regard to food, for he was surrounded by a plentiful supply. He did not need to eat of the forbidden fruit to save himself from starvation. There was no dissatisfaction in the heart of the Lord Jesus, however, for He had better food than material bread. Every word which proceeded out of the mouth of God was valued as His necessary food. There had come no indication from the scriptures on which His soul fed, that He should turn a stone into bread, and thus He was content.

So absorbed with the word of God was He, that it is only after the temptation that He hungered physically. By basing His reply to the Devil on God’s word, and especially since the quotation begins, “Man shall not live”, He clearly indicates that this victory over temptation can be ours as well as His, for we can all insert our name where the word “man” occurs. He does not assert His Divine authority and say, “Verily, verily, I say unto you”, but simply quotes what is already written, as we may do. When we are tempted to doubt God’s goodness, then we should we cry for help, and He will show us in God’s word those things that demonstrate the reality of God’s goodness to us.

We also may be tempted to double-mindedness in relation to God, eager to worship and serve Him, but at the same time attracted to the glamour of this passing world. To those thus tempted, and who come to Him for help, there is the example of Christ’s resolute determination to serve God with undivided heart, and an equally resolute determination to resist the Devil. Satan had positioned himself between Christ and His Father, but the Lord will not tolerate this, and commands the Devil to get behind him, clearly refusing to bow down to him.

The kingdoms of this world will one day be Christ’s, Revelation 11:15, but He will receive them from His Father, Psalm 2:8, and not from the Devil. Those who triumph in this aspect of temptation do so because they rest in the purpose of God. How great would the Devil’s victory have been if he could have given the world to Christ without Calvary!

Then again, we may be tempted to wonder whether God’s promises are really true, and begin to doubt Him. This temptation has come to our Saviour as well, but His firm rebuff to the Devil we may take up too, “Thou shall not tempt the Lord Thy God”. His word should be enough for us- “Hath He not spoken, and shall He not do it?” So the Lord refuses to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple simply to see whether God’s word is true or not.

God’s provision, God’s purpose, God’s promises- is there anything not covered by these three? Christ has been tempted in all points like as we are, and we may overcome as He overcame, by the right use of the Word of God, as we are led by the Spirit of God in ways that glorify God.

He is able to succour them that are tempted.

There is a further question that may rise in our mind, and it relates to the fact of the sinlessness of Christ. Can He really know how we feel since He had no sinful urges from within? In addressing this problem we must remember two things. First, that the more holy a person is, the more suffering will he feel when he is tempted. But Christ is infinitely holy, and therefore temptation to Him was extreme suffering, for “He suffered, being tempted”, Hebrews 2:18. Because the temptations came from without does not mean that they were less real. Second, that Christ does not sympathize with us in those temptations which come from within, but He, as God’s Son, does enable us to break free from them through the application of truths such as are found in Romans 6. “The Son shall make you free…the truth shall make you free”, John 8:36,32. When we obey from the heart that form of doctrine that has been delivered to us, Romans 6:17, and in particular the truth regarding our association with Christ in His crucifixion, burial and resurrection, as detailed in Romans 6, then we shall be made free from bondage to indwelling sin. If we do sin through giving in to indwelling sin, we need an advocate, not a sympathizer, and this we have, 1 John 2:1.

The priesthood of the Lord Jesus comes in when we are in danger of giving way to temptation. Like Melchizedec, who brought bread and wine to Abraham to strengthen him before his trial with the king of Sodom, Genesis 14:17-24, Christ ministers to us the truth as to His life, (the bread), during which He successfully resisted all temptations. He also imparts to us the truth as to His death, (the wine), when He not only resisted unto blood, striving against sin, Hebrews 12:2-4, but also died for our sins, 9:14. By these means our souls are strengthened for the conflict.

Temptation may come to us in three different ways. There are the trials of life, which test our faith in God. 1 Peter 1:5-7 speaks of these. This is a test because of fidelity to God. Then James 1:12-16 speaks of temptation which comes from within, because of carnality. We have within us still the capacity to sin, and the remedy for this is not the sympathy of a high priest, for He does not, (and indeed cannot), sympathize with this. He has not practical experience of it, being all pure within. The remedy for this is the application of the truths found in Romans chapter six, where we are exhorted to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin.

The third kind is the test of infirmity, which Hebrews 4:14-16 deals with. In Hebrews 3:1 we are reminded that we have a faithful apostle and high priest in the person of our Saviour. As apostle He corresponds to Moses, sent out by God to the people. As High Priest, He corresponds to Aaron, who went in to God for the people. But neither of these two entered the land of Canaan! Both were marked by failure, despite their office. Now Hebrews 4:15 says we have not a high priest like that. He has passed right into the heavens, not stopping at the entrance, but calmly taking His rightful place on the right hand of the very throne of God. We have one who is Jesus, the Man of chapter two in all His matchless purity, and the Son of God, the One of the first chapter in all His Divine authority. He combines sympathy, authority and ability as none other has done, or could do.

This gives us great reason to hold fast our confession. The passage from chapter 3:7 to 4:13 forms a parenthesis in the epistle, the second of the warning passages, showing how that Israel, in the wilderness, failed to hold fast, and were deprived of the land as a result. Tempted by their wilderness experience, they responded by tempting God, an incident referred to in one of the passages Christ quoted to the Devil, Luke 4:12; Deuteronomy 6:16. Even men like Moses and Aaron could not prevent their fall. The reason being that Aaron in particular was himself compassed with infirmity, as chapter 5 explains. We are relieved to learn that we do not have a high priest like Aaron, who was unable to sympathize fully with the people. We have as High Priest one who is free from sin in all its manifestations, and who is therefore qualified to take up our case when we are tempted.

The writer describes Aaron and his line as taken from among men, 5:1, and being such, compassed with infirmity. Appointed to serve God, he must not only offer sacrifices for the people’s sins, but also for his own. Note how infirmities are connected with sins. “Infirmities…by reason hereof…offer for sins.” It is the same in chapter seven, where we read that high priests of Aaron’s line needed to offer for their own sins, precisely because the law made men high priests which had infirmity, 7:26-28.

So it was because Aaron was an ordinary man, compassed with infirmity, that he needed to offer for his own sins, 5:2,3. The infirmity may not have been sinful in itself, but it tended to lead to sin. In contrast, God has made His Son High priest, so our High Priest is taken from among the Godhead, and He is perfected for evermore. Not perfected in any sense that He progressed from infirmity to lack of infirmity, but rather, perfected or fully fitted by His experiences down here to take up our case.

What He is said to be touched with the feeling of, is our infirmities, or manifestations of lack of strength. But here again, we should not assume that He sympathizes with these because He had infirmities Himself. It is true that Paul gloried in his infirmities, so they are not necessarily sinful, but still it is not the case that Christ possessed them. Paul’s infirmities, by which are meant bodily weakness and ailments, were a direct result of the fall of man in Adam, and the consequent subjection to vanity that came with it. The Lord Jesus did not share in the results of the fall, even as to His body. He was not begotten of Joseph, thus He has no link with fallen humanity, either morally or physically.

Matthew tells us that when the Lord Jesus healed the men and women of His day, there was a partial fulfillment of the words of Isaiah 53:4. In that passage the prophet describes the Messiah as One who “hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows”. When Peter alludes to this in 1 Peter 2:24 he quotes it as “He bare our sins”. This is the ultimate fulfillment of the words, but Matthew is concerned with their partial fulfillment, and so prefaces his reference to Isaiah 53 with the words “That it might be fulfilled”, and then quotes Isaiah with the words, “Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses”.

This might seem to indicate a final fulfillment, until we remember that there are three ways in which quotations from the Old Testament are introduced by writers in the New Testament.

Where the Greek word “ina” is used, then it is “in order that it might be fulfilled”, and the prophecy has been finally fulfilled.

Where the word “tole” is found, then it is “was fulfilled”, and indicates that the event was merely a case in point, and what happened was an illustration of what was said in the prophecy, and it might be “fulfilled” in that way on another occasion.

Where the word “opus” is used, as is the case in Matthew 8:17, it is “so that it might be”, and the fulfillment is not complete, but an event which was within the scope and intention of the prophecy.

So Matthew is not saying that sins were borne during the life of the Lord Jesus, but he is saying that there was an event that was included in the scope of the prophecy of Isaiah, but which did not exhaust its meaning. So when the Lord Jesus healed a person, He took upon Himself, in deep sympathy, the griefs and sorrows that illness caused him, so that instead of the ill person bearing those sorrows, the Lord Jesus bore them for him. Coupled with this, virtue or power went out from Christ to heal the disease that caused the sorrow, see Luke 8:46. In this way He is touched, even now, by the feeling of our infirmities. Remember, He is the Creator of men, and therefore is able to understand perfectly the difference between what He made man at the beginning, and what sin has made him to be now.

The Lord Jesus healed all manner of diseases, Matthew 4:23, and the power of the Lord was present to heal all who were sick, even Pharisees, Luke 5:17. The miracles that are recorded in detail are those that present to us some spiritual lesson, and illustrate some particular sinful condition of man. For instance man is blind, unable to perceive the truth of God, deaf to the voice of God, dumb in the praise of God, lame as to the ways of God, defiled as to the holiness of God, and so on. Those that are recorded in detail, however, are but a sample from the full range of disease that was dealt with by Christ. There was nothing too hard for the Lord to deal with.

Remember also the pains of Calvary, for death by crucifixion was designed to inflict the most possible pain, for the longest possible time, in the most varied ways possible. If anyone knew pain, it was our Saviour, especially since not one of His senses was dulled by sin, unlike ordinary men.

There are not only body-infirmities, however, but weakness of mind and spirit. Can He be touched by these, even though He had no weakness of mind or spirit? Indeed He can, for He has been tested in body, soul and spirit. His mental sufferings on the cross were of the extreme kind. Who else has been forsaken of His God? And He the Son of God in His bosom eternally! There could be no greater trauma than this, than to cry unto God and to receive no answer, as if He were like those who regard iniquity in their heart, Psalm 66:18. And to be separated from God, as if He were like those whose sins have hidden God’s face from them, Isaiah 59:2.

Even in His life He knew sadness because of the sin and unbelief of men; disappointment when His disciples made such slow progress in Divine things; grief as He wept over the city that would soon reject Him, and condemn itself, as a consequence, to be levelled to the ground.

Think of the grief of heart when His loyalty to God, His desires to be subject to Divine purpose, His confidence in Divine promises, were all called into question by the Devil in the wilderness. How true was Isaiah’s word, He is a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief. But in all this He sinned not.

But the question remains as to how exactly our High Priest sympathises with us if He does not have what we have? The answer is that it is precisely because He is apart from sin in any shape or form, that He is able to support, succour and save us from a position of strength. It is not drowning men that save drowning men, but those who throw them a life-line whilst firmly standing on the rock.

There are two truths presented to us in Hebrews 4:15, and they are separated by a semi-colon, and not by a comma, so they are distinct yet allied. First, we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. We have thought a little of that already.

The second truth in 4:15 has to do with temptation. So the writer does not say He is touched by the feelings we have because He had what caused those feelings Himself, but because He was tempted. We have noted that in his temptation every aspect of a man’s attitude to God was tested. He was tempted in all points like as we are, “yet without sin”. This latter phrase may be misunderstood, especially if we retain the word “yet”, which the Authorised Version inserts. “Without sin” means what it does in Hebrews 9:28, namely “apart from, cut off from, sin”. The words of that verse are, “so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin, unto salvation”. When Christ comes again, He will not re-open the question of sin, for He dealt with that effectively by His first coming. He will come totally separate from any notion of dealing with the sin of his people, but will have only their salvation before Him. It is the same in connection with temptation. It is not just that sin is absent from Christ, although that is true, but rather that He distanced Himself from sin in all its forms, cutting himself off from any notion that sin may be trifled with, and indulged in. Now it is precisely because He did this, that He is in a strong position to help us in our temptations, for He strengthens us to distance ourselves from sin too.

He is not touched by our infirmities, but He is touched by the feeling of our infirmities. In other words, without sharing in sinful infirmities, He draws upon His experience of temptation in which He met with, and resisted, the temptation to sin. He knows the feeling that we have when infirmities tempt us to sin. Again we must emphasize that He does not have the infirmity, but from outside of Himself came incitements to sin, which found in Him no response at all. Because He resisted these fully, He has felt the pressure of them beyond all others. We could think of the illustration of a sea wall. One section is built far beyond specifications, with the best quality materials and workmanship. The adjoining section is built below specifications, with second-rate materials and poor workmanship. Which section of the wall will feel the pressure of the storm most? Clearly, the fault-free section, for the other will give way easily. So Christ, fault free in every sense, has withstood to the utmost, and therefore has felt the force of the storm of temptation beyond anything we shall know.

Because we have a High Priest like this, there should be a consequence, indicated by the “therefore”. We should come with boldness to God’s throne, for it is a throne of grace and not of judgement for us. Upon that throne is One who is for us, not against us, and those resources which we need to enable us to overcome temptation are available for the asking. The word for succour, used in Hebrews 2:18, is the word that the woman of Canaan used in Matthew 15:25 when she cried out, “Lord, help me”. So we may utter the same cry. To succour means “To run to the aid of one who cries for help”, and we may approach a throne upon which sits our sympathising high priest, and when we cry to Him for help His attitude to us will be one of mercy, (for He is a merciful high priest, Hebrews 2:17), and He will give us the needed grace to help us in our time of deep need. He will show us from the Scriptures the way in which He met temptations, and so we shall be saved from falling.

Summary

A consideration of the temptation of Christ must take account of the fact that He is the Son of God, and He has not lost or modified His Deity by becoming man. Since God cannot sin, and He is God, then He cannot sin.
He came to do the will of His Father, which did not include sinning.
He does not need to be able to sin before He can help us in temptation.
He really suffered when tempted, because He resisted temptation absolutely.
He triumphed, whereas Adam and Israel both failed. He is thus shown to be God’s Ideal Man, and Israel’s Rightful King.
He was tempted in all points, in relation to body, soul, and spirit, and in relation to God’s provision, purpose, and promises.
We are tempted by circumstances, as He was down here. In this He is the example of patient suffering. We are tempted by the flesh within. He was not tempted like this, for He had no sin-nature, but He is the Son who makes free, John 8:32-36; Romans 6:18), as we apply the truth found in Romans 6. We are tempted by infirmities, those weaknesses which come through the fall, and which can cause us to sin. In this situation He is a touched by the feelings that we have, for, although not having those infirmities Himself, He has known the feeling of being tempted that we have.
He ever distanced Himself from sin. Sin was not an option for Him.
He is ready with strength and help for us if we draw near to His throne of grace for help appropriate to the situation.

Genesis 3:7-24

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In the first six verses of this chapter we learnt that the serpent was used by Satan himself to deceive the woman, and to cause her and her husband to eat the fruit of the tree God had commanded them not to eat. We now see the varied consequences of that act of rebellion and disobedience.

3:7
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

And the eyes of them both were opened- as the Devil said they would be. But how different was the real consequence to the imaginary consequence he had spoken of. They do not see good and evil as gods, but as sinners. Instead of being a great blessing, as Satan suggested, it was seen to be a great calamity. They now know the difference between good and evil, whereas before they only knew good. And they find that their hearts are now inclined towards the evil, and away from the good.

And they knew that they were naked- before, it is said that “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed”, Genesis 2:25. Completely comfortable in one another’s presence, no evil, lustful thought crossed their minds. All was innocent and pure. How different now! Sin had perverted their holy relationship into one of lust rather than love, and consequently they are embarrassed in one another’s company.

And they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons- feeling keenly their shame, they do what men have done constantly since that day, namely, seek to remedy the situation themselves. But how can polluted, sinful hands ever manage to do deeds that please God? It is instructive to notice that before the sins of men are spoken of in Romans 3:13-18, (as the apostle shows that we are “all under sin”), he writes of the nature of man, that he is unrighteous, does not understand; does not seek God; is gone out of the way; has become unprofitable. Only then does He say, “There is none that doeth good, no not one”, verse 12. In other words, the reason man does not do good is because he is not good. His nature renders him unable to do that which is in harmony with the character of God.

So it is here. By nature sinners, they have no understanding as to what will really cover their shame. They may satisfy themselves for a time, but soon they are to meet God. How will it be with them then? They will find that all their righteousnesses will be seen as “filthy rags”, Isaiah 64:6, and as such, distasteful to God.

3:8
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day- before, they would have welcomed another opportunity to commune with God. Now, all is different. Not only has sin disturbed their relationship with one another, but it has broken their relationship with God. Sin always does this. “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, Isaiah 59:2. Those who know the cleansing of the precious blood of Christ know what it is to walk in the light of God’s presence, and have fellowship with Him, 1 John 1:7.

The voice of the Lord God may refer to the sound of Him walking in the garden. The sense of the word “walking” is that He was walking up and down, enjoying the beauty of His handiwork, and longing that the man and his wife were there to enjoy it with Him. God the Father is now longing to bring His people into an increased enjoyment of the glories, not of the natural world, but the spiritual truths concerning His Son. This is the secret of true and full joy, as the apostle John indicated in 1 John 1:4, “these things I write unto you, that your joy might be full”. The things he wrote about being what he had seen and heard with regard to God’s Son. The Father enjoys those things perfectly; He desires that His people come into the good of them also. How easily we are distracted, however, to our great spiritual loss.

Notice that God did not call out immediately. He was no doubt waiting for the man to take the initiative in confession of his sin. He should have been like the prodigal of a later day, who said, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father I have sinned”, Luke 15:18. Or as Hosea said to the people of his day, “Take with you words, turn unto the Lord”, Hosea 14:1.

We begin to learn here something of the loss that sin brings to God. Having made intelligent creatures, with a will able to respond to Him, God sought their communion, and most of all, their worship. Sin had made inroads into heaven, however, and some of the angels who before had worshipped God, defected. Now a like thing has happened on earth. But in one sense it is worse, for angels cannot multiply, but man can, and a multitude of men and women are going to be born in a state of alienation from God. Instead of the spiritual refreshment found in God’s presence, as illustrated by the physical refreshment in the cool of the day, they will be tormented by an evil conscience.

And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden- notice that the title of God used in these verses has reverted back to that of chapter two. In chapter one it was God the All-powerful Creator who was at work. Then He manifested Himself as Lord God, the One who is always there, and who can be relied upon in every way. Eve rejected that character of God, and believed the devil when he implied that God could not be trusted. Yet He is still Jehovah, the Unchanging. He cannot and will not change. So it is that He comes as He always did, seeking communion with Adam and his wife after their work for the day was done.
Sadly however, although God has not changed, the man and his wife have. They may be more comfortable in the presence of one another because of the fig leaves, but they are not comfortable with the presence of God, and so they seek to hide.

3:9
And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? God gives no name to the person of whom He is asking the question. Yet the Scripture makes it clear that He was calling to Adam. The man is the one responsible for the situation. It was to him that the command about the tree came, and he is first in guilt, if not first in transgression. Adam is head of the race, and as such must match that great privilege with great responsibility. This he failed to do, with disastrous consequences, not just for himself, but the whole of mankind.

The fact that Adam had to be asked where he was would indicate that he and God had a pre-arranged meeting-place; yet he was not there. How different is the situation in Eden to that of John 1:38,39. There, disciples are seeking the presence of the Lord Jesus, and are rewarded as they dwell with Him. The location may be in the wilderness and not a paradise, but the presence of the Lord makes all the difference.

3:10
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid- the voice that once he delighted to hear now fills him with dread. He and his wife have rebelled against what God said before, failing to fear with believing fear, and now that voice is feared with sinful fear.

Because I was naked- this suggests that they either heard the voice before they sewed the fig leaves together for aprons, or that he still feels himself naked despite the fig-leaves. Notice that Adam does not say he was afraid because he had sinned; he is not prepared to confess the real reason for his fear. He has not yet repented.

And I hid myself- by this statement he admits that his apron of fig leaves has not successfully covered him, as far as God’s all discerning eye is concerned. “All things are naked and opened before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do”, Hebrews 4:13. He has tried to hide behind leaves, and behind trees, but in neither case is he successful.

Now that man is in a state of distance from God, there is only one who can bring us back. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time”, 1 Timothy 2:5,6. He it is that has “once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God”, 1 Peter 3:18. He Himself declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me”, John 14:6.

3:11
And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?- the question is calculated to get Adam to confess he now has a guilty conscience, and it is this that has caused him to fear God.

Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? of course God knew the answer to this question, but as is often the case, He is seeking to bring out a confession from the guilty party. The question is not “Have you listened to the lies of the Devil?” The sin is in relation to God, whatever the other issues involved. David realised this in his repentance psalm; “Against thee, thee only have I sinned”, Psalm 51:4. In fact, he had sinned against his own body, against Uriah, Bathsheba, Joab, and the whole nation. But in the final analysis sin is against the God who has condemned it in His word.

3:12
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me- there now follows a sad sequence of evasion and blaming others. Worst of all, Adam tries to blame God for his own failure. If God had not given him the woman, then he would not have sinned! How many there are who try to blame God for that which happens either in their own personal lives, or in the world generally. God is not the author of evil, nor can He be, for “He cannot deny himself”, 2 Timothy 2:13, which means He can never act contrary to His nature, and since that nature is light and love, then evil is not something He is able to be or do.

It is sad to hear Adam speaking like this, for God had indeed given him the woman to be with him, but not so that she could usurp his authority and take of the forbidden fruit, but so that she could be a help rather than a hindrance. The goodness of God is seen in His provision. What Adam did in response to that provision is entirely up to him.

She gave me of the tree, and I did eat- not only does Adam appear to blame God, but now he is blaming the woman, as if he had no power to resist her suggestion that he eat. But we cannot thus shirk our responsibilities. As Ezekiel wrote, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die”, Ezekiel 18:20. The emphasis in that quotation being on the word “it”. In other words, the person sinning is the person responsible, whatever and whoever else was involved. Sin is an act of the will contrary to God, and cannot be committed by proxy. Adam is here admitting that he was led astray. Yet he was the one who was told about the tree by God, and because of this, his was the overall responsibility. He has surrendered his will to another’s, always a dangerous thing, unless it be the surrender of the will to God.

For the moment, God makes no pronouncement on Adam’s sin, as far as he personally is concerned. He leaves that until He has interviewed the woman. It is important to realise that the judgement of God against Adam’s sin had already been passed. For the apostle Paul declares in connection with Adam’s trespass, that “the judgement was by one to condemnation”, Romans 5:16. Adam had clearly transgressed God’s clearly stated command, so he was guilty, and the judgement, the pronouncement of the sentence, went against him, and because it was against him, it was against all who come from him and share his nature. The judgement the apostle is referring to being the spiritual one of dying spiritually. The judgement of God as expressed in verses Genesis 3:13-16 is physical and temporal, rather than spiritual and eternal.

3:13
And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? building upon what Adam has said, God now seeks to gain from the woman a confession. Alas, it is no more forthcoming than it was with Adam.

And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat- she seeks to avoid blame by pointing to the beguiling of the serpent. But by blaming the serpent she is admitting that his word had more influence over her than God’s. And this is a disastrous position to be in.

In principle it is the same position that the Corinthian believers were in, for the apostle feared that just as the serpent had beguiled Eve in his subtilty, so their minds would be corrupted from “the simplicity that is in Christ”, 2 Corinthians 11:3. Single-hearted devotion to Christ will prevent the believer from becoming a prey to the enemy.

3:14
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

And the Lord God said unto the serpent- there is no cross-examination of the serpent, (the first part of the sentence is on an animal without moral sense, the second part on the Devil who is given no right to reply, for he is apostate, and beyond hope), but God goes straight away into declaring the penalty to be imposed on him. The order of the judgement is the order of the sin: serpent, woman, man. whereas the order of the examination is man, woman, serpent.

We note in these verses that there is a two-fold division to what God said to each. As for the serpent, it is first judged, and then the Ancient Serpent who was behind it is judged, in verse 15. Then the woman is judged as to the physical consequences of her action, and then her changed relationship to her husband. Finally, Adam is judged physically, with hard work imposed upon him, then the statement, “Dust thou art”, speaking of the moral consequences of his actions.

Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life- the literal serpent was used to cause the fall, so it must be a constant reminder of the fall, that men may learn that sin is always judged. The creature is to be cursed more than the beasts of forest and field. They share in the general bondage of corruption and subjection to vanity that creation presently knows, but the serpent is to be condemned over and above this.

The fact that from that point on it would go on its belly would suggest that it did not do so before. And the fact that its food would now be contaminated by the dust, and it would take it in with its food, shows that this was not the case before. As was suggested on verse 1, this serpent may once have been a beautiful flying creature, the counterpart on earth of the angels of heaven. Now it is to be loathsome and venomous, a creature likely to be trodden under foot of man.

A further way in which it was cursed above the cattle is that when creation is delivered by Christ when He comes to earth to reign, the serpent, although deprived of its venom, will still go on its belly, and eat dust with its food, Isaiah 66:25. Thus all through the millenial reign of Christ there will be a reminder of the entrance of sin and its consequences.

3:15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman- the Lord now turns to the Ancient Serpent who has used the animal serpent to beguile the woman. There is to be mutual enmity between him and the woman. Animals cannot show enmity, although they can react to present circumstances. The reference therefore is to Satan himself. The cause of this enmity is going to be the role of the woman in bringing in the Promised Deliverer. And more than this, the woman is going to repent and believe, and thus be on the side of those opposing the Serpent. She will begin to hate what Satan has done, and Satan will hate what she is to be used for, in the purpose of God. We see reasons for this change of heart by the woman as the history unfolds.

And between thy seed and her seed- Satan now has a certain control over men because they are sinners. They have a nature that responds to evil and error, and indeed, gravitates towards it. It was precisely because Christ told the truth that men did not believe Him, for their hearts were only responsive to error, John 8:45. As a result, men can rightly be described as “of their father the Devil”, as the Lord Jesus said, John 8:44.
On the other hand, there would be a line of believing men, traceable down through the years, who would culminate in the Seed of the Woman, Christ Himself. Many would be the attempts of Satan to eradicate that line, but he would not succeed, and Christ would be born.

He would use Cain to murder Abel.
Evil spirits to cause the flood.
Esau to hate his brother.
Pharoah to destroy the male children in Israel.
His cavalry to try to drive them into the Red Sea.
Goliath to attempt to kill David.
King Saul to do the same.
Athaliah to destroy the Seed Royal.
Nebuchadnezzar as he made the princes of Judah eunuchs.
Haman as he sought the extermination of the Jews; and so the sorry list can go on.

Even after Christ was born, the hatred did not stop:
Herod sought the young child’s life.
The men of Nazareth tried to fling Him from the top of the hill.
The men of Jerusalem took up stones to stone Him.
In all these ways the enmity of Satan towards Christ was manifest.

It shall bruise thy head- there is a sense in which all believers, whether of Old Testament or New Testament times, have bruised the head of the serpent. The apostle Paul declared to the Christians at Rome that “Christ shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly”, Romans 16:20, a reference to the Second Coming of Christ, when He will share His victory with His people. A reference, also, in a lesser sense, to the way in which Satan would be defeated if his attempts to cause division amongst the believers was prevented, for this is the subject of the verses previous to the one just quoted.

Notice that there is nothing to indicate that the bruising will result in immediate death for the serpent. So it is that Satan has had his head bruised constantly, and one day will meet his eternal doom in the Lake of Fire. The pre-eminent place of bruising was at Calvary, when the Prince of this world came, and yet had nothing in Him; there was nothing at all in the Lord Jesus that answered to the Devil, John 14:30.

And thou shalt bruise his heel- just as the bruising of the head of the serpent did not result in immediate destruction, so in this phrase there is no thought of the serpent dealing a death-blow to the Seed of the Woman, whether considered as Christ Himself or His people. The Lord Jesus has met and defeated the Devil by His death on the cross, as Hebrews 2:14 states. The Devil had no power over Him in the ultimate sense, even though he had the power of death over the rest of men. He had this power over them because they have a sinful nature, and “the wages of sin is death”, Romans 6:23. The wise man said, “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death”, Ecclesiastes 8:8. The Lord Jesus said explicitly, however, as regards His life, “No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself”, John 10:18. It is true that, as the apostle Peter said on the Day of Pentecost, “ye by wicked hands have crucified and slain”, yet nonetheless, He was delivered by “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God”, Acts 2:23. And Pilate needed to learn that he had no power at all against Christ, (even though the death penalty was in his jurisdiction), except it were given him from heaven above, John 19:11. God had given him a sword to execute criminals, not to execute the “Just One”, Romans 13:3,4. Only with God’s permission could Pilate use the sword against Christ. So it is that the Lord Jesus laid down His life of His own will, and not because of the will of men or devils. Nevertheless, the Devil did bruise His heel, causing Him extreme pain as he confronted Him at Calvary.

3:16
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception- it is fitting that the woman who had brought so much sorrow into the world by her rebellion against God, should herself know much sorrow. It is by birth of a woman that we come into the world, and so the sorrow is connected with that event. In this first phrase the sorrow is linked with conception, and the woman is to have discomfort and pain in connection with this area of her life.

In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children- not only before and at the time of the carrying of a child would she have pain, but also in the act of childbirth also. “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now”, Romans 8:22, and it is suitable that she who brought this in should share in that groaning and travail. The Lord Jesus said, “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world”, John 16:21. He went on to liken the sorrow of the woman to the sorrow His disciples would feel when He left them to go to Calvary. But He also likened the joy a mother feels when her child is born to the joy the disciples would have when He rose from the dead and appeared to them again. So it is with creation, for when the Son of God comes into the world again, the groaning and travail will cease, and joy will begin.

And thy desire shall be to thy husband- in other words, she would long to please him. Perhaps some psychological change came over the woman whereby the equality she had originally was disturbed. Only as a believer in Christ can the woman be restored to this equality, but this time on a spiritual level. There is equality amongst Christians as far as privilege and blessing are concerned, although there is still a need to maintain the headship of the man.

And he shall rule over thee- in 1:26 dominion over the animal creation was given equally to the woman and the man, but the woman failed to control the serpent, and was controlled by it. The fact that this rule of the man over the woman is a judgement, shows that it was not the position before, for there was no tendency in the woman before that needed Adam to exercise rule over her. All is changed, now, however. The woman had allowed her affection to be diverted, and she no longer loved Adam as she should, or else she would not have encouraged him to eat the forbidden fruit. She had not consulted him before eating herself, so she now must be under his rule, to prevent the same mistake again. Since she is to be the mother of all living, then this effect of the fall will be passed on also.

3:17
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife- he disregarded God’s command, and hearkened unto the voice of his wife, and so became afraid of the voice of God. We do not read in the previous verses that the woman spoke to Adam about eating of the tree, but she must have done so. In 1 Timothy 2:11-14 the woman is forbidden to speak in the Christian assembly, and the account of the fall, and the fact that the woman was deceived, is given by Paul by the Spirit of God as the reason why the woman is not to teach. The fact that this command is based upon the original sin of the woman shows that the prohibition is not “cultural”, or “local to Corinth”, as some would have us believe. It is an abiding and universal principle. No company that disregards this has the right to call itself a Christian church.

The apostle goes on to speak of the woman being saved in childbearing. In other words, by occupation with the things God has fitted her to do, she will be saved from hankering after a position God has not given her.

And hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it- the root cause of the judgement is now pinpointed, namely Adam’s failure by eating of the tree. It was a sin for him to listen to his wife’s suggestion, and it was a sin to eat like she had done. He had abdicated his responsibility in one, and rebelled against God in the other. The command to not eat had come to him alone at first, (Not “ye shall not eat”, but “thou shalt not eat”), and he was responsible for passing it on to his wife. The Lord emphasizes that it was a command that Adam disobeyed. It was not a suggestion, but the word of command of their Creator and Moral Governor. He, as the head of the creation, should have set an example to the rest of creation, but he failed miserably.

Cursed is the ground for thy sake- we have here the beginning of the bondage of corruption of which Romans 8:20-22 speaks. Creation has been affected by the corruption that Adam brought in through his sin. The fact that the apostle speaks of bondage would suggest that everything is in some way restricted and bound. Car mechanics talk of brakes “binding”, when something restricts their free movement. So perhaps every particle that revolves in the universe, (for everything is in circular motion), does so at a slightly slower rate than before the fall, thus affecting all the processes that are at work in the natural world. When Christ comes, however, that bondage will be removed, Romans 8:21, and creation will know the liberty of glory, as it will once again be to the praise of its Maker. This is why the psalmist was justified in calling all creation to praise God in that glorious millenial day, Psalm 148. See also Revelation 5:13, where John hears every creature ascribing praise to God.

Notice that the ground is cursed for Adam’s sake, for in judgement God remembers mercy, Habakkuk 3:2. It is not in the best interests of men to have a life of luxury and ease. Ezekiel describes one of the sins of the wicked city of Sodom as “abundance of idleness”, Ezekiel 16:49. By being engrossed in the daily toil that the curse imposed upon him, Adam would be prevented from committing the sins that idleness gives time for. It was when the rich and foolish farmer was planning to be at ease after his bumper harvest was safely in his barns, that the word came to him, “This night shall thy soul be required of thee”, Luke 12:19.

In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life- it is fitting that since Adam allowed sorrow to come into the world, he himself should share that sorrow, and should do so all his life. Note that God speaks of Adam’s life here, thus showing that there is no discrepancy between God’s warning “in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die”, and the fact that Adam lived for 930 years. The one is spiritual death, the other natural.

3:18
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee- this is part of the cause of the sorrow, that other plants than those that were useful would spring up. No doubt they were there before, but now their constitution is altered, and they are harmful and useless for food. When Christ reigns all this will be changed, and “instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree”, Isaiah 55:13.

And thou shalt eat the herb of the field- as animals had not been given to man to eat at this stage, Adam is to eat of the plant foods that he would grow. This would involve more toil than if he were simply a cattle raiser, or only ate fruit.

3:19
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread- note that it is sweat running down the face after strenuous exertion, not beads of sweat resting on the forehead after light activity. Adam is condemned to hard labour. He had despised the freely available fruits of the garden, (for which he had not worked, for God had planted the garden), and preferred the one God had banned; now he must feel the consequences.

There was another garden, and another man. He too, is sweating. But His sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane is “as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground”, Luke 22:44. And why so? It is a known medical fact that great trauma of soul can produce this phenomenon. And the soul-anguish of Christ is caused by the prospect of Calvary, and the suffering it would entail for Him.

Till thou return unto the ground- note there is to be no retirement period, for he is to toil until he dies. The labour imposed on him will be a lesson to him as long as he lives.

For out of it wast thou taken- God had taken the dust of the ground to form Adam’s body, and now, as to the body, he is to return to the dust. This says nothing about his soul and spirit. The references in these verses are to the effects of the judgement of God on the bodies of the sinning pair. If they subsequently turn to God and receive spiritual life, their bodies will still return to the dust, awaiting resurrection. Man is “of the earth, earthy”, 1 Corinthians 15:47. He was originally made from the earth, (of the earth or dust), and therefore is fitted for life on earth, (earthy). The apostle explains in that chapter how those who have flesh and blood bodies may be changed so as to be able to live in heaven.

For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return- made from dust, remaining dust, and returning to dust. Such is frail, mortal man. Even Abraham, the Friend of God, spoke of himself as “dust and ashes”, Genesis 18:27. Only in Christ are these things transformed. For the first man was “of the earth, earthy”, (or “of the dust, dusty”), but “the second man is the Lord from heaven”, 1 Corinthians 15:51. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall come from heaven with great authority, (hence He comes as the Lord from heaven), and shall bring His people into the resurrection conditions He knows already.

The first man Adam was made a living soul, but the second man is a life-giving Spirit. He, although true man with a body, operates on the highest level, that of the spirit, and shall impart to His people a new sort of body, one that is dominated by the spirit and not the soul. By rescuing the bodies of believers from the dust to which they returned at death, the Lord Jesus shall deliver them from their last link with Adam, and fit them for the glories of the Father’s House on high.

But what of those who are still living when He comes? How shall they who have not died have resurrection bodies? This was a mystery which the apostle proceeded to explain in 1 Corinthians 15:51-54. Not only will “corruption”, (that is, bodies that have corrupted in the grave), put on incorruption, (or incorruptibility, for the resurrection body will not only be incorrupt initially, but always so), but “mortal”, (that is, bodies which, although tending to death, have not yet died), shall put on immortality, or deathlessness. So it is that the results of the sin of Adam as regards the body shall be reversed, as far as believers are concerned, and they will triumphantly sing, “O death where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” 1 Corinthians 15:55.

As far as unbelievers are concerned, however, Ecclesiastes 12:7 says “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God that gave it”. So man is not just dust, for he has a spirit too. Daniel also says, “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake…some to shame and everlasting contempt”, Daniel 12:2. Having been thus raised, all unbelievers shall stand before the great white throne of God, and hear their everlasting doom pronounced.

The Lord Jesus has been given authority to execute judgement, because He is the Son of man. As the one who came among men as a man, He has given men the opportunity to respond to Him in faith. And this opportunity extends until now, for the gospel records preserve for us the historic facts as to His life here, so that we may respond to Him even after so many centuries. Those who refuse His grace will meet Him as their judge. Said He, “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation”, John 5:28,29.

Special note on the ways in which God in the midst of wrath remembered mercy

1. He did not cause the man and his wife to die physically immediately, but gave them space to repent.
2. He condemned the serpent in such a way that it was a constant reminder of the fall it had been used to bring about.
3. The woman’s sorrow in matters of pregnancy reminds constantly of the sorrow and pain that sin brings.
4. The woman’s sorrow when having children is associated with bringing another sinner into the world.
5. The ground was cursed “for man’s sake”. It is a mercy that he has not so much time to sin.
6. The thorns and thistles constantly remind Adam of the change to creation his sin has brought in.
7. Man was condemned to work hard, so his energies are spent on this, not wickedness.
8. Man sees his fellow go to dust, and is constantly reminded of the solemnity of sin and the certainty of death.
9. God provided coats of skin, to show that by sacrifice man could become acceptable in His sight.
10. God drove out the man, thus reinforcing His displeasure with man’s sin. He is reminded that sin bars from God’s presence.
11. God places the cherubim and the flaming sword, to prevent man being locked into eternal sinnership.

3:20
And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living- what will be the response of Adam to these things? Will he rebel further, and protest that he is badly treated? He offers no complaint, and no response to God’s word is recorded. But he does assert himself, and continue the process that was begun before the fall. Then, Adam had named the beasts, thus recognising his authority over them, 2:19. At that time he called his helper “woman”, for she had been taken from his side, so he looked to her origin and named her accordingly. Before, Adam had named the animals, and woman, because God brought them to him, he now renames the woman on his own initiative, and calls her “Eve”, for she was to be the mother of all who would live upon the earth. Adam is now naming the woman in relation to the future. By so doing he is partially regaining his control over things, and is also signalling the fact that he has taken to heart the things God has spoken. He had referred to childbirth, and children, and Adam believes God, even though he has never seen a baby.

It is interesting to note that modern genetics is slowly coming round to the idea that all who live on earth are descended from one woman. They have even named her “Mitochondrial Eve”. Thus what has been in the Bible for centuries, and what, also, has been ridiculed for centuries, is increasingly shown to be true. Those who continue to ridicule the Bible would be well advised to reserve their judgement.

Adam seems to realise that despite the death and sorrow his sin has brought in, God will, in some way not clear to him perhaps, bring in life, and he believes this will come in through the woman. As indeed it has, for He who is “the Life”, John 14:6, has come into manhood. He could say, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”, John 10:10.

3:21
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Unto Adam also and to his wife- that is, for the man and his wife. The provision was made for them specifically and personally.

Did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them- here is the Divine remedy for their nakedness. It is important to realise that the word “skin” is in the singular. So there was one skin, implying one animal slain, yet more than one benefited. Adam had made aprons of fig leaves that wither and die, and thus become useless. This clothing is of a skin whose owner has already died, and which will not fade and wither into uselessness. Adam had made a covering using the product of a cursed earth, whereas God provides a covering from the result of sacrifice. Adam made a covering which was clearly ineffective, for he still hid amongst the trees of the garden when God came to commune. The fig leaves may have made them more comfortable with one another, but they were not comfortable in the presence of God, and showed it by hiding.

One reason the covering that God provided was superior was that it represented important principles that would be brought out more fully later on. In Hebrews 9:22 we learn that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins, and when Israel became a nation this was impressed upon them by the system of animal sacrifices God instituted. Yet even this was not God’s final will in this matter. When He came into the world the Lord Jesus said, “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, (in the volume of the book it is written of me), to do thy will O God”, Hebrews 10:5-7. Then the writer to the Hebrews goes on to say, “He taketh away the first, that He might establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”, verses 9,10. So there is the first will of God, represented by animal sacrifices, then the second will, represented by the supreme sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Himself at Calvary’s cross. And this second will is established, it will never be superceded by a third, nor will God revert back to the first.

Now there are three things we may say about these coats of skin now that we have seen what they foreshadow in terms of the sacrifice of Christ:
1. First, that there was atonement symbolised, for an innocent victim had lost its life, instead of Adam and his wife doing so. This is one reason why the penalty for sinning did not include physical death that day, for the animal sacrifice would rescue them.
2. Second, there was acceptance, for instead of having to hide from God, He Himself has made them fit for His presence. Although He drove out the guilty pair from the garden, they still had the opportunity of approaching Him, as Abel demonstrates in the next chapter.
3. Third, there is the responsibility of displaying these truths in practice, as they wore their coats. In later times, the priest who offered a man’s bullock was entitled to have the skin. So the outward excellence of the animal, that which had contributed to make it acceptable for sacrifice, is now displayed in daily life by the priest. So it is that believers, having received the remission of sins through the sacrifice of Christ, and having been made acceptable in God’s sight, are now given the responsibility of displaying the virtues of the One to whom they owe their all. The apostle Peter wrote of this when he described believers as holy and royal priests, (for every true believer in Christ is a priest), to “show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light”, 1 Peter 2:9. The work of Christ in sacrifice does not simply provide a covering over the top of a sinful person, so that he is outwardly respectable. God gets to the root of the matter of sin, and deals with the nature of man. So it is that those who believe the gospel are not simply clothed with righteousness, (although they should display a righteous character to others). God imputes righteousness to the believer, thus thinking of them as absolutely righteous, not because of them, but because of Christ. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”, 2 Corinthians 5:21.

3:22
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us- Satan’s lie to the woman had an element of truth in it, for the man did begin to have the knowledge of the difference between good and evil; and this God has perfectly. The tragedy was that they acquired the ability to do evil, and the inability to do good. In this they were very unlike God. Verse 22 is the account of the conversation that went on amongst the Godhead regarding the situation as it now presented itself.

To know good and evil- with God, the possession of the knowledge of good and evil is safe, with rebellious man it is dangerous. Adam now has a nature that tends to evil even though it knows the good. But notice that God does not say “Adam is become”, but “the man is become”, for Adam includes within himself all those that came after him, for the name Adam simply means “man”. So what became true of Adam, has become true of all men, the Lord Jesus excepted. We all have a nature that enables us to know evil, but does not enable us to turn from it completely. Nor does our nature give us power to do good perfectly.

The apostle Paul felt this keenly. In Romans chapter 7 he describes his misery as he tried to please God by means of law-keeping, and without recourse to the power of the Spirit of God. He tried to go it alone, and lamented at the end of the chapter that he was a wretched man. It is worth quoting his words:

“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin”, Romans 7:14-25.

So what is the answer to this dilemma the believer is confronted with? It is found in Romans chapter 8, where the apostle explains that the secret of victorious Christian living is found in the twin truths of the link we have with Christ in resurrection, and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. There is a marked difference between the ending of chapter 7, and the ending of chapter 8, where the apostle expresses the triumph he knows through the power of God:

“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 8:31-39.

And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever- there seems nothing to indicate that the man and his wife were barred from the tree of life before. Now, things are different. The unhappy pair are sinners, and to eat of that tree now is to be preserved in a state of sinfulness for ever. We see the grace of God in exercise again here, for in mercy He bars them from the tree. Believers will have access to the reality that the tree in the garden of Eden represented, for the promise to the overcomer is to eat of “the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God”, Revelation 2:7, a reference, no doubt, to the Lord Jesus, who is “The Life”, John 14:6, and “our life”, Colossians 3:4. In a similar way, but using a different metaphor, the Lord Jesus said to men, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever”, John 6:51. But since the bread is His flesh, which He would give in sacrifice, it is not a matter of sinners eating and living for ever, but those who rest on Christ’s work in sacrifice, and who therefore are freed from their sin. These, and these only, have the life He offers.

This sentence seems to trail off into silence, as if Divine persons cannot bring themselves to express the horror of man being preserved in sin for ever, without any hope of remedy. This gives us insight into the heart of God, as He contemplates the sorry state man is in. He who is God manifest in flesh displayed this same attitude of God, as He wept over the city of Jerusalem, and lamented their refusal of Him, Luke 19:41-44, for “they knew not the time of their visitation”.

It would be as well for sinners also to recognise the horror of being banished from God eternally, and respond to the call of the gospel. God is still rich in mercy, Ephesians 2:4.and presents His Son and the sacrifice He made at Calvary as the effective answer to man’s deep need as a sinner.

3:23
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden- in 2:15 the man had been placed in the Garden of Eden, but now he is sent forth from it. The man is learning that God is in control in all situations. The coming in of sin has not toppled God from His throne as the Governor of the Universe. We might well remember this, and bow to His authority.

The words “sent…forth” are the same as are used of the scapegoat in Leviticus 16:21. That animal was sent forth as a substitute, bearing the awful load of the peoples’ sin. Thus we are reminded of the two options we have. We either bear our own sin and be banished eternally from God’s presence in consequence, or rest in the Bearer of Sin, Christ Himself, and receive the forgiveness of God. Those who are made fit for the presence of God shall “have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city”, Revelation 22:14.

To till the ground from whence he was taken- before, Adam was put in the garden to ” dress it and keep it”, for God had already planted the garden, and he was simply to keep it beautiful. Now he is condemned to till the open field for himself. What an exchange! A beautiful garden planted by Another for him, or a barren, cursed, unplanted field, that he must cultivate by hard labour until the sweat runs down his face. Such is the choice we make if we rebel against God. As the proverb says, “The way of transgressors is hard”, Proverbs 13:15. As he bends over the soil, he is constantly reminded that he is going to dust.

3:24
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

So he drove out the man- this phrase summarises verses 22 and 23. “So” reminds us of verse 22, “He drove out the man” reminds us of verse 23. So this refers to what is now past. We are now informed of what God also did.

And he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims- it is one thing to drive out the man, but what if he tries to return? To prevent this, the cherubim are stationed at the eastern end of the garden. These are angelic beings that guard the very throne of God in heaven, and preserve the integrity of that throne when a situation arises that might compromise it. Such a situation had occurred when Lucifer, one of their number, (“the anointed cherub that covereth”, Ezekiel 28:14), had rebelled against God. That rebellion was successfully defeated, and now that man has joined in the rebellion, he must be frustrated also. But whereas Lucifer’s expulsion was final, man’s was not so, for God would make provision for his return, under the right conditions he must not try to return in his sin.

In later days, the cherubim were represented in the tabernacle, the portable sanctuary that Israel had in their midst as they travelled through the wilderness to the promised land. Those golden cherubim overshadowed the ark of the covenant, and God dwelt between them. They were also embroidered in the vail that barred man’s entrance into the presence of God. So they served the same purpose in the tabernacle as they did in Eden. If man is to enter the presence of God, the demands these cherubim represent, even the righteousness of His throne, must be met.

And a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life- so there are two ways in which the way to the tree of life is guarded, by the cherubim and by the flaming sword. It is not expressly said that the cherubim wielded the flaming sword. It seems to be self-supporting. (After all, there is more than one cherub, but only one sword). The sword is later on used as a figure for the execution of the justice of God. Those who are in authority over men have been given the sword figuratively, to punish evildoers, Romans 13:1-4.

This sword is flaming, to draw attention to it, to warn man off, (even at night), and to remind him that God’s justice is active, and not to be trifled with. No matter from which way man comes, the sword confronts him. Some come by way of good works, others by religion, but whichever way they come, as Cain found, there is an impassable barrier to the presence of God.

The cherubim in the tabernacle allowed only Aaron to enter the presence of God as the representative of the people. And Scripture says that he came “not without blood”, Hebrews 9:7. To attempt to come without blood was to die. So it is that before ever he approached the immediate presence of God, Aaron stood at the altar, which was at the eastern end of the tabernacle courts, and killed a sin offering. And it was because that sin offering satisfied the demands of God’s righteousness, he was allowed into the presence of God. All this is a parable, an illustration God graciously has given so that we may learn the conditions by which we may enter His presence. Only because Christ has offered the once-for-all sacrifice for sin, can those who repent and believe in Him have access to God.

At Calvary the words written in Zechariah’s prophecy came to pass, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts”, Zechariah 13:7. (A verse the Lord Jesus applied to Himself in Matthew 26:31). At the place called Calvary the sword of Divine justice “turned every way”, but not to keep the way of the tree of life now, but to make the way wide open. Justice was satisfied in all its aspects at Calvary. The sword came upon Christ from every angle. It was a flaming sword, too, for the fierceness of the burning of God’s anger against sin was felt keenly by the Holy Sufferer. He was spared nothing, for God “spared not his own Son”, Romans 8:32. The penalty was not lessened because it was His Son paying it. The fires of anger were not moderated, the judgement was not slackened. And because this was so, the justification that comes through trusting in His work is sound and certain. So it is that the believer in the Lord Jesus can say with confidence:

“Therefore, being justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand,
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God”.
Romans 5:1-2.

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Tag Archives: Satan

REVELATION 20

THE PERSON OF CHRIST: His temptation.

Summary

Genesis 3:7-24