Second Answer 8
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8.What will the Divine Nature of Christ in the saint cause the saint to do?
Reject Satan’s counsel in the realm of survival, in the realm of Satan-worship, and in the realm of willful behavior.
The three temptations have to do with what is God-given, what is lawful.
Man has a God-given desire for survival.
Man has a God-given desire to offer worship—to love and to be loved.
Man has a God-given desire to exert dominion and to multiply his image.
It is not the subject matter of the three tests that is at issue, it is the manner in which we satisfy the three God-given needs and desires.
We can satisfy them by taking matters in our own hands and wresting them from our environment.
But we must sin and reject God’s rule in order to do so.
Or we can satisfy them by committing our needs and desires to the Lord God of Heaven, trusting Him to gives us our needs, our joy, and the achievement of our true destiny.
The first route leads to destruction in the world and the Lake of Fire in the world to come.
The second route is slow, often painful, complex, full of perplexity, demanding great patience.
But it leads to perfect fulfillment of each of the three areas, and —infinitely more valuable—the possession of God Himself in Christ.