Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Luke 22:40-45 When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.
PICTURES FROM THE PASSION -- THE GARDEN
As we read the Scripture, our mind's eye looks into the Garden of Gethsemane. We see a picture of Jesus in fervent, agonizing prayer. When we pan over, we see His disciples sleeping.
What a striking contrast! While Jesus was consciously battling the sorrow in His soul caused by the world's sins, His disciples had let sorrow take them into a state of unconsciousness after their Master had specifically warned them to "watch and pray". On this night, Satan was doing His best to tempt both Jesus and His disciples. Satan desired to lead Jesus away from His Father's will, but Jesus would not give in to this temptation.
The disciples were fighting the war against temptation and losing, but Jesus was fighting the war against temptation and winning! Not only was He winning, He was winning this battle in the disciples' place. Jesus was actively fulfilling the requirements of God's perfect law that they were failing to keep.
By faith, we are also Jesus' disciples. However, we too fall prey to temptation because of our sinful flesh. When we fall prey to temptation, God does not see our sins -- rather He pans over and looks at the life of Jesus and credits His righteous actions to us. Praise Jesus that He never once fell prey to temptation, but always kept the law of God perfectly in our place.
