"The Rights of God" # 39

Christ and the Rights of the Father (continued)

Here too the context is important. The words are in Deuteronomy 5 verses 8 and 9. There we read of the worship of other gods. "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness ... for I, the Lord, am a jealous God." Let us take note that God jealously demands all worship, to be recognized and honored as the only true God. With this passage the Lord defeats the enemy. God demands all our worship.

World dominion is bound up with this last temptation. How can we gain world dominion? Who will rule over the kingdoms of the world in the end? He, Who has maintained the rights of God to the full. "The kingdoms of this world are because the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ" (Revelation 11:15). This is true for the church. She is destined to reign. The pressure of the enemy in connection with the offer of world dominion has to do with his demand of worship. Let us be assured that every pressure in our life serves the purpose to get us to worship the devil. Is this possible? Now, let us suppose we were in difficult times. It is possible for us to evade the difficulties. If it were faithfulness towards God and God-given revelation that brought us into this difficult situation, we could perhaps alleviate this situation through compromise. We could give in to something. Certainly, it would be unfaithfulness. We would steal from God what is His. But the difficulties! That is the enemy. That is the pressure: to bring us to a place where we rob God of something, or in other words, where we give the devil something. Ultimately it is about the issue of whom we worship, whom we trust completely, unreservedly. Our Lord Jesus Christ kept His position faithfully. At the Jordan He took this stand. "Nothing for Myself, everything for the Father. I live to do the Father's will." And then comes the test, the temptation. Then everything gets examined and tested as to its reality. But the day came when the Father could give His Son the confirmation from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. And He was transfigured before them."

We too will be put to the test. For us too it is about the proof of the reality of the position to which we testified in our baptism. We testified to have died to sin, self, and the world. From now on I live for God only! This will be put to the test. It will be well with us if in faith we hold fast to this position, if we stand firm in everything that has been given to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we have the victory. In Him we have everything. Oh, that we could whole-heartedly and with uninterrupted willingness say together with Paul:

"For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him Which died for them, and rose again." (2 Corinthians 5:15).

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(The End)