Matthew 5:17
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Romans 5:19
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Matthew 4:1
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Isaiah 53:3
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Hebrews 4:15
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
Hebrews 2:18
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Do you ever have days when you think life is really tough? Do you sometimes wonder why your life just has to be so difficult? We all have those days because we’re human. Jesus became human too. Do you ever wonder what his life on earth was like?
We don’t have to wonder because the Bible tells us. Although Jesus was the lawgiver, he subjected himself to obeying the law, which he did perfectly. Although he was sinless and guiltless, he suffered all the miseries of human existence: hunger, thirst, tiredness, poverty (Matthew 8:20), perhaps even sickness. Although he came to bring the good news of salvation, he was despised and rejected by mankind, particularly by some of his own town and family, and even by one of his own chosen disciples. And he suffered the indignity of being tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1-11). “The Lord of glory was approached and tempted by the vilest and most lawless rebel in the universe.” (Johannes Vos)
As much as we properly focus on Jesus’s death on the cross, we must remember as well that much of his life on earth was one of suffering. And why did he suffer? For you and for me, and for all those who believe in him. I pray that we would be filled with the deepest gratitude and thankfulness to our suffering Savior. And I pray that we would take comfort in our own afflictions, and would resist temptation in all its forms, remembering how much our Savior endured on our behalf and how he is willing and able to empathize with us and help us. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
For me, kind Jesus, was thine incarnation,
thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation;
thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
for my salvation. (Johann Heermann)