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Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If you are the Son of God…”

᛭ INI ᛭

YOU REALLY ARE A SON OF GOD! “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ ΙΗϹ. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. … And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” (Gal 3) For God “saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through ΙΗϹ Christ our Savior, that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying.” (Tit 3)

YOU REALLY ARE A SON OF GOD! Your baptism says so. It has nothing to do with what you’ve done, but everything to do with what God, the Triune God, has done for you in Holy Baptism. It’s His washing, His adopting, His forgiving, His cleansing, His saving you in water and the word. It’s yours, received, by faith alone. YOU REALLY ARE A SON OF GOD!

(I. The devil tempts and accuses you.)

Then the Tempter comes. He, or one of his minions, comes to you. He tempts you. He tempts you in the same way he tempted Christ, or rather, with words similar to Christ. For Satan isn’t just tempter, but he’s the great accuser. As he accused Job, so he seeks to accuse you. He comes to you, who are baptized into Christ ΙΗϹ, and he says, “If you are a son of God…prove it!”

That’s basically what he did for Christ. The Father announced for all to hear: “This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased!” (Mt 3) He declared what was eternally true. Then the devil shows up like he did in the Garden and says, “Is that true? Did God really say that? Prove it! Alleviate your hunger. Your Dad will protect you from harm. I’ll give you what you came for, free of suffering—just bow down…to me!”

For you, the tempter’s accusation cuts a bit different. It’s not so much a prove it beforehand sort of deal. It’s an after it’s all said and done accusation. “If you are a son of God…would you do what you’ve done? A son of the Father doesn’t live like you do. Just who do you think you are? You’re more like one of my sons of disobedience than a dutiful, true, faithful son of the Father.”

(Transition.)

And yet all that the devil speaks is true enough and yet is also a lie. It is a lie because Christ is the Son of God and you are baptized into Him. By baptism through faith you are son of the Father. Christ has caused you be a son of the Father. But before that Christ defeated the devil in your place.

Christ is the Second Adam faithfully endured each and every single one of the devil’s temptation. He didn’t eat when the devil said so. He didn’t put the Lord His God, His Father, to the test. He served only His Father’s will. Each one of the devil’s tempting taunts fell on deaf ears. Not only in the wilderness but also at the cross—all for you!

At Calvary, the devil surrounded Christ with his mouth pieces. “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross,” they cried. The religious leaders, too!: “If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, “I am the Son of God.’ ” (Mt 27)

Yet, Christ is God’s Son. He humbled Himself for your sake, to defeat the devil. “By death He destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” (Heb 4) His pierced hands and feet, His spear pierced side—five wounds!—far more powerful than the 5 smooth stones David picked up to strike down the taunting, tempting giant…

He has baptized you into HIs death, and His resurrection, too. By His death He won adoption, by Baptism He delivered it, and now YOU REALLY ARE A SON OF GOD!

(II. You flesh is a disobedient son.)

Yes, “beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.” (1-Jn 3) And that’s because of our frail flesh and blood. “The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,” (Mt 26) for “the flesh fights against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” (Gal 5) Even though we are sons of God, we end up either cowering like the sons of Israel in our Old Testament or falling into the devil’s temptations like Adam and Eve.

Our flesh is in league with the devil. It is a disobedient son, even though you are “in Christ, a new creation,” (2-Cor 5) nevertheless it’s just new software on old hardware. The flesh wants to live sinfully. The flesh also doesn’t like repentance. Well, it likes other being repentant toward us, but us actually own up to our mistakes? Nah! We’ll self-justify, make excuses, anything to stair at our sins and say, “Yes, that’s sin.” It does that because our flesh also hates the next part: “The Son of God died for it.”

“For,” as a Christian, you “delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But [there’s] another law in [your] members, warring against the law of [your] mind. [It brings you] into captivity to the law of sin which is in [your] members. O wretched [sons] that [we are]! Who will deliver [you] from this body of death? [Thanks be to God,] through ΙΗϹ Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7) “In [Christ] you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh…buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us…He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to [His] cross.” (Col 2)

“Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner man is being renewed every day!” (1-Cor) Renewed (forgiven!) by Baptism’s restoration—Holy Absolution. Renewed (forgiven!) through the Word of God and prayer. Renewed (forgiven!) in the Sacrament of the Altar: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood [remains] in Me, and I in him.” (Jn 6) “[Remain] in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it [remains] in the vine, neither can you, unless you [remain] in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. [Whoever remains] in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15) “Works serve our neighbor and supply the proof that faith is living.” (LSB 555)

(Conclusion.)

YOU REALLY ARE A SON OF GOD! “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ ΙΗϹ. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. … And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” (Gal 3) For God “saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through ΙΗϹ Christ our Savior, that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying.” (Tit 3)

YOU REALLY ARE A SON OF GOD! Your baptism says so. It has nothing to do with what you’ve done, but everything to do with what God, the Triune God, has done for you in Holy Baptism. It’s His washing, His adopting, His forgiving, His cleansing, His saving you in water and the word. It’s yours, received, by faith alone. Don’t mind the devil—YOU REALLY ARE A SON OF GOD!

᛭ INI ᛭