Have you ever been tempted? Of course you have. We all have, and sometimes perhaps very strongly. Temptation can be a battle that is hard fought, and we may struggle for a while to hold fast to the thoughts and actions that we know to be right. Jesus was Himself tempted (Matthew 4), and this was part of His identification with us. In contrast to the Adam, the first man, who yielded to temptation and plunged the whole of creation into sin, destruction, and chaos, Jesus, the ‘second Adam’, withstood temptation and did not sin, so that He was able to go to the Cross as a sinless man, and there be our substitute, dying in our place to free us forever from sin’s bondage, and bring us back to God. What a triumph that was! The ultimate triumph of good over
evil. If we are in Christ, His power is in us to overcome all the temptations we will face in this life, and there will be many. Let us therefore hold fast to Him today, walking and talking together as we face life’s moral and ethical challenges.