July 7

Luke 4:1‑2
BEFORE the Lord began His public testimony, it was needful that He be tried, or tempted, not to see if He would sin, for from His birth He was the Holy One of God (Luke 1:3535And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)) as even demons later confessed (Luke 9:3434While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. (Luke 9:34)), but to prove that He was beyond the reach of human frailty and sin; therefore the One fitted to take the place of the guilty and bear the judgment their sins deserved. Had He Himself been a sinner, either by nature or practice, He would not have been eligible to make propitiation for others (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18); 2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)). Only a sinless substitute could take the lost sinner’s place.
“Forty days and forty nights
Thou wast fasting in the wild,
Forty days and forty nights
Tempted, and yet undefiled:
Sunbeams scorching all the day,
Chilly dewdrops nightly shed,
Prowling beasts about Thy way,
Stones Thy pillow, earth Thy bed.
Let us Thy endurance share,
And from earthly greed abstain;
With Thee watching unto prayer,
With Thee strong to suffer pain.”
—George Hunt Smyttan.