Page 67 - The Divine Unfolding of God's Plan of Redemption

The next temptation was another attempt to inject the alien constitution into His
course of action. “Appeal to the crowd assembled in the court of the Temple and win
their allegiance by a spectacular descent from its summit.” It is a repetition of the

age-long urge to use a carnal method to accomplish the will of God! Again he refused
by a reference to that which is written, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!”

Said He, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work”

(John4:34). “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for
what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” “I seek not mine own
will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:19, 30).

“For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that
sent me” (John 6:38).

The miracles He performed in the healing of all manner of infirmities and diseases

were not simply acts of compassion. They were the credentials of His deity and divine
origin. “For the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I
do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.” His unique ability to cure
otherwise incurable diseases demonstrated His unique qualification for Saviorhood

and for the forgiveness of sins. He said to the man sick of the palsy, “Son, thy sins be
forgiven thee.” The scribes who heard it reasoned among themselves, saying, “Why
doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?”
Whereupon the wonderful Christ demonstrated the fallacy of human reasoning by

showing that the same power that enabled Him to heal at a word one so grievously
sick of the palsy also proved His deity and His qualification for the forgiveness of sins.
Listen to this ringing statement! “That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power
on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the man sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise,

and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house” (Mark 2:5-11).

It was power that was emitted from His person during the three years of His
ministry, not life. It will be recalled that when He went through the streets of

Capernaum on the way to the house of Jairus, a woman in the throng with an issue of
blood touched Him. He turned and said, “Who touched me?” He perceived that power
had gone out of Him [the Greek word dunamis, from which we get dynamite]. Then

Peter and the other disciples rebuked Him, saying, “Master the multitude throng thee
and press thee, and sayest thou who touched me?” Ah, Peter! You and the rest have
not yet learned to distinguish between those who with idle curiosity throng Him and
press Him and those who touch Him with loving faith! Sad it is that Christendom is
full of those who jostle and crowd Him, desiring the by-products of the Christian

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