For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
As Christ's ministry was about to begin, He received baptism at the hands of John. Coming up out of the water, He bowed on the banks of the Jordan and offered to the Father such a prayer as heaven had never before listened to.... The heavens were opened, and a dove, in appearance like burnished gold, rested upon Jesus; and from the lips of the infinite God were heard the words, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
This visible answer to the prayer of God's Son is of deep significance to us....
All may find rest and peace and assurance in sending their prayers to God in the name of His dear Son. As the heavens were open to Christ's prayer, so they will be opened to our prayers....
From the Jordan, Jesus was led into the wilderness of temptation. “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” ...
Adam had failed on the point of appetite, and Christ must conquer here. The power that rested upon Him came directly from the Father, and He must not exercise it in His own behalf.... He met and resisted the enemy in the strength of a “Thus saith the Lord.” “Man shall not live by bread alone,” He said, “but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” ...
Christ's experience is for our benefit. His example in overcoming appetite points out the way for those to overcome who would be His followers.
Christ was suffering as the members of the human family suffer under temptation, but it was not the will of God that He should exercise His divine power in His own behalf. Had He not stood as our representative, Christ's innocence would have exempted Him from all this anguish; but it was because of His innocence that He felt so keenly the assaults of Satan. All the suffering that is the result of sin was poured into the bosom of the sinless Son of God. Satan was bruising the heel of Christ, but every pang endured by Christ, every grief, every disquietude, was fulfilling the great plan of our redemption. Every blow inflicted by the enemy was rebounding on himself. Christ was bruising the serpent's head.—Youth's Instructor, December 21, 1899.
From From the Heart - Page 239
From the Heart