NOTE: There are only three more days of this series on Luke available on Biblestudytools.com. To get the rest of the series, get a set of Explore devotional, either as an app or as a paper copy, here—details of a great deal below this study.
Jesus wasn’t the first sinless man to walk on earth as the great hope of humanity. In a sense, He wasn’t the first “son of God”. And the crucial question is: will He be any more successful than the first one?
Son of man, son of God
Read Luke 3:23
We’ve already seen that Jesus is “the Son of God” (v 22).
• Who else was (v 38)?
• Verse 22 underlines the point that Jesus is divine. What point is verses 23-38 making about Him?
Take One
Adam, the first man, was created by God to live under His rule in His world. Anyone born of him would enjoy that life too.
Read Genesis 3:1
• What went wrong? Who did the woman listen to?
When he listened to his wife, Adam was in fact listening to Satan too.
Adam was our representative. His failure was our failure—his death was our death. Each time we sin, we show that, because we’re born of Adam, we’re just like Adam, part of his family. Our disobedience, like Adam’s, brings God’s condemnation (see Romans 5 v 16).
Take Two
Read Luke 4:1
• What happens to Jesus, the Son of God and son of Adam (v 1-2)?
• Why would each of the devil’s offers have been particularly tempting to Jesus (v 3, 5-7, 9-11)?
• Who did Jesus obey and worship?
• How is Jesus unlike Adam, and unlike any other human who’s ever lived?
And Jesus offers to be our representative. His obedience can be our obedience—and He is able to die our death. This is what Jesus, the perfect man, the second Adam, came to do:
• “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us…”—Jesus, because He had no sin, was able to take our sin and deal with it by dying…
• “…so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5 v 21)—Jesus gives us His obedience, or righteousness, so that we can live with God for ever.
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APPLY
• Have you ever asked the Father to see Jesus when He looks at you, rather than seeing Adam?
• Look at the method Jesus uses to resist the devil. What can we learn about how we can resist temptation, and so live like Jesus?
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NOTE: There are only three more days of this series on Luke available on Biblestudytools.com. To get the rest of the series, get a set of Explore devotional, either as an app or as a paper copy, here—details of a great deal below.
This devotional is taken from Explore—a daily Bible-reading devotional from the good book company which enables you to engage with Scripture and which will encourage, equip and inspire you to live for Christ. Explore features contributions from pastors such as Dr Timothy Keller, Mike McKinley and Tim Chester.
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