But the temptation in the wilderness was humanity’s test as well as Christ’s. God was giving man another chance, a last chance. Therefore, the victory was humanity’s victory. The Lord Jesus was there as God’s second Man qualifying to become man’s Savior and as the last Adam preparing to become the Head of a new race of men. “The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” must be without spot. Satan had used every avenue of approach and every method of attack to make Him sin and to win His allegiance, but he had failed utterly. The Son of Man emerged from this fierce conflict unscathed, unsullied, and unstained. At every point where the first man had failed, the second Man had succeeded; at every place where the first Adam met defeat, the last Adam won victory. The fight against sin, self, and Satan had been completely won. His sinlessness qualified Him for Saviorhood. The victory in the wilderness was more than personal; it was racial; it was your victory and mine, if we will.

Sinlessness, however, is a negative condition of life, and God requires more than that. For the fullest fellowship with Himself, He demands something positive, even the perfection of holiness. So, Christ went forth from the wilderness to live a perfect life, perfect in its words, walk, ways, and work. Perfection marked everything in His character and conduct. He Himself testified both negatively and positively to the perfection of His life when He said, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (John 14:30) and “The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). He was not only the sinless One but the perfect One.

The perfection of His life was the perfection of obedience, of unwavering, unvarying submission to His Father’s will. When He emptied Himself of His equality with the Father and yielded the place of sovereignty for one of subserviency, He surrendered completely His right to speak, act, and will independently of His Father.

John 12:49-50

^49 “For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father who sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that His commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak.”

John 5:19

“Then answered Jesus and said unto them, “Verily, verily I say unto you, 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.”

Matthew 26:39

“And He went a little farther, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”

His obedience was the obedience of the God-man: of the divine-human Mediator, of God’s second representative Man. It was, therefore, not due to any divine attributes of the Son of God but was an obedience the Son of Man learned through suffering and sorrow, through trial and tribulation as He trod the pathway of all humanity.

Hebrews 5:8-9

“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.”

Hebrews 2:10

“For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

It was an obedience that did not end simply in the perfection of moral beauty and spiritual grace in daily life but one which led Him to drink the cup of suffering to its very dregs. It constrained Him, even compelled Him to be obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, because this was the Father’s will. He measured up to the full stature of the perfection of holiness in God the Father through His perfect obedience as the incarnate Son.

In the person of the God-man, the broken unity between God and man has been re-established. For what purpose? For none other than that of restoring in man the image of God, disfigured and marred by sin. In the holiness of the perfect Man, sinful humanity has not only a revelation of what God meant man to be but also a pledge of what man may become. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself that He might lift man out of what he is into what God is.

Romans 5:10

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

God proposes the inauguration of a new order of beings who are to be as heavenly and holy, as pure and perfect as He is; a race of redeemed men who shall be “conformed to the image of his Son.” Undiscouraged by sin’s tragic work, God purposes to carry out His original intention that man shall be like Himself. The new union God made with humanity in the incarnation is His pledge of the fulfillment of such a purpose. He stooped to an actual identification with human nature, and by that stoop, He lifted human nature into an actual identification with the divine nature. 

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Dear God, thank You, through the purpose of the incarnation, we are a race of redeemed men who are being conformed to the image of Your Son.