JESUS did not begin his ministry, or do any healing works, until after his victory over evil, in what is called his temptations. It is therefore evident that individual victory over temptation, or the demonstration of man's spiritual purity, is the first essential to success, both in preaching the gospel and in healing the sick. Christian Science does not teach any other way of preaching complete Christianity, or of healing from sin and sickness, than the way of Christ Jesus. His way of overcoming temptation must therefore be our way. Hence the importance of the prayerful study of the Bible record of these temptations, and their spiritual interpretation as found in our textbook. We read in Luke, "Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil." At this point in Jesus' demonstration of the Science of Life, the illumination of his consciousness, or baptism by the Holy Ghost, had become so great that this light of Love and Truth reflected by him became apparent to others, as recorded in the account of his experience with John the Baptist. The Holy Spirit was unfolding in him, the spiritual understanding of the divinity of Life, Truth, and Love, and he now understood the law, or method of demonstrating the power of this Trinity, to overcome sin, sickness, and death.
We should remember that this spiritual power, and his understanding of the method of its demonstration, was first tested by Jesus in demonstrating that the mortal or carnal-mind belief in the reality of evil as an entity and power is no part of man's real consciousness. Jesus' method of enthroning God as the only power which he could acknowledge, or of which he could be really conscious as demonstrably real, is beautiful in its simplicity, and very practical for our guidance. The record indicates that he was alone with God and the would-be tempter. There being no witnesses, the original record may have been obtained from some of his disciples, recalled from the remembrance of the Master's statement to them, when trying to teach them how to overcome their temptations. Their inability to understand spiritual things may have caused them to picture this experience as a personal conflict with a personal devil. Opinions differ as to the possibility of Jesus even being tempted; but we have to deal with the record as we find it, that he was tempted.
Paul taught that it was both possible and practical for men to follow the example of Jesus, and that "in all things it beloved him to be made like unto his brethren," and that by reason of his personality in the flesh, he could be "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Speaking of his corporeal personality, Jesus said, "Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God." We should bear in mind that the temptations, and his complete victory over them, were a part of his demonstration of the Science of Life, the Science of Christianity, teaching us the truth of the basic statement of Christian Science—that evil is unreal, because God did not make it. From this, the Christian Science point of view, the whole question of the possibility of such an experience is simplified, and reduced to a practical and logical demonstration of the unreality of evil by overcoming it—thereby proving its nothingness as a presence or power. It was some time after these temptations that Jesus, speaking of the devil or evil, said he "abode not in the truth [was not true or real] because there is no truth [reality] in him." Jesus' mission was to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, or the belief in the reality, power, and presence of evil in every form. He was to demonstrate the first commandment. It is generally conceded that the word temptation, in the original, conveyed a different meaning from the commonly accepted definition; that it properly means being tried, or put upon probation.
