The Secret of Sin's Attractiveness
“The devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain.” — Matthew iv. 8.
When Satan tempted Christ he took Him up to a mountain. He gave Him a lofty view. He tried to make Him feel that he was suggesting something noble. He offered Him the very thing He was sent to win — the kingdoms of the world and their glory. It is ever so. No man is first tempted by sin as sin. The power of sin is its disguise of beauty. If it appeared in its own name we should not receive it. But when it knocks at the door it gives a false name — the name of virtue. We let it in on false pretences. It has the dress of a seraph, the gait of an archangel, the voice of a messenger from heaven. If Barabbas came as a robber, no one would prefer him to the Lord. But Barabbas is the mock Christ, the pretended Messiah, the fancied Jesus. He claims the same mission. He offers the same reward. He points to the same goal — emancipation, freedom, power. We choose him by a mistaken identity. We take him for the Lord of Glory.
My soul, in thine hour of temptation, I am not afraid of thy meanness, but of thy nobleness. It is thy mountain, not thy valley, that I fear. How often have I seen thee in thy youth led away by a mistaken identity — the robe of Christ on the form of Barabbas! How often has the cup of kindness made thee forget thy manhood! How often has the hour that men call good-fellowship become thine hour of danger! How often has the warm heart led thee into quagmxires from which a colder heart would have kept thee free! Wouldst thou be cold, then.? God forbid 1 Do not forsake thy mountain view because it has dangers! Does Satan tempt thee by lofty hopes to sin? By the same hopes Christ tempts thee to good. All the lures of the tempter are the counterfeits of
Him. His is the true cup of kindness — the brotherhood of communion. His is the real hour of good-fellowship — the meeting or kindred souls. His is the feast where animosities are buried, the feast where injuries are forgiven, the feast where the past is wiped away. His is the song of the good time coming — the song of Moses and the Lamb — the song of triumph after toil. His are the kingdoms of the world and their glory, the earth and the fulness thereof. Keep thine exceeding high mountain, O my soul; but greet upon its summit not Barabbas but Christ!