Using Jesus’ wilderness temptations as a guide, Moore explores the nature of all temptation and the subtle ways in which we are attacked by it. At the heart of all temptation is the lure to assume God’s role in our own protection, provision, or exaltation; to immediately grab after what we desire instead of trusting our Father to supply all our needs in Christ. Moore sheds much-needed light on this subject that is common to all.

There is no upper limit of fame that can ever satisfy those who crave it. There is not monetary figure at which whose who long for financial success will ever be willing to say, “That’s enough.” There is no orgasm that feels good enough to last you a lifetime. As temptation moves onward and inward, you become “insatiable for sin” (2 Peter 2:14). You’re caught. [47]

The issue isn’t whether you’re tempted, but whether you’re aware of it and striking back. You are on the verge of wrecking your life. We all are. [59]

How often do we notice the things that haven’t happened to us? If we survive a heart attack, we might feel a sense of gratitude for being spared. We might even feel that way when a friend our age suffers a heart attack or if we think about the fact that we’ve outlived a family member who died of a heart attack. But otherwise, how many of us feel thankful for the heart attacks we didn’t have, the cars we didn’t wreck, the jobs we didn’t take? [78]

Kingdom and glory are always relative terms. The satanic powers don’t care what size kingdom you want of what quantity of glory is enough for you to bow the knee. They just want to see you worship something other than God to get what you want. [144]

You cannot triumph over temptation. Only Jesus can. [195]

TOP

Genuine adoption is an inseparable blend of doctrine and process, a flesh-and-blood reality of the spiritual adoption all who are in Christ have received. As such, Moore argues, Christians must be at the forefront of adoption, either opening their own homes to orphaned children or making it possible for other to do so. By engaging in adoption in this way, the gospel of Christ is more clearly communicated to others and understood by us. Highly recommended.

This is why the New Testament so repeatedly points all of us toward the Old Testament narratives, which are given, as Paul tells the church at Corinth, “as examples for us” (1 Cor. 10:6), It’s not just that these accounts show us something universal about human nature and God’s workings. It is that they are our story, our heritage, our identity. [36]

The promises find their yes and their amen in him, the shadows find their substance in him. It’s not that Jesus is the copy of Israel coming out of Egypt, but that Israel coming out of Egypt was the copy – in advance – of Jesus. [68]

There’s something about patience that God deems necessary for our life in the age to come. And so, whether through agriculture or discipleship or bodily development or eschatology or procreation, God makes us wait. And he makes us into the kind of people who can wait. [142]

Discipline is one of the ways, as God designed it, that children know they are legitimate and loved parts of the family. Moreover, without teaching, instruction, and discipline a child doesn’t grow up to recognize the gospel – a gospel that is about, after all, subduing one’s own appetites and following after Another. If you refuse to discipline, you’re preaching a false gospel to your child, a gospel that ignores the fact that God evaluates behavior and that actions have consequences. [204]

The gospel welcomes us and receives us as loved children. The gospel disciplines us and prepares us for eternity as heirs. The gospel speaks truth to us and shows us our misery in Adam and our glory in Christ. The gospel shows us that we were born into death and then shows us, by free grace, that we’re adopted for life. [214]

TOP