It was the Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness. The Devil didn’t draw Jesus out to battle. Our Lord was led by the Third-Person of the Godhead revealing once more the Triune unity.
The Spirit plays a fundamental role in this season. The role of the Spirit, according to St. John, is to convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment (Jn. 16:8).
While Lent focuses on the Jesus-story and the reality of the cross, Lent is also a season to magnify the Spirit’s work in convicting us of our sins. The Church season of Lent is only beneficial when the Spirit works within us to produce fruits and virtues; faith and vigor in our walk. And since the Spirit is conforming us to the image of the Son through these virtues, thus we have a calling to fight in harmony with the Spirit. In short, Lent is the harmony of the Spirit’s work with Spirit-empowered saints.
Just as the Lenten journey was a road of struggle, prayer, and communion for our Lord, so too, our walk to bear and reflect such fruits will demand struggle, prayer, and communion with our Lord. Our entire lives can be summed up in warfare. Lent is a reminder to take our sin-struggle as the Christian’s constant battleground. These next thirty-five days stress our need to repent of those things which easily entangle us in a web of deceit. Only the Spirit can lead us well to fight our evil foe. Only the Spirit can lead us to see the victorious Lord who defeated evil for us at Calvary’s cross.
Lent is Spirit-centered. None of us can ever expect to gain from fasting and building godly habits apart from the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.
