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The Temptation of Jesus

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Matthew 4:1–11

Good morning. Both our elders are out this week, so we’ll take a break from Philippians and instead look at the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Children can go ahead and be dismissed for catechism. Turn with me, if you would, to Matthew 4, and we’ll start in verse 1, go through 1 through 11. Matthew 4, verse 1.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

(Matthew 4:1–11)

Opening Prayer

We’ll end the reading there. Father, we are so thankful that we can come and worship you. Open our hearts and minds to hear from your word. We know it’s only possible through your Spirit. We pray this in the name of Jesus, amen.

Baptism and the Setup

The temptation of Jesus is a clash between good and evil of cosmic significance. Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Lion of Judah, the second and greater Adam, is in combat with Satan, the devil, the dragon, the serpent of old. This struggle between light and dark, between truth and lies, can be traced all the way back to the garden, to Adam and Eve, when they were first tempted and sinned. In Genesis 3:15, God speaking to the serpent describes this conflict, saying, “I will put enmity between you,” being the serpent, “and the woman,” being Eve, “and between your offspring and her offspring; he,” speaking of Jesus, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Amid the sweeping conflict that spans all history, the temptation of Jesus is an up-close, personal look at this struggle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent that is of such great importance.

Let’s step back and look at the events of Jesus’ earthly life that lead up to the temptation. Scripture gives three kind of significant events. First, we have all the details surrounding his birth and his infancy. Second, we have the story of Jesus when he was 12 years old and accidentally left by his parents at the temple. And finally, the third event is we have his baptism. Jesus’ baptism and temptation are very closely connected. The two events together mark the start of his ministry. In the Gospel of Luke, we learn that Jesus is about the age of 30 at this time. This age has tremendous significance. It was the age when the Levites could officially enter their full duties as priests. King David began his reign at the age of 30, and Joseph, the interpreter of dreams, was 30 when he entered the service of Pharaoh. Jesus’ baptism and temptation formally start Jesus’ mission as prophet, priest, and king. The events of the baptism are an important backdrop and help make sense of what’s going on in the temptation. So let’s look a few verses back to Matthew 3, starting in verse 13, and we’ll just get this context, the lead-up to the temptation. Verse 13:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

(Matthew 3:13–17)

John, Jesus’ cousin and forerunner, has been baptizing in the Jordan, preaching and teaching the people to believe in the one who will come after him, Jesus. Understandably, John has some reservations when Jesus comes to him to be baptized. But he relents and baptizes him. The heavens open, God the Son has God the Spirit descend upon him in the form of a dove, and God the Father pronounces his pleasure in his Son. There are two phrases I want us to hold on to from the baptism, and we’ll come back to them during the temptation: the Father’s words to the Son, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

What an extraordinary beginning to Jesus’ ministry. He has been given verbal confirmation of his sonship directly from the Father. Things are looking good, you might expect, and only will get better from here. We would expect fanfare and accolades to be heaped upon him, but that’s not what happens. In fact, in the very next verse, he is led by the Spirit, who just descended on him as a dove, into the desert. Mark’s account of the temptation, while being much shorter than Matthew’s, makes this even more striking. It reads like this: “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.” The temptation of Christ immediately follows the exaltation of his baptism. The temptation has not happened upon by accident. It is not as if Satan caught Jesus off guard. Jesus is intentionally driven by the Spirit. His mission is starting. His time has come. With the praise of his Father still ringing in his ears, this beloved Son is driven to the forsaken wilderness where he fasts for 40 days, at which time he comes face to face with the devil to be tempted. So that’s the setup. Jesus is starting his ministry. He was exalted in his baptism, and then we come to the first temptation.

The First Temptation: Stones into Bread

Satan approaches Jesus and says, “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into loaves of bread.” Hear that? Sounds familiar, right? “If you are the Son of God”—that reminds us of the words God the Father spoke to the Son at his baptism, saying, “This is my beloved Son.” See the contrast? There is more going on here than just the question of bread. Satan is questioning the authority of God’s words, spoken to the Son just 40 days prior. Questioning the authority of God’s word is all too familiar. It is a familiar form of temptation that Satan uses. It worked back in the garden with Adam and Eve. Let’s take a look. It says, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”?’” In both temptations, the deceiver aims to cast doubt on the goodness and trustworthiness of God’s word. While the root temptation is the same, there are many contrasting parallels in the circumstances surrounding them between Jesus’ temptation and the original temptation in the garden. In the first, Adam and Eve are in a luscious garden, surrounded by trees with fruit good for food. In contrast, Jesus is in a wilderness desert without food for 40 days. Jesus was hungry. Adam had given names and expressed dominion over all the animals. Yet, as we saw in Mark’s account, Jesus was surrounded by wild beasts. Adam was given a helpmate, a wife, to help endure his temptation. In Jesus’ temptation, he is all alone. Theologians also bring up another important point of contrast. When Adam and Eve sinned, it was an entirely foreign concept to humanity. No precedent for it existed. They could not use the common excuse, well, everyone else is doing it. In contrast, Jesus faced temptation in a world steeped with sin. It was the norm. Sin is the natural inclination of fallen humanity. Yet Jesus resisted this tendency in every way. In Satan’s attack, there is another insinuation of disbelief, as if Satan says, really? Is this how God would treat his son?

Now, it can be easy to gloss over these conditions and really wave away the entire temptation as a whole, just saying, well, Jesus is God, so the temptation would be easy for him to overcome. And of course, Jesus is God, but this attitude is to do great injustice to the incarnation. Let’s take a minute to look at the incarnation and try and avoid this error. Was the cross easy for Jesus? No, he pleaded with the Father for another way, with drops of blood as he sweat in his anguish. I can’t recall where, but I heard this false view of the incarnation described as the Clark Kent view. We can’t think of God as taking on a human body, like Superman might slip on a pair of glasses to disguise himself. We might try and get closer, saying, if Superman took on the poor eyesight along with the glasses, but don’t push the analogy too far. I’m not trying to say what the incarnation is, but I’m trying to say what it is not. It is not God dressing up, just putting on a mask of human flesh. Jesus is truly God and truly man. Some Christian confessions explain it like this: The Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, did take upon him man’s nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities, doing this all without sin. The human nature and even the infirmities actually open up new possibilities, which is maybe somewhat surprising, but they open up the possibility for what we’re talking about right now, for Jesus to be tempted as a man. In Hebrews it says, we have a high priest, Jesus, who is able to sympathize with our weakness, who in every respect was tempted as we are, yet without sin. Furthermore, the incarnation and its limitations allows Jesus to die in our place. God died as a man. The incarnation is scandalous. He who spoke the universe into existence came into existence at a specific point in time as a man. He who called Lazarus forth from the tomb, bringing him back from the dead, would later cry out with the same voice, “It is finished,” and die. We do not want to have such a high view of Christ that we lose his humanity. Ironically, by diminishing his humanity, we end up with a lower view of Christ and his work. So this is a true temptation. How will the God-man respond?

Remember, Satan’s temptation is about more than just turning stones into bread. It is an attack on the authority of God’s word. Will Jesus continue to believe the words of his Father spoken to him at his baptism? Jesus replies right back with God’s very words: “But he answered, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’” In the first part of the reply, Jesus acknowledges his humanity and man’s need for food. This is the truly man part of the incarnation. He does need bread, but man’s need to eat is ultimately meant to point us back in dependence. This is the essence of the second part of Jesus’ reply. Jesus says, yes, I need bread, but ultimately, I need my Father. Jesus strikes at the heart of the temptation. Satan wants to question the words of God, but Jesus uses the very words of God to express his faith that God will provide for him. This is important. Jesus does not appeal to some other authority to prove that Satan is wrong, or to prove God’s word. God is the ultimate authority. There is no other greater authority to appeal to. This is always the answer. When Satan questions the words of God, we need to turn right back in faith to God’s words. “It is written” here is of course referring to Scripture. So Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 8 back to Satan. In Deuteronomy 8, the Israelites are being instructed to remember the works of the Lord from their time wandering in the desert. It reads:

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

(Deuteronomy 8:3)

So just like we had parallels with Adam’s temptation, here we have parallels between Israel’s 40 years wandering in the desert and Christ’s 40 days in the desert. Christ is remembering what God taught the Israelites during this time. Their hunger was meant to point them to him. God was also faithful to supply their physical needs, and so the Son trusts in the timing of his Father. The Son passes the first temptation, completely relying on his Father’s provision.

Before going to the second temptation, I want to address some questions. Why is it important that Jesus be tempted as a man, like we saw that the incarnation allows, and what is the significance of the many parallels to Adam’s temptation? Jesus is the second and greater Adam. The name Adam can simply mean man, so he’s the second and greater man. The second Adam is not going to fall to temptation, to the temptations of the devil, as Adam did. Instead, Jesus came to free mankind from the bondage of sin and death, uniting to himself a new humanity with him as the head. All mankind sinned and died in Adam. But all who believe in the second Adam are made righteous and given life. Remember the reason Jesus gave at his baptism? To fulfill all righteousness? Jesus is doing that as he resists the temptations. Paul lays this out in Romans. So if you would turn there to Romans 5. We’re going to jump around a bit, but I think it’s worth looking at the text. So Romans 5 starting in verse 12:

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

(Romans 5:12, 18–19)

Adam was our covenant representative, and we all sinned in him. But the good news is we have a new covenant representative, Jesus, in whom we are given life. Theologians split Christ’s obedience into two parts. First, his passive obedience is the taking on the punishment for sin in his death on the cross. But this actually in itself is not enough. God’s plan does not stop there. Christ taking our sin would make us not guilty, but it would not make us righteous in the sight of God. God also requires perfect obedience to the law, and this is the second part of his obedience, his active obedience. Christ’s active obedience accomplishes, through his perfect obedience in all of Jesus’s life, his perfect fulfillment of the law has been counted to us as righteousness. Paul earlier in Romans explains that it is through the instrument of faith that we are gifted this righteousness. It says, “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” We are gifted the righteousness of God. This has been called the great exchange. Christ takes on the sin for all who believe in him. And in return, all the righteousness of Christ is given to all who believe. It has been said, Jesus did not just die for our sins, but he also lived for our righteousness. So as we go through the next temptations, remember, Christ is acting on our behalf. If we are in him, God sees Jesus’ righteous acts when he looks upon us. All praise be to God.

The Second Temptation: The Pinnacle of the Temple

So to the second temptation, Satan now takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. The devil starts by casting the same seeds of doubt he used the first time. He says, “If you are the Son of God.” And then he tempts Jesus by saying, throw yourself down from the temple. Now Satan adds a twist. Using the same words of Jesus, Satan quotes from Psalm 91. Satan also says, “For it is written.” And then he quotes from Psalm 91 saying, “He will command his angels concerning you,” and “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Satan knows the facts of the Bible. He knows it better than anyone in this room, but he hates what it says. This is really all Satan can do. He has no creative power of his own. He has no goodness to offer us. All he can do is pervert the truth and good gifts of our Creator. This is the second element of Satan’s temptation. The first we have seen is to question the authority of God and his word. To cast out the statements saying, “If you are the Son of God,” or “Did God actually say.” But the second part of the attack is to pervert God’s good gifts and encourage us to take them in either pride or to take them in a twisted way or to take them before the appropriate time. Let’s look how Satan uses the second element of his attack in the garden. He says to Adam and Eve, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” This was all true in a technical sense. They did not immediately die. After they ate the fruit, God affirms basically what the serpent said. God says, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.” What the serpent said might have all been true, but it was not good. It was not the plan of God. The knowledge of good and evil is not bad in itself. God has this knowledge. King Solomon prayed for this knowledge in his prayer for wisdom, and God was pleased in his prayer and granted it to him. So it’s not the seeking of wisdom or knowledge that was wrong in what Adam and Eve did. It was a grasping for this wisdom in pride through their own means, instead of being fully reliant on their Creator. Instead of waiting for their good and perfect timing for the blessings to be bestowed and for honor to be given them. This is exactly what is at work in Jesus’ second temptation. Satan is saying, make a public statement of your divinity, in front of all the people at the temple, the most holy and public site, show that you are the Son of God. Satan goes so far as to back it up with Scripture, like we saw. And there’s many other verses he could point to to do this. Malachi says, “And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” A jump from the temple would certainly do this. Satan is saying, make a dive from the temple with the angels catching you, placing you on the doorstep of the temple in front of everyone, now that would prove your messiahship. Really, all you would be doing, Jesus, is fulfilling the prophecy, doing what God has already promised. He has promised an angel will catch you. He has promised the Messiah would come to his temple. Go ahead and take what he has promised you. But Jesus knows the game that is being played. He will not allow his messianic mission to be thwarted by grasping for signs and glory before the appointed time, as Adam did. He has come first to suffer. He knows you don’t test the promises of God, instead you rely on them in faith. You don’t pit one portion of Scripture against another portion, distorting them for self-serving ends. Jesus responds back with Scripture: “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” He is again quoting from Deuteronomy, this time referring to when the Israelites demanded a sign from Moses and water to drink. God instructed Moses to strike a rock and it poured forth water. However, that place became known as Massah, which means testing, because of the quarreling of the Israelites and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” That is the question being asked of Jesus. Is God still at work in your life? Or do you need to take matters into your own hands? The Israelites lost faith and wanted a sign. However, Jesus trusts in his Father. By the Spirit, Jesus will work numerous signs, but he rests in his Father’s good and perfect timing. He does not contrive a situation in which to presume upon the promises of God. He can say with the psalmist, “Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.” In Satan’s quotation of Scripture, there is another subtle questioning of the authority of God’s word. It says the angels, in the Scripture he quotes, it says the angels would bear up the Messiah and keep his feet from striking stone. However, we know way back in Genesis 3:15 that Jesus’ heel would in fact be bruised. This is a setup for Satan to bring his third attack in the third temptation.

The Third Temptation: The Kingdoms of the World

Let’s go ahead and look back at it in Matthew 4 and verse 8. It reads: “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’” We might scratch our heads a bit here. Can we trust Satan’s word? Has he really been given authority over the kingdoms of the world? In this case, his words are true. Satan is again twisting truth and using it for evil ends, but his claim to authority is accurate. And it might surprise us. Now, of course, Satan does not have ultimate authority. Even he acknowledges this. He recognizes that this authority has been given him. But Scripture is clear. He did have authority. Paul in Corinthians writes, “the god of this world,” being Satan, “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel.” John, the apostle, actually frequently writes about this. He says, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Before Jesus is betrayed, he says to the apostles, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me.” And Jesus, describing his death, says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself,” speaking of his death. So Satan, he did have real authority. We aren’t given the specifics of how this works, but when Adam and Eve fell in sin, they forfeited their God-given dominion over the earth, allowing Satan to take temporary and limited power. As the second Adam, Christ has come to reclaim this authority and restore humanity’s dominion on the earth. So what is the temptation? If God’s plan will involve Jesus reigning over all the kingdoms anyways, why would Satan think Jesus would even entertain what is being offered? And of course, the sin is to offer improper worship to Satan. Again, the temptation though is to grasp at authority before the appropriate time. The offer is to complete part of Jesus’ mission to reign as King, right here, right now, but to do so without the cross, without suffering, without being crushed. Jesus could be the exalted King without the need to also be the suffering servant. Jesus could rightfully claim dominion as the second Adam right now, but he would do so without a bride, without the church, without us, his people. Without the cross, there would be no atonement, no salvation, no restored humanity to share his kingdom. Jesus, in perfect submission, rejects this shortcut, declaring, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” His refusal affirms that true authority comes through obedience, that obedience to God’s will, not through compromise with evil. He will not entertain the plans of the devil, but serve his Father and serve him only. He will only do his bidding. An important note, it is not that Jesus did not want what Satan offered him. And really, in all the temptations, right? Jesus does eat bread, he does need bread, and he will do many signs, and he does want the kingdoms of the world. But the point is that he would never consider doing so on Satan’s terms. Jesus, in his teaching, posed this question: “How can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.” Satan was the strong man, but Jesus has bound the strong man through his work on the cross. After he ascended into heaven, Jesus poured out his Spirit on the church and through the advancing gospel, plundered what was only temporarily the house of Satan. In Jesus’s reply, we also see who has been in control the whole time. Jesus commands, “Be gone, Satan.” And immediately at those words of God, Satan departs in defeat. The angels who have been waiting in the wings the whole time rush to care for the victorious Messiah. Love is poured out on the beloved Son. God is always faithful to provide for his children.

How We Should Live

Okay, so in light of Jesus’ victory over Satan’s temptation, what are we called to do? How should we live? First, we must hold fast to this story preserved for us in Scripture. Today is the day of salvation. Have you believed in Jesus from your earliest memory, or just now are turning to him in faith, we must all look to Christ in what he accomplished, affirm that Jesus Christ, the great prophet, priest, and king, prevailed over the devil and did so on our behalf. He took our sin upon himself and fulfilled all righteousness so we could be his. Calvin says in his commentaries, speaking of this passage, the Son of God voluntarily endured temptations and fought as it were in single combat with the devil, that by his victory he might obtain a triumph for us. Whenever we are called to encounter Satan, let us remember that his attacks can in no other way be sustained and repelled than by holding out this shield. For the Son of God undoubtedly allowed himself to be tempted that he may be constantly before our minds when Satan excites us with every contest of temptation. We must look to Jesus. We are children of the Most High. If Satan tempted the second person of the Trinity by questioning his sonship, how much more will the deceiver tempt us in this way? We must take heart and remember we are in good company when circumstances make us question if we are truly God’s children. We must be on guard for this temptation, and through faith intentionally turn to trust the promises of God. While the Bible is clear, God never tempts us, he does allow his children to be tested, to strengthen, to mature, to sanctify us. The psalmist recognizes this and he sings out:

For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

(Psalm 66:10–12)

God tests us, but he is always faithful to provide. Temptation, being tested, is an opportunity to prove our loyalty and obedience to our King. But all the while, we must hate the temptation, flee from it, do not coddle it, do not seek it out. God has promised never to allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear with his grace. He is faithful to always provide a way of escape and a way to endure the temptation without sin. James writes, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This is exactly what happened with our Lord. He resisted the devil. May we do likewise. Jesus’ temptation immediately followed his baptism, as we saw. And from this, we can see at least one way in which Satan likes to time his attacks. As Jesus was exalted and then driven into temptation, so we too can expect new responsibility or blessings to come with their own temptations. Some examples might be marriage, children being born, a promotion, even seeing a new spiritual truth. Be on watch for temptations tailored to new blessings. Another point of application is to be on guard against the two elements of Satan’s attacks. Remember first he questions God’s authority and then offers a false, distorted, or ill-timed substitute for God’s perfect gifts. To grasp for these gifts, these false gifts, in pride in seeking our own way is sin. Obedience to the Ten Commandments is a direct defense from these assaults. And they’re split up nicely. The first five commandments establish God’s rightful authority. They affirm him as the one true God. They call on us to honor his name and his Sabbath and instruct us to respect all of his appointed authorities, like parents. The second five commandments guard against the grasping beyond God’s provision, forbidding us to take vengeance, to elevate ourselves by distorting truth, to take what is not ours, or to even covet what God has not granted. Next, the temptation also teaches us not to presume upon God or put him to the test.

This creates a healthy tension in our walk with God. On one hand, we must not in pride grasp for God’s blessings before the appointed time. But on the other, we must guard against all forms of laziness. Do not presume on God for the spiritual growth of your family. Rather seek it diligently in Scripture reading, prayer, and singing. Don’t presume on God for physical provision. Rather, work heartily as unto the Lord in all you do. Through wisdom, we discern when and how to do this, how to keep this tension in balance. An undeniable takeaway from Jesus’ victory is we must be saturated in the word of God. We must know the word and love the word. The word of God must be our ultimate authority. Admittedly, there are passages that are difficult to understand. We must wrestle with those texts, listen to the teachings of the church, consider the full counsel of God, but at the end of the day, we must resolve: whatever the Bible teaches, that is what we will believe; whatever the Bible condemns, that is what we will forbid; and whatever the Bible commands, that is what we will do. There is power in the words of Scripture. Satan knows this and recognizes it, as we saw he tries to use it. There will always be those who distort Scripture to call good evil and evil good. Talking about the letters of Paul, Peter writes this:

There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

(2 Peter 3:16–18)

Peter’s answer to avoid these errors, to combat these false teachers who twist Scripture, is to study Scripture all the more, continually growing in the knowledge of our Lord. Ultimately, the temptation of Jesus leaves us without excuse for sin. We have a high priest who sympathizes with our weakness. He defeated Satan under almost unimaginable circumstances. We will continue to falter under much weaker temptations until the grip of sin is finally broken at death. In these moments of sin, Satan seizes the opportunity to again breathe lies questioning our identity as God’s children. Whispering doubts, would a child of God have acted that way? Would a child of God have done that? In these times, we must swiftly seek forgiveness, turn our eyes back to our Savior, and rest in his finished work. Jesus has taken our sin upon himself, where it was killed on the cross. Because of this, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. He purifies us of all unrighteousness, and we are given the righteousness of Christ.

To conclude, let’s turn our eyes back to our Savior and King. Satan’s attacks in the wilderness, they actually poetically foreshadow his own ultimate downfall. All of Satan’s twisted temptations have a proper and true fulfillment in Christ’s work. There was no inherent sin in using power to turn stones to bread. Christ multiplied loaves to feed thousands, many times. He turned water into wine, and ultimately he offered his body as the bread of life for the salvation of the world. Other than leaping from the temple, Jesus declared his body to be the true temple. As he resisted summoning angels during his temptation, similarly, he chose not to call upon legions of angels at his crucifixion. His feet and hands, instead of being spared, they were struck with nails. The Son was crushed on the cross, but this led to a far greater sign than a safe leap from the temple. Through his resurrection, he was declared to be the Son of God in power. Jesus did not bow to Satan, but Jesus did come to wholly submit his will to the Father, even unto death. Through this obedient submission, the Lord was exalted and given a name above every name. He was given all authority in heaven and on earth, and now reigns over every kingdom. Let us too resist temptation and live in joyful obedience to our great King.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank you for your word and how it tells of your victory. You did not grasp for blessings or authority before the appointed time, but fully rested in the plan of your Father. Help us to do likewise. Strengthen us to walk by your Spirit and in full obedience to your word, resist the devil and flee from all temptation. We thank you that you are our King. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.