PLEASE KEEP US FROM TEMPTATION AND EVIL
Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
Some may ask why the Holy Spirit would lead Jesus into the desert so he would be tempted by Satan. The answer may be in Hebrews 4:15 where it says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin.” Not only can Jesus sympathize or feel sorry for us, but he can also emphasize with us. Jesus now knows what it is like to be tempted in every way. It is hard to imagine that Jesus experienced every temptation, but this is what it says. And I am glad he did, because no one will be able to say to Jesus, “But you know what it was like for me!” The reason he did this was he cared. Jesus’ life on earth was much more than just the cross he had to bear. We will probably never know all that he went through for us to have forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation with God, but his arms willingly extended on the cross is a good beginning. And because of this we should hold firmly to the faith we profess as Hebrews 4:14b reminds us.
Satan’s first temptation came to Jesus in the form of having him question his sonship with the Heavenly Father by saying, “If you are the Son of God.” The flesh of Jesus’ humanity was certainly different than his infinite form and being than when he was in his divine state with his Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit. Now Jesus would experience all the hurts and frustrations of being human. Jesus knew hunger, the pain of hitting his thumb with a hammer, the cold of the winter and the heat of a hot summer's day. Jesus was going through all that a normal person would have to go through. Now Satan could have been asking him, “Why go through this if you are the Son of God? After all you are the Son of God aren’t you? Just do it this one time. No one will know that you used your divine attributes to help you through this ridiculous ordeal of being human. All you have to do is turn these stones into bread and you will no longer be hungry, and you can go about your business.” But in reply Jesus tells him that, “Man doesn’t live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus knew this very well, because John tells us that Jesus is the Living Word. By turning the stones into bread Satan would have planted a seed of doubt in Jesus regarding if he could really overcome sin and death from the standpoint of a human. Satan was trying to have Jesus question his own humanity, implying that if he was the Son of God, surely he could overcome a basic need of a human.
Satan and the powers of darkness will try and get us to question our salvation and our being the children of God. They will try to plant seeds of doubt that will undermine our faith and trust in Jesus. Once we do that we are no longer a threat to them, because we will deal with them in our humanity our own strength. If we do this we will always lose. Only using the keys of his kingdom (Matt 16:19) can we deal with Satan, the powers of darkness to have victory over them.
Satan’s second temptation is where he tried to get Jesus to question his relationship with his Heavenly Father. Satan took Jesus to the highest point of the temple and dared him to jump off. It was more than a test of courage even though Jesus was in a human body that could not stand such a fall. Satan was implying to Jesus that the very place he stood represented the hope and trust for the Jews in the very deity that he, the Heavenly Father and Holy Spirit stood for. If Jesus didn’t have enough faith in his Heavenly Father to protect him, why should the nation of Israel or anyone else trust in him either. Jesus responds by telling him not to put the Lord his God to a test. It wasn’t just that Jesus was testing the Heavenly Father, but Satan whom Jesus created was testing him. Jesus didn't have to lower himself to prove himself to Satan or to anyone. Strangely enough as Jesus hung on Calvary’s cross he questioned his Heavenly Father by asking, “Why have you forsaken me?”
(Matt 27:46) Of course the Heavenly Father did not forsake him. Jesus came to earth for the very purpose of sacrificing himself to atone for the sins of all humanity. Jesus felt forsaken, because the Heavenly Father and Holy Spirit had to allow him to freely go all the way unto death to complete the atonement. Until his last breath Jesus could have used his deity to come down from the cross just as he was challenged to. Satan, the powers of darkness and the evil of this world will also try to get us to question our relationship with the Heavenly Father. Jesus even says in Matt 11:6 that, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” In other words when we start doubting the Heavenly Father’s love for us, we lose our trust in him, in Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Many Christians have turned away from the Lord, because he didn’t answer a prayer the way a person wanted. We even see that many of Jesus disciples turned away from him when he demanded that when they eat bread they eat his body and when they drink they drink his blood. Without doing this he said they could not enter his kingdom. Because of this many left him. (Jn 6:60-66) If Satan can get us to no longer trust in our relationship with the Lord we will not have faith in him.
Satan’s third temptation was maybe the most deceitful and dangerous for Jesus and for us as well. Satan tried to get Jesus to compromise doing his Heavenly Father’s will. Satan tried to get Jesus to avoid the cross in exchange for Satan and the powers of darkness leaving the earth alone. All Jesus had to do was bow down to Satan making Satan his god. In some ways it could be seen as still a victory of kind for Jesus. Jesus had come to earth to defeat the power of sin and death that held humanity. Jesus was going to sacrifice himself to do this. With Satan’s offer Jesus could avoid the pain of the cross, and still make Satan stop tempting people to sin against God. The problem was that of atonement for sins. Without Jesus sacrificing himself on the cross, everyone that sinned before Satan’s offer to Jesus would go to hell,and everyone that sinned on their own after the offer would go to hell as well. And this was not all. Jesus would have to go to hell, because he would have put Satan before his Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit. Of course thankfully Jesus refused to compromise his Heavenly Father’s will no matter how much pain the cross would bring him.
Satan, the powers of darkness will also try to get us to compromise our covenant with Jesus. He will not necessarily ask us to deny Jesus completely, but just compromise what Jesus is asking of us. As far as Satan is concerned anything but wholeheartedness is fine with him. The problem with compromise is that it sets a precedent to continue to compromise more and more. It becomes like crack in our armor that continues to widen and make easy access for Satan and the powers of darkness. Then before we know it our covenant with Jesus means nothing any longer. Satan will have won, and we will have to spend eternity in hell.
Satan’s temptation is nothing to play around with. It is worse than playing with a rattle snake. Sooner than later we will have to pay the price for our foolishness. James 4:7,8a says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Not only should we resist Satan, but we need to draw near to the Lord as well. We also see in Matt 1:19 that Jesus has given us authority over Satan and the powers of darkness, but even in this we need to lose the Holy Spirit and seek his help and protection. Satan and the Powers of darkness will not give up on trying to turn us from Jesus. But as long as we continue to trust in Jesus and hold firmly to him he will protect us and bring us into the day that we committed unto him - all eternity with him!
Prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus for not giving into Satan. Please help us to never give in either. Please keep us to yourself and our salvation. We ask this in your holy name.
