“Tempted—Yet Without Sin”
The Temptation of Christ
THE WORDS “Immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan” (Mark 1:12–13), assure us that in the temptation of Christ the initiative was on the side of the divine, not the diabolical.
After the approval of heaven at Jordan came the assault of hell; after the dove, the devil. This is the usual order in spiritual experience, and in this the Master was no exception. The fact that Jesus was full of the Spirit (Luke 4:1) did not exempt Him from the rigors of temptation. Does subtle temptation usually beset men at the threshold of their careers, the temptation to substitute the lower for the higher? Then in this, too, He will be “made like unto his brethren” (Hebrews 2:17).
An objective reading of the relevant Scriptures leaves no doubt that there was a personal agent in the temptation—not a personification of evil, but an evil person with vast though restricted power. The language used cannot be made to fit an impersonal force or influence. In any case there was no evil in our Lord to be personified (1 John 3:5)!
In the wilderness Jesus was not engaged merely in an inner conflict with His own desires and ambitions, but in a desperate, long, drawn-out struggle with the external adversary of God and man, the devil. It would be strange indeed if that malignant spirit were to allow the Messiah to engage in a mission that would result in his own overthrow without trying to deflect Him from His purpose.
The place where the Second Adam met and vanquished the tempter is in striking contrast to that in which the first Adam succumbed to his subtlety—the arid wilderness, not luxuriant Eden. This fact strikes at the fallacy of the doctrine of environment. It will be noted that Jesus was tempted in solitude. The monastic life cannot save from satanic assaults.
Since Jesus was alone in the wilderness, He only could have given a report of what transpired, probably on an occasion when He was opening His heart to His intimates. We should be grateful to Him for preserving this record of His victory and of the principles on which we, too, may overcome.
Exactly what is implied in the statement that Jesus was “in all points tempted like as we are” (Hebrews 4:15)? Does it mean that Jesus; experienced every kind of temptation experienced by men and women of all ages? Obviously, no. He did not face the temptations peculiar to the space age, for example.
Does it not rather mean that temptation assailed Him in its full force along every avenue in which it can reach human nature? The surrounding circumstances and incidentals of the temptation may differ, but temptations are essentially the same for all men and women in all ages. It would mean that Jesus was tempted in every part of His humanity, as we are.
Nor need it be assumed that the three recorded temptations were the only assaults the devil made on His holy soul during the forty days. These were but samples, or climaxes. Luke’s account seems to imply this: “And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered” (Luke 4:2, italics added). He was tempted during the whole forty days, but He was so preoccupied with His spiritual crisis that He forgot to eat. It was at the end of the forty days that He became hungry. Then followed the three representative tests.
Leander S. Keyser has suggested that temptation can come to man along only three avenues. All other temptations are merely variants of these three.
Appetite: the desire to enjoy things (Matthew 4:2–4; Luke 4:2–4). In his first letter, John refers to this as “the lust of the flesh” (1 John 2:16).
Since Jesus was hungry, Satan made his first approach on the physical plane and in the realm of legitimate appetite. He came in the role of a benefactor. Why not turn these stones into bread? Desire for food is God-given and innocent. Since He was the Son of God, why not use His inherent power to gratify His legitimate desire? The temptation was so plausible, so specious, that few if any of us would have detected in it the satanic attack.
The whole point of the test focused on the Lord’s submission to the will of God. In each temptation Satan endeavored to induce Jesus to act in a manner contrary to complete dependence on God, by asserting a measure of independence springing from self-interest.
Jesus’ method of meeting the fiery dart was simple, yet most effective. The Spirit who had led Him to this spot recalled to Him a relevant passage of Scripture that exposed the true nature of the temptation. “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4; cf. Deuteronomy 8:3). On His lips, these words expressed His utmost confidence that His Father would supply Him with needed bread in His own way and time. “This trust,” comments H. C. Lenski, “rose in its might and crushed the very suggestion of distrust or mistrust and thus overcame the temptation.”
He refused to employ His divine prerogatives to gratify His own natural desires. To yield to the satanic suggestions would be tantamount to a denial of His incarnation, because He would be “calling into His service powers which His brethren could not employ.”
Further, it would have been satisfying a legitimate craving in an illegitimate way. He preferred remaining ravenously hungry to moving out of line with His Father’s will. He would await His Father’s word and provision. Had He yielded and provided Himself with bread by a miracle, His call to discipleship would have been out of the question for those who possessed no such powers but must earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow.
Ambition: the desire to achieve things (Matthew 4:5–6; Luke 4:9–11). This John designates “the pride of life” (1 John 2:16).
The scene changes. Satan takes Jesus up to one of the parapets of the Temple. The pinnacle, or better parapet, was in all probability the southern wing overlooking the Kidron valley hundreds of feet below, the sheerest depth well-known to the Jews. Josephus asserted that “anyone looking down would be giddy, while his sight would not reach to such an immense depth.” Satan’s suggestion was that Jesus should leap into this abyss, not into the crowded Temple court.
The focus of this temptation was on His confidence in God, and the tempter buttressed his proposition by an apt quotation from Scripture, from which he omitted a vital phrase, “in all thy ways” (Luke 4:10–11; cf. Psalm 91:11–12). Jesus was challenged to prove His faith by putting God’s promise to the test.
The Master’s reply clearly revealed that for Him to act thus would be not faith but presumption. He avoided the peril of fanaticism, refusing to go beyond the limits God had laid down and thus tempting God, for God is not bound to respond to “every irresponsible whim of the want of faith.” “Stunting” was not one of the ways of God. The Jews sought a Messiah who would work dazzling wonders and establish a worldwide empire with Jerusalem as its center, and this was a temptation to yield to their carnal expectations.
Note the repeated use of “It is written” in Jesus’ replies to the devil. Jesus knew how to wield the sword of the Spirit. He would not presumptuously run into danger, unless clearly in the will of His Father. He refused to attempt to dazzle people into faith. He would not establish His kingdom by display and outward show.
Foiled again, the tempter makes a last attempt to seduce Jesus.
Avarice: the desire to obtain things (Matthew 4:8–11; Luke 4:5–7), designated by John “the lust of the eyes” (1 John 2:16).
The first temptation was on the physical plane, the second on the mental. In the third, Satan invades the realm of the spiritual—the giving to him a place that belongs to God alone.
This time he takes Jesus to a high mountain. Apparently in a vision (for “all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them” could not be seen “in a moment of time” from any mountain in Palestine) the glory of world-domination was brought vividly before the Son of Man. Satan offered Him an outward kingdom with its outward splendor. It is noteworthy that Jesus did not challenge Satan’s boast of the power to give Him the kingdoms of the world or charge him with falsehood.
Jesus had indeed come to obtain all the world of power and glory, but He was to receive it in His Father’s way in His Father’s time. And His Father’s way included death on a cross. He perceived that Satan was offering Him the crown without the cross. The devil focused his last temptation on the possibility of an evasion of the cross by a compromise with him.
For the third time our Lord draws the sword of the Spirit from its sheath and wields it expertly. “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10).
Having failed to storm the citadel of Christ’s loyalty and absolute obedience to His Father’s will, the adversary departed from Him “for a season,” but only for a season. Later he returned to the attack with greater fury.
The record implies that in each case Jesus heard the temptation from within, but did not open the door to the tempter. In this way He gained a stunning victory over His enemy, the benefits of which can be shared today by every tempted soul. Because the Christ to whom we are united by faith was victorious over every class of temptation, we may share in His triumph as we appropriate it by faith.
For us baptized, for us He bore
His holy fast and hungered sore,
For us temptations sharp He knew,
For us the tempter overthrew.
The essence of the three temptations may be summarized:
The first was the temptation to satisfy a legitimate appetite by illegitimate means.
The second was the temptation to produce spiritual results by unspiritual means.
The third was the temptation to obtain a lawful heritage by unlawful means.
It is not without significance that each of the answers of Jesus to Satan was a quotation from the book of Deuteronomy, a book that has been so strongly assaulted by destructive critics. Our Lord thus stamped the Pentateuch as the Word of God.
Joseph Parker draws attention to some interesting features in the answers of our Lord to Satan’s suggestions.
They were not the result of a keen intellectuality on the part of Christ to which we mortals may not lay claim.
They were not the outcome of ready wit nor of an unexpected flash of fire from friction that had not been counted on.
They do not bear the marks of inventive genius.
They were not answers that came on the spur of the moment as a result of His infinite wisdom.
They were not metaphysical arguments elaborately stated and eloquently discussed.
But they were simple enough for the average child to understand.
They were quotations from the Word of God on which He meditated day and night.
They were authoritative, not in the form of submitted suggestions. Human reasonings and arguments are weak in conflicts with Satan because they lack authority.
In relation to Christ, the temptation issued in unqualified triumph. The suggestions of the evil one left Him untainted by sin. His filial relationship with His Father remained undisturbed. He entered on the temptation “full of the Holy Ghost.” He returned “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:1, 14); enriched, not impoverished, by the experience.
In relation to Satan, the temptation meant ignominious and utter defeat. Each reply of Jesus dealt another stunning blow. His subtleties and sophistries were ruthlessly; exposed. His defeat in the wilderness presaged his final and absolute defeat at the consummation of the age.
In relation to the believer, the temptation victory gave assurance of the possibility of personal triumph over Satan and his wiles. It holds out the possibility of emergence from the bitterest temptation unsullied and in full confidence of sonship. The weapon used by our Lord in the contest is equally available to the believer, so that he need be “in nothing terrified by [his] adversaries” (Philippians 1:28).