22  The Temptation  of the Messiah  (Luke 4:1–13)

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning you to guard you,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. (4:1–13)

There are many ways to verify the truthfulness of Scripture. There is secular ancient history and archaeology that corroborates the biblical record. The Bible also contains hundreds of prophecies that were fulfilled exactly as predicted. Despite being written before the age of modern scientific discoveries, the Bible is completely accurate when it discusses scientific matters. The book of Job, written during the patriarchal period, says that God “stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing” (Job 26:7). Commenting on the scientific implications of that statement, Henry M. Morris writes,

But the most compelling proof of the Bible’s truthfulness is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every character devised by fallen, finite human minds is somehow flawed. It is utterly impossible that mankind could invent Jesus as He is portrayed on the pages of Scripture. He is absolutely, sinlessly perfect; His wisdom is unerringly profound; His understanding of human nature unparalleled; His response to every situation He faced perfectly consistent with the nature of God. It is also inconceivable that Satan and the demons could have invented the story of Jesus to deceive the human race. Absolute evil cannot create absolute good. And why would demons or humans invent a person who defeats and ultimately destroys them?

The perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ is nowhere more evident than in the story of His confrontation with the archenemy of God, Satan. The devil assaulted Him with wave after wave of temptations, seeking to lure Him into sin and derail the plan of redemption. But Jesus defeated him, demonstrating the power He had to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8) through His death and resurrection. His victory over Satan in the wilderness laid the groundwork for His later triumphs at Gethsemane, Calvary, and the grave. Without His victory over the devil’s temptations, Christ’s messianic credentials would not have been complete. If He was not able to defeat Satan in a head to head confrontation, He would not be able to redeem sinners.

But Jesus was not only the divine Son of God, but also the fully human son of Adam (Luke 3:38). It was in His humanity that Jesus endured the onslaught of temptation, “for God cannot be tempted by evil” (James 1:13). The question arises as to whether or not Jesus was impeccable; that is, not able to sin. Obviously, Jesus did not sin; He “knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), “committed no sin” (1 Peter 2:22), and “in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5; cf. Heb. 4:15; 7:26; John 8:46). Some theologians, however, believe that He could have sinned, even though He did not. But the union of Christ’s divine and human natures precludes the possibility of Jesus having sinned, as Wayne Grudem notes:

But even though Jesus could not sin, that does not mean the temptations He faced were not genuine; their reality did not depend on His ability to respond. Actually, since He never yielded to them, He endured their full force. Temptation was, therefore, more real for Him than for those who yield to it. It could be so intense that it made His “sweat [become] like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:44).

Comparing Adam’s temptation with that of Jesus reveals some obvious differences and makes Jesus’ victory over His temptation all the more remarkable. Adam faced temptation in the best possible surroundings, the garden of Eden. Jesus faced temptation in the worst imaginable setting—the wasteland of the Judean desert. Adam lived in the sinless perfection of the pre-fall world. Jesus lived in a sinful, fallen world. No overwhelming buildup of temptation lured Adam into sin, because he yielded to the first temptation he faced. Jesus, on the other hand, faced repeated temptations over the first thirty years of His life (Heb. 4:15), and intense temptation during the forty days before the final three recorded here. Adam feasted on all the lush provisions the garden had to offer. Jesus was weakened by forty days of fasting. In the best of circumstances, Adam fell; in the worst imaginable circumstances, Jesus did not. The consequences of Adam’s fall to temptation were lethal to the human race; the consequences of Jesus’ triumph over temptation were life-giving.

Jesus’ conflict with Satan unfolds in three scenes: the preparation for the battle, the pattern of the battle, and the postmortem on the battle.

THE PREPARATION FOR THE BATTLE

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. (Luke 4:1–2)

After His baptism Jesus left the vicinity of the Jordan, impelled (Mark 1:12) by the Holy Spirit. Full (plērēs) means, “to be saturated with” or “to be permeated thoroughly with.” John 1:14 records that Jesus was also “full (plērēs) of grace and truth.” Luke has already noted that John the Baptist (1:15), Elizabeth (1:41), and Zacharias (1:67) were filled with the Spirit. On the day of Pentecost the 120 believers gathered in the upper room “were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). As he gave his defense before the Sanhedrin, Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (4:8). The believers who gathered to hear Peter and John after their release “were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (4:31). The seven men chosen to serve in the early church were men “full of the Spirit” (6:3). Among them was “Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (v. 5). Later, on trial before the Sanhedrin, Stephen, “being full of the Holy Spirit … gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (7:55). Acts 11:24 characterized Barnabas as “a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit.” After his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (9:17), as he was when he confronted a false prophet on the island of Cyprus (13:9).

Being filled with the Spirit is the constant goal and lifelong pursuit of all believers (Eph. 5:18). But Jesus lived His entire life totally filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit. He was, in His humanity, fully yielded to the Spirit’s control, having voluntarily set aside the use of His divine attributes (see the discussion of 3:22 in chapter 20 of this volume). Jesus’ submission to the Holy Spirit caused Him to always do the Father’s will. His temptation did not result from His making wrong choices that left Him in a vulnerable situation. It did not result from Him straying from God’s will; on the contrary, it was the will of God that He face and defeat the devil. For that purpose Jesus was literally driven into the wilderness by the Spirit (Mark 1:12) and then was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days.

As noted in the exposition of 3:2–3 in chapter 17 of this volume, the wilderness of Judea, where Jesus was most likely tempted, was the most barren, desolate region in all of Israel. Scarred by precipitous cliffs, deep ravines, and tumbled boulders, it was a region so barren that animals could not be pastured in it. In this remote, largely uninhabited area, Jesus might be more alone than anywhere else in Israel.

Luke had already noted the presence of evil in the world. The angel Gabriel told Zacharias that John the Baptist would “turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God” (1:16), indicating they had wandered from Him into sin. In 1:79, Zacharias spoke of “those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.” The sordid tale of Herod’s sinful marriage to Herodias and his imprisonment of John the Baptist (3:19–20) provided an example of human wickedness and depravity. But here for the first time in his gospel, Luke gave evil a face, by introducing the devil.

The devil (diabolos; “slanderer” or “accuser”) is Satan (“adversary”). Originally a holy angel (“Lucifer” according to Isa. 14:12 [NKJV]), the highest of all created beings, “blameless in [his] ways from the day [he was] created until unrighteousness was found in [him]” (Ezek. 28:15), he became arrogant, and in his pride sought to “raise [his] throne above the stars of God” (Isa. 14:13) and thus “make [himself] like the Most High” (v. 14; cf. Ezek. 28:11–15). As a result of his sin, Satan was cast out of heaven, apparently along with one third of the angels, who chose to join him in his rebellion (Rev. 12:4). The Bible describes him as a liar and a murderer (John 8:44), a dragon (Rev. 12:3–17), a snake (Gen. 3:1; Rev. 12:9; 20:2), the accuser (Rev. 12:10), the evil one (John 17:15), the god of this world (cf. John 12:31) who blinds the minds of the unbelieving (2 Cor. 4:4), the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2), a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8), and the tempter (1 Thess. 3:5), who succeeded in luring Adam and Eve, and through them the entire human race, into sin. Satan attempted to destroy the second Adam, Jesus Christ, in hopes of thwarting God’s plan of redemption.

As noted above, Satan had tempted Jesus throughout His life, and intensely during the previous forty days. Adding to the fervency of the onslaught was the fact that the Lord had eaten nothing during those days. Finally, when they had ended, it was obvious He became hungry. Sensing that in His physically weakened state Jesus might be especially vulnerable, Satan hit Him with three final and especially potent temptations.

THE PATTERN OF THE BATTLE

And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning you to guard you,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (4:3–12)

The specific temptations with which Satan assaulted Jesus were unique to Him. No believer today, for instance, could be tempted to turn rocks into bread, or to fly. Nevertheless, the temptations the Lord faced are representative of the broader categories of temptation faced by all believers. The satanic assault on the sinless Savior came in three waves.

SATAN TEMPTED CHRIST TO DOUBT GOD’S LOVE

And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” (4:3–4)

What the devil said to Jesus throughout these three climactic temptations contained an element of truth. Deception can only hope to succeed when combined with partial truth. If is better translated since. Satan’s words to Eve, “Indeed, has God said” (Gen. 3:1) were intended to raise doubts in her mind. But knowing the futility of such an approach with Jesus, Satan began by acknowledging His true identity as the Son of God. (For a discussion of the significance of Jesus’ being the Son of God, see the exposition of 2:49 in chapter 16 of this volume.)

Unlike liberal theologians, cultists, and other heretical groups, Satan and the demons never denied the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had always known His true identity, and always affirmed it in their conversations with Him (e.g., 4:34, 41; 8:28; Matt. 8:29; Mark 1:34; 3:11). Satan’s affirmation of that undeniable reality is the core of truth in this first solicitation to evil.

The devil’s suggestion that Jesus command a stone to become bread was not a temptation to self-indulgence, for it is not a sin to eat food when one is hungry. Still less was it aimed at getting Jesus to pride-fully show off His powers, since He and Satan were alone and there was no audience to perform for. Satan’s point was far more insidious and subtle. He was aware that in the incarnation, Jesus had voluntarily set aside the independent use of His divine power. The devil was attempting (as he had with Eve) to get Him to distrust God’s love and provision for Him. He insinuated that God was indifferent and disinterested in Jesus’ plight. After all, had God not provided food for the stubbornly rebellious Israelites during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness? Had not David testified, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread” (Ps. 37:25)? If the Father truly loved His Son, why had He failed to provide food for Him these past forty days? Satan hoped to entice Jesus to question the love of the Father and the care of the Holy Spirit. This was a serious assault not only on the deity and perfection of Jesus Christ, but also on the unity of the Trinity.

As He would with the other two temptations, the Lord replied to Satan’s half-truths and lies with the absolute, undeniable truth of God’s word. Jesus answered him, “It is written (in Deut. 8:3), ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” What sustains a person’s life is not food, but obedience to “everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3). Christ’s point is graphically illustrated by the deaths of the disobedient Israelites, who eventually died in the wilderness because of God’s judgment, despite His provision of food for them. Jesus would later tell His disciples, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34). In the Sermon on the Mount, He said,

Paul expressed his unshakeable confidence in God’s provision when he wrote, “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).

Jesus refused to act on His own initiative but, in complete trust of His faithful Father’s love and the Spirit’s care, chose to remain in submission to God’s will. And in due time, the Father did provide for His physical needs, sending angels to provide food for Him (Matt. 4:11).

Like Jesus, believers are often tempted to doubt God’s love for them. If He did love them, they reason, He would not have permitted whatever painful, disappointing circumstances they find themselves in. Sometimes their frustration is heightened by the realization that blatantly ungodly people seem to be prospering. They find themselves in agreement with the psalmist, who wrote,

But like Jesus, Christians must refuse to act outside of God’s will, but continually trust in His loving provision (cf. Ps. 37).

SATAN TEMPTED CHRIST TO DOUBT GOD’S PLAN

And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” (4:5–8)

Having failed to persuade Jesus to doubt God’s love for Him, Satan tried a different approach. After he led Him up onto a high mountain (Matt. 4:8), Satan showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, evidently by means of a perspective belonging only to supernatural beings or simply by looking as far as our Lord’s eyes could see on the representative kingdoms in view. Then the devil made an astonishing proposal. “I will give You all this domain and its glory,” he said, “for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.” Satan’s goal was to get Jesus to doubt God’s plan for Him, and to bypass it. “Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,” the Father had promised, “and the very ends of the earth as Your possession” (Ps. 2:8; cf. Dan. 7:13–14). Yet Jesus was here in the middle of nowhere, with nothing more than the clothes on His back. And even worse humiliation was to follow: a life of poverty with “nowhere to lay His head” (Luke 9:58); rejection by His people (John 1:11); the agony in Gethsemane; an unjust, illegal trial; a brutal scourging followed by a painful death on the cross. Worst of all, He would be forsaken by the Father as He bore sin on the cross, which would cause Him to cry out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46).

Satan’s proposal would have allowed Jesus to bypass all that suffering and enabled Him to take immediately what was rightfully His. Once again, the devil used a partial truth to bait the hook for his temptation. It is true that Scripture calls Satan the god or ruler of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor. 4:4). That does not mean, however, that he literally possesses it, but rather that he is the ruler of the evil world system that dominates the nations of the world. It is God who determines the times of the nations’ existence and their boundaries (Acts 17:26), and rules over them (1 Chron. 29:11; 2 Chron. 20:6; Pss. 22:28; 47:2, 7–8; Dan. 2:21; 4:17, 25; Rom. 13:1). Satan was a liar, pretending to offer what was not his to give. Nor would he have surrendered authority over the nations to Jesus even if he did have it; the devil’s false promise was based on nothing but brash, astoundingly evil pride.

The condition Satan imposed on his offer uncovers his true motive. Brazenly, he said to Jesus, “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” It was his illicit lust for the worship that belongs to God alone that led to Satan’s downfall and expulsion from heaven (cf. Isa. 14:13–14). He still desires to be worshiped, and proliferates false religions that ultimately are all some form of worship given to him (cf. 1 Cor. 10:20; Rev. 9:20). But the supreme coup would have been for Satan to persuade the Son of God to worship him. That would have achieved his original goal of elevating himself above God (Isa. 14:14).

Christians must beware of the temptation to lose faith in God’s plan, particularly when they are enduring difficult circumstances. There are no shortcuts; God’s way is always the best. His infinite wisdom guarantees that any plan of His is perfect and cannot be improved upon. Believers must, therefore, wait patiently for God to act on their behalf and refuse the temptation to take matters into their own hands (Pss. 37:1; 40:1; Heb. 6:12; James 5:7–8, 10).

Jesus emphatically rejected Satan’s blasphemous suggestion, quoting again from Deuteronomy (6:13) as He had when faced with the devil’s first temptation. “It is written,” He declared, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” Jesus refused to step outside of God’s plan. There would be no deal with the devil; no shortcut to glory. He would follow His Father’s plan whatever the cost to Him.

SATAN TEMPTED CHRIST TO TRUST GOD PRESUMPTUOUSLY

And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning you to guard you,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (4:9–12)

His first two attempts to lure Jesus into sin had failed completely, but Satan made one final effort. (It should be noted that Matthew places this temptation second. As he often did with the material in his gospel, Luke arranged the temptations thematically rather than chronologically.) Taking Jesus to Jerusalem, Satan had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple. That probably refers to the southeast corner of the temple complex, overlooking the Kidron Valley several hundred feet below. There the devil said to Jesus, “If (since) You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.

Rebuffed twice by Jesus’ quotes of Scripture, Satan now quoted Scripture himself. He even introduced his quotation with the very phrase Jesus had used: “For it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning you to guard you,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Since Jesus would not deviate from His obedience to the plan of God, Satan offered Him an opportunity to allow God to fulfill His word. The passage the devil quoted (Ps. 91:11–12) is from a messianic Psalm, where God pledges to protect the Messiah. The devil hoped that one of two things would happen if Jesus did jump. If He was killed by the fall, He would not die on the cross as a substitute for sin as the Old Testament predicted He would (Ps. 22; Isa. 53). Or by forcing God to miraculously deliver Him, Jesus would cease to be in submission to His plan and will. The essence of this final temptation was to presume on God, to back Him into a corner where He would be forced to act. But Jesus refused to act presumptuously. Instead, He countered Satan’s twisting of the Scriptures by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, which plainly commands, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

This type of temptation is perhaps the most subtle and dangerous of the three, because it seemingly encourages people to exercise faith in God. In reality, it arrogantly, brazenly demands things from God, turning Him into a utilitarian genie who grants people’s every whim. That false view of faith, promoted in its most extreme form by the so-called prosperity gospel (also known as the “name it and claim it” movement), in essence makes man sovereign. If the right formula is used, God has to respond. When He does not deliver the goods they have claimed by faith, however, many become disillusioned and abandon Him.

In contrast to that false, even blasphemous view of faith, true faith humbly submits to God’s will. It prays, as Jesus taught, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10; cf. Luke 22:42).

THE POSTMORTEM OF THE BATTLE

When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. (4:13)

Jesus’ victory was complete over every temptation hurled at Him by the devil over the entire forty-day period. Defeated and dismissed by Jesus (Matt. 4:10), Satan left Him until an opportune time. Such times of temptation occurred throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry. In Luke 22:28, Jesus said to the disciples, “You are those who have stood by Me in My trials.” Satan would through Peter tempt Jesus once again to avoid the cross, resulting in the Lord’s stern rebuke, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s” (Matt. 16:23). The devil would successfully tempt Judas to betray Christ (John 13:27).

Several lessons may be drawn from observing Satan’s assault on Christ. First, he uses the same strategies to tempt believers that he used on Christ. He attempts to get them to distrust God’s love, doubt His plan, and presume on Him, and will twist Scripture to do so. Second, Satan takes advantage of specific circumstances to launch his assaults. He tempted Jesus after the spiritual high point of His baptism, when the Spirit and the Father publicly affirmed Him. He also assaulted Jesus when He was physically weak after forty days without food and isolated from other people. Finally, along with watchfulness and prayer (Matt. 26:41), Scripture is the essential weapon believers must wield to defeat temptation. To do so effectively requires both knowledge of the Bible and a commitment to obey it.

To be successful in their struggle against temptation, believers must follow the pattern set by the Lord Jesus Christ. They must trust God’s love, submit to His plan, and refuse to presume on His promises and grace. By doing so, they will successfully “resist the devil” and see him “flee from [them]” (James 4:7).