Growth in Godliness
Jesus Tempted By The Devil
From John 1:1, we can understand that Jesus Christ is God's eternal Word or expression; He was with God and is God. From Luke 1-3, we know that Jesus became a man, was born of a virgin, and grew into maturity like all other people. Then, in Luke 4:1-3, we are told, "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."
Jesus, as a man, chose to identify with all believers by relying upon the Holy Spirit to overcome sin so we could identify with Him. "For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted," Hebrews 2:18. Furthermore, "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin," Hebrews 4:15.
Jesus Tempted By Broken Loyalties
Imagine you go to your hometown and tell the people who know you best that God anointed you to preach the good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recover sight to the blind, and set free those who are oppressed. Furthermore, you have been doing that in the surrounding towns. You tell the people the truth; they assume they are good because of their national identity, but inwardly, they are evil like everyone else. Upon hearing you, they take you to a very high cliff to throw you off. How do you feel?
Jesus began His ministry, speaking the Gospel in Galilee, and then went home. 'And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up;" Luke 4:16. Then in verse 22, "And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, "Is this not Joseph's son?" The words "Joseph's son" is pregnant with Mary's story of being pregnant before properly wed, if not another man's child; certainly, no one believed that she was a virgin.
Jesus gave two accounts from scripture of God's salvation for Gentiles and not Israel. The result was as follows, "And all [the people] in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff," Luke 4:28-29.
Jesus Tempted By An Opportune Time
"When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time." Luke 4:13
If the truth be told, life is full of opportunities for the devil to tempt us, whether it's being in a dangerous wilderness, going hungry, or being rejected to the point of murder for telling the truth in love. At the outset of Jesus' ministry, He faced rejection; throughout His ministry, he was dogged by the religious elites in Israel, and by the end of His ministry, the people, stirred by the religious leaders, called for His death.
Beyond all the rejection that Jesus faced while healing a nation of diseases, infirmities, and death, the religious leaders put enough pressure upon the people that despite miracles of healing and moral teaching the likes of which the world had never seen, people still called for His death. Nothing hurts as bad as rejection, and rejection is a tremendous opportunity for temptation from the devil.
In the Garden, Jesus faced becoming sinful in the Father's eyes so that men might be made the righteousness of God by substitution. The opportunity the garden gave to Satan was the accusations that Jesus the man would not triumph over His revulsion of becoming sinful in the Father's sight.
On the Cross, Jesus absorbed God's full eternal wrath. The temptation He faced was multifaceted, but primarily that in His sinful condition in the Father's sight, He would be so rejected by God there would be no return.
The disciples walked in the flesh, denied Christ, and fled, which meant more pain of rejection.
Finally, Judas betrayed Jesus, a close friend with whom Jesus had sweet fellowship, but always knowing that he would sell Him to crucifixion for a day's wages. There is nothing that Jesus does not understand in the human experience.
Special note: Jesus tempted was the Father's plan for the Son to identify with sinners so they might live an overcoming life. "I do not ask You to take them out of the world but to keep them from the evil [one]," John 17:15.
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