Luke 4:1-13 – Christ’s temptation

Bear in mind that Jesus is fully God and fully man. However, when He was on earth, we are told by the Scriptures in many places that He laid aside His divinity, and lived just like anyone of us. As a human, He did not exercise His divine power and knowledge, but placed it at the will and discretion of God. Everything He did and every place He went, He was led and guided by the Spirit. These truths must be kept in mind if we are to understand this epic confrontation that He had with the devil. He lived a life like any human. Immediately after His baptism, He went into the wilderness for forty days. It was a time of solitude and testing. During this time, He also fasted and specifically we are told that He ate nothing. We can imagine that He must be extremely hungry.

We must know that at His temptation, Jesus was fully conscious that He was the Son of God, and He withstood the three onslaughts of the devil as a real man. He must have gotten His power to resist by relying on God for strength. The temptations He encountered were real. We need also to keep in mind His temptation was definitely arranged by the Holy Spirit. The purpose is to prepare Him for public ministry. He had already experienced the anointing of the Holy Spirit who descended on him in bodily form like a dove. He had also heard the Father’s affirming words that “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased”

So now He had to face the temptation to test His moral courage to act right. This temptation would make Him keenly aware of the dangers that He had to endure in His work as the Messiah. The 40 days testing in the wilderness was a reminder of Israel’s 40 years of wilderness wandering, where the children of God was tested. Jesus must have reflected on their failures then. This is clearly seen in His three responses to the devil’s three temptations where He quoted from Deuteronomy.

The temptations that Jesus encountered were not only to make Him question His relationship with God bust also the integrity of God’s Word. These were clearly seen when the devil asked, “If you are the Son of God…,” and “For it is written….”.  Jesus’ answers to the temptations were firmly based on what had been said in the Scriptures. He knew the will of God and what He had been called to do. He needed no assistance from the devil. And He had no intention to take any shortcut to glory and fame.   

We can see from this account that Jesus’ one sole desire is to do the Father’s will and please Him. He refused to doubt what God had said. He refused to yield to Satan’s enticement to quick fame, and He refused to be lured into any sensation. He just stayed on the path and trusted every word God had said and refused to put God to the test. It is true, we must live “on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” How are we to know the Word of God if we are not regularly studying and meditating on the Word of God? It is needful to set aside time to study and reflect on His Word!