THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS PART III

 THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS PART III

TEXT: “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil...”  Luke 4:1-2

Compare the First Man: Adam with the Second Man: Jesus. 

Adam was tempted in a garden, a paradise. Probably for a very short period of time.

Jesus was tempted in a wilderness. He was in a much more difficult situation than Adam.

Jesus went freely and willingly. He went courageously and unwaveringly to a place where none of us could go: 40 long and treacherous days of satanic onslaught.

There is great mystery involved here and I do not claim to know it all and understand it all. 

James 1:14-15 says that temptation comes from within. From our own inherent sin nature. We are lured into sin by the lustful desires of the world and our flesh. Jesus did not have a sin nature but He was perfect human flesh. As such, there were no sinful impulses in Christ that originated from within. Those temptations all came from without. Jesus had human infirmities and weaknesses like all of us. He got tired physically. He hungered physically. So the devil hoped that Jesus would not depend on God but upon bread alone.

As the sinless One, Jesus felt the full force of temptation more than we can imagine. Sin heightens temptation; it does not lessen it.

Theologian John Murray said this: 

“It was His impeccable holiness that added intensity to the grief of temptation. For the holier a person is, the more excruciating is his encounter with the solicitation of the opposite. In the case of our Lord this is true to an incomparable degree because He was perfect.”

Jesus persevered sinlessly to the end and for that reason He felt the full force of temptation!

Hallelujah, What a Savior!

Enjoy this beautiful hymn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N6q4ijEyfs