Before the Lord Jesus
presented Himself to Israel as the promised King He had to pass through a
period of testing, which He did for 40 days. He met Satan, the strong man
armed, and bound him before He began His public ministry and went forth to
spoil Satan’s goods.

  Why was Jesus tempted? And,
being tempted, was there a possibility that He might have sinned, and so
jeopardized or annulled the whole plan of redemption? These are questions asked
often, and it behooves us to be able to give Scriptural answers concerning
them.

  If we would be clear in our
thinking as to this, we must remember that while our Lord was, and is, both
human and divine, He is not two persons, but one. Personally He is God the
Eternal Son who took humanity into union with His deity in order to redeem
sinful men. Perfectly human, yet absolutely divine, He remains just one Person.
Therefore as Man here on earth He could not act apart from His deity. Those who
maintain that He might have sinned may well ask themselves, “What then would
have been the result?” To say that as Man He might have failed in His mission
is to admit the amazing and blasphemous suggestion that His holy divine nature
could become separated from a defiled human nature and so the incarnation prove
a farce and a mockery. But if we realize that He who was both God and Man in
one Person was tempted, not to see if He would (or could) sin, but to prove
that He was the sinless One, all is clear. The temptation was real, but it was
all from without, as Adam’s was in the beginning. But Adam was only an innocent
man; whereas Jesus, the last Adam, was the Lord from heaven who had become Man
without ceasing to be God in order that He might be our Kinsman-Redeemer (Lev.
25:48). The temptation and His attitude toward it proved that He was not a
sinful Man, either in nature or in act, and He could therefore take our penalty
upon Himself and bear the curse of the broken law for others, because He was
not under that curse Himself. Scripture tells us definitely that He “knew no
sin” (2 Cor. 5:21); He “did no sin” (1 Pet. 2:22); “in Him is no sin” (1 John
3:5). He could say, “The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in Me”
(John 14:30). There was no lurking traitor within to answer to the voice of the
enemy without. He was tempted as we are, sin apart (Heb. 4:15), that is, there
was no sin within to tempt Him. From the moment of His birth He was holy, not
merely innocent (Luke 1:35).

  “Then was Jesus led up of
the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” (Matt. 4:1). As the
perfect Man, Jesus was ever subject to the Spirit’s control. Mark tells us that
the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness (Mark 1:12). He was impelled to go for
it was imperative that His holiness be demonstrated from the very beginning of
His ministry. Temptation is really testing. He was tested by Satan, that evil
personality who is the foe of God and man. It was he who tested Adam and found
him wanting. Now he must be overcome by the last Adam, the Second Man (1 Cor.
15:45,47).

  “And when He had fasted 40
days and 40 nights, He was afterward an hungered” (Matt. 4:2). Jesus fasted for
the full period of testing—40 days. It was not until all this was over that He
is said to have become hungry. Then, in the hour of nature’s weakness, the
tempter came, endeavoring to overcome Him. The tests were threefold—the appeal
to the body, the soul, and the spirit—involving the desires of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The first appeal was to appetite, the
desire of the flesh, physical; the next to the esthetic nature, the desire of
the eyes, the soul; and the last to the spiritual nature, the pride of life, or
the vainglory of living. The Lord Jesus was impervious to every suggestion of
evil. These are the same temptations in character which the serpent brought to
bear upon Eve in Eden. She saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food
(the lust of the flesh), pleasant to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and to be
desired to make one wise (the pride of life). She succumbed on every point, and
when Adam collaborated with her in disobedience to God the old creation fell.
They were tested in a garden of delight, a most beautiful environment. Jesus
was tempted in a dry, thirsty wilderness among the wild beasts, but stood firm
as a rock against all Satan’s wiles and blandishments; thus He manifested
Himself as King of righteousness, and so the suited One to be crowned King of
peace (Heb. 7:1,2). He who triumphed over the enemy after being tested in all
points like as we, apart from sin, is now our great High Priest, and is
appearing in heaven on our behalf, ready to assist us in every hour of weakness
and temptation.

  “And when the tempter came
to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made
bread.” Every test was a direct assault upon the truth of His divine-human
personality. There might seem to be nothing inherently wrong for Jesus to
satisfy His hunger by making bread from stones, but He had taken the place, as
Man, of dependence on the living Father (John 6:57). As such, He acted only in
obedience to the Father’s will, and He could not entertain any suggestion
coming from another and an opposing source. He would not act, even to relieve
His hunger, upon the enemy’s advice.

  “But He answered and said,
It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Jesus met each temptation with a definite
word from God—a quotation from the Holy Scriptures. In this instance He quoted
Deut. 8:3 where Moses reminded Israel that of far more importance than material
food was the spiritual nourishment that is found in the Word of God. When God
provides food for His children He does not give them stones for bread, nor make
bread out of stones; but when we get out of the place of dependence upon the
Father we are very likely to break our teeth upon hard stone bread which we
thought would be better than that which comes from God.

  “Then the devil took Him up
into the holy city, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple.” Whether the devil
actually did this or it was only in vision we are not told, nor is it important
that we should know. The point is that even the sanctuary may be a place of
temptation, for pride of grace is one of the greatest snares to which we are
exposed. From that elevated place Jesus saw the throngs gathered in the courts
below. Satan was about to use this as a reason why He should display His power.

  “And [he] said unto Him, If
Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down; for it is written, He shall give His
angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest
at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.” Satan quoted only a part of Psalm
91:11,12. He omitted the most pertinent portion:“To keep Thee in all Thy
ways.” It was no part of the holy ways of the Son of God to leap spectacularly
from the temple heights in order to astonish the worshiping multitudes below as
they beheld Him suspended in the air above them, sustained by angel hands. This
would have been a presumptuous use of the promise. When Satan quotes Scripture,
look closely at the text and be sure nothing vital is omitted, for it is
possible to back up the gravest error with a text from the Bible used out of
its connection or only partly expressed.

  “Jesus said unto him, It is
written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Where God commands,
faith can act upon His words, knowing—as Augustine said—“God’s commands are God’s
enablings.” But to expose oneself to danger needlessly is to tempt God, and
this is contrary to the principle of faith.

  “Again, the devil took Him
up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the
world, and the glory of them.” These things belonged to Christ, the Heir of all
things; but Satan has usurped the inheritance. He attempted to present to Jesus
what might be called a “shortcut” to world dominion.

  “And [he] said unto Him,
All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.”
Actually, they were his to give only by God’s permissive will, for “the most
High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will” (Dan.
4:25). Satan had robbed Adam of the authority given him and reigned as usurper
in the hearts of wicked men; but he had no undisputed title to the kingdoms of
the world which he offered to give to Jesus if He would worship him, that thus
He might obtain the kingdom without the cross.

  “Then said Jesus unto him,
Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God,
and Him only shall you serve.” By another “saying” of God the foe was
vanquished. Jesus did not dispute Satan’s word as to his sovereignty of the
kingdoms of the world. It is not by debate the victory is won, but by the Word
itself.

  “Then the devil left Him,
and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.” What a glorious consummation
to the temptation! The defeated, foul fiend fled away; and holy messengers from
the court of heaven came with gladness to minister to their Creator, who in
grace had taken the creature’s place. When we think of angels ministering to
Jesus, as they did in the wilderness and in Gethsemane, we realize how truly
human He had become in that He, who had created those glorious beings, should
now be served by them.

  God’s King must reign in
righteousness. The sinner’s Substitute must be as an unblemished lamb—with no
defect outwardly or inwardly. Therefore the Lord as a Man must be subjected to
the most searching tests to demonstrate His fitness for the great work He came
to do. Had the temptation brought to light any evidence of inbred sin or moral
corruption of any kind, it would have been the proof that Jesus was not the
Holy One of God, destined to bring in everlasting righteousness and to make
propitiation for iniquity. But nowhere was the perfection of Jesus demonstrated
more clearly than when Satan made every effort to find some defect in His
character, some form of self-seeking in His heart. The King was tested and proved
to be all that God the Father had declared at His baptism—the One in whom He
had found all His delight.

  (From Expository Notes
on the Gospel of Matthew.)