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1 Then
was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of
the devil. 2 And
when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an
hungred. 3 And
when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God,
command that these stones be made bread. 4 But
he answered and said, It
is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5 Then
the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a
pinnacle of the temple, 6 And
saith 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. 7 Jesus
said unto him, It
is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8 Again,
the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth
him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And
saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall
down and worship me. 10 Then
saith Jesus unto him, Get
thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11 Then
the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto
him.
(Matt
4:1-11 (KJV)
13 Let
no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
(James
1:13)
That which is perfect is
not capable of failing in its purpose. A perfect clock is incapable
of reading the wrong time else it loses its perfection and would
never have been inherently perfect. The sun, moon, stars, and the
earth itself, are incapable of violating the orbital order into which
the Finger of God has flung them into those orbits. Precision
perfection is everywhere evidenced in the character of God and of His
Creation. It will be well for us to remember that the Executive
Person of Creation was our Lord Jesus Christ. (see John
1:1-5)
All who intimately know the
Lord Jesus Christ are aware of His perfection and of His inability to
be imperfect. All who have an assurance of the Lord as truly God and
truly man will know, not only by Holy Scripture, but by the sense of
logic, that BOTH His humanity and His divine Nature must, by
definition, be perfect – and perfection is incapable of failure. A
pristine bottle of pure water is not diminished in its volume by a
single drop of cyanide poison. It is not deadly unless taken, yet has
the capability of causing death if taken. The pure water is still in
the bottle, but no longer perfect or pure since it is CAPABLE of
causing death. This is tantamount with the Divine nature of Christ
being polluted with the capability of sin. The Divine Nature, and the
sinful nature of man, cannot coexist in the same medium or persons.
There
are two different theological views abroad concerning the Nature of
Christ. One view is that Christ is IMPECCABLE (meaning incapable of
sinning). The other view of PECCABILITY is that Christ “could have
sinned” but did not, yet was CAPABLE of sinning. The view of
traditional Christianity holds that Christ was IMPECCABLE and
incapable of sin. With the advent of the teaching of Jacob Arminius
in the 17th
century came a weakening of the view of the perfection of Christ, to
include His impeccability. Arminianism constantly attempts to bring
Christ down to the level of man rather than resting on the assurance
that Christ was more than man alone, but Divine as well. Perhaps
Arminius does not state this overtly, but this is the outward result
of his teaching. The proliferation of corrupt Bible versions is
spawned by this lowered view of Christ. The more the nature of Christ
can resemble the nature of sinful man, the more it accommodates the
will of man to live according to his own will as opposed to that
perfect will of the Father.
By making the Will of
Christ more closely identifiable with the will of man, the more the
Will of God is made to resemble our own imperfect wills. This is the
crux of the problem in modern doctrine and theology. Man is untiring
in attempting to bring God’s will conform to their own shameful
wills. Free will is the watchword of the Arminians, yet man’s will
never leads to freedom, being evil in the sight of God, but always to
bondage to sin and the devil. Man’s will, in order to be truly
free, must be surrendered for that perfect will of God in his life.
That is the only means by which man can live free; that is, living in
the Light and Will of God.
The
question always arises concerning the temptation of Christ in the
Wilderness. Was it like unto that temptation of our first parents
eastward in Eden? No, it was not at all congruent in any of its
points. The human will of Adam was all that he had available. It was
not a perfect will, but one subject to temptation and sin. Pride of
knowledge may be Satan’s most successful asset in temptation – to
be like God! “For
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof (of
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil),
then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil.”
(Gen
3:5)
The human nature of Christ could never overrule His Divine Nature. If
we examine the leading text at the head of today’s devotion, we
will recognize a subtle reference to temptation as the purpose of
Satan. Let us first of all, observe that temptation does not proceed
from within, but without, the heart. Temptation is external in its
approach. When surrender is made to that temptation, then it has born
its fruit of evil.
The tempter came in the
person of Satan, but Christ was not in the least moved by the
temptation. Being perfect, He could not have sinned or have been
internally tempted to sin. The temptation remained an external
factor, but never an internal inducement to sin. Christ did, indeed,
have the power to turn the stones into bread, but He would not defeat
His purpose in doing so. He was the Word of God, and He answered
every temptation of the Adversary with that Word.
Satan’s
first appeal came by way of the hunger and emaciated physical
condition of our Lord. Satan attacked by way of the Lord’s hunger:
“And
when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God,
command that these stones be made bread.”
Was Christ in the least moved by this approach? His answer is
sufficient: “ But
he answered and said, It
is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
. . . . EVERY WORD which Jesus was!
Satan
now attacks the spiritual power of Christ by demanding a sign just as
is demanded by the modern charismatic pulpits: “Then
the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a
pinnacle of the temple, And saith 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.”
Please note that just as before Eve in the Garden, Satan employs a
corrupt interpretation of Scripture. He quotes correctly Psalms
91:11-12, yet employs the meaning in a wrong sense just as he does
from many American pulpits every Sunday. Once, again, the response of
Christ is the same response in the Word, but with a proper
interpretation thereof: “Jesus
said unto him, It
is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
The answer from Scripture, properly interpreted, is always the right
response, and one which will ward off the tempter.
At
last, Satan resorts to that same old trick he used against Eve in the
Garden by appealing to the pride and vanity of the heart and seeking
to subordinate the Will of God to the Will of the lesser being, – a
pride and vanity that did not exist in the heart of Christ. “Again,
the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth
him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith
unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down
and worship me.”
Temptation CANNOT work against the Lord because any nature to sin is
absent in the Person of Christ. The only way that we can withstand
temptation is by the power of God’s Holy Spirit working in our
members. Why shall we not tempt the Lord our God? It is for
this reason: “God
cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:”
(James
1:13)
Once
again, and at last, Christ responds with the power of the Word: “Then
saith Jesus unto him, Get
thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
This
latter command will ALWAYS seal the fate of the Tempter. I have
tried this often in my young life and it kept me from many dangers
and temptations. If you truly believe in God as your Father, it is
impossible to follow the will of the devil after repeating the very
words of Christ here: “Get
thee hence, Satan!”
The devil’s approach in tempting Jesus was identical to the
approach he uses with us, except such approaches fall on deaf ears
with Christ. He is not, nor ever has been, capable of sin or of
temptation.
Instead of constantly
striving to bring God’s will down to our level, why do we not
attempt to lift our wills up to the level of God’s perfect will. As
we grow closer to God in Will and spirit, we, too, will become less
susceptible to temptation and less capable of sinning.
Unfortunately, just the
opposite of the Godly Will is found in most modern churches. They
desire to bring the glorious music of God down to the gutter level of
the world, the very words of the Bible down to the vulgar and common
vernacular of the world, and the Moral Law of God to be brought down
to the licentious lifestyle of human vermin.
Do you, friend, believe
that Jesus was capable of sin, or not?
