(Read Luke 3:21-23, 4:1-13.)
IN Luke’s Gospel you will find the Lord Jesus before God in prayer seven times, and here is the first instance. You have here the sinless Man in perfect dependence on God, and to Him the Father says, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased”; and I shall show you from Scripture, one witness after another testifying to the sinless perfection of this blessed Man. He Himself said, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” (John 8:46).
The officers of the Pharisees when sent to take Him came back, overwhelmed by the grace and power of His words, and declared, “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46). Pilate, when Christ was brought into his judgment hall, said three times over, “I find no fault in him” (John 18:38, 19:4,6). The dying thief said, “This man hath done nothing amiss” (Luke 23:41). Paul wrote of Him that He “knew no sin,” but was “made sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). Another apostle says of Him, “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). And a final witness adds, “In him is no sin” (1 John 3:5). This is a unique Man. This Man stands alone in the glory of ME person, — unique in the fact that He was absolutely sinless. But Mark! he was a real man, a true man, a genuine man, a man as much as I am a man—sin alone excepted.
When God introduced the first man he was “out of the earth, made of dust”; but “the second man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47). What a wonderful thing that into a world of sin and death there should come a Man who was the Lord from heaven He brought God to man in His life, and He brings man to God in righteousness by His death. We must not be carried away with the idea that the incarnation of this Blessed One has drawn man to God, or that because Christ became a man, man has somehow been lifted up to God. No such doctrine is in Scripture. His own words were, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24).
But, first of all, He is tried, tested, tempted, and proved, and, thank God! He comes out the victor—the conqueror of the one who conquered the first man; and when His victory over Satan was complete, and when He might have retraced His steps to heaven with perfect freedom, what did He do? He turned and went to the cross and died for us and our sins. Hence God can say to you and me, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!” And who is this Jesus? The Eternal Son of God. Jesus became man in this world in order to deliver man from the power of the enemy.
In Luke 3 we see that the Holy Ghost falls upon Him as the expression of His Father’s delight in Him. God delights in this Man on the ground of His own perfection—His own sinless perfection. In this chapter, too, observe in passing, that the genealogy of Jesus is directly traced up to God. I wish to bear strenuous testimony against the idea that man is merely developed protoplasm, or, if you like, an improved descendant of an ape. Man has sprung from God, as the book of Genesis tells us, and when Jesus appears among men His genealogy, as a true, veritable, real man, is traced by way of Hell up to God. Had man sprung from the lower animals, here would have been the place to record such a fact, and we should have had, “Seth, which was of Adam, which was of the lower animals.” Instead thereof we read, “which was of God” (Luke 3:23-38).
Jesus was the Son of God in two ways. He was the only begotten and Eternal Son—ever with the Father. But we also read, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee” (Heb. 1:5); He was therefore Son of God as man born in time.
Then we read that “Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil” (Luke 4:1,2). Observe that His temptation was in the wilderness. Adam, on the other hand, was in Paradise—Eden if you please—the garden of delight. He had everything to his hand. Everything that could possibly minister to his happiness and joy was given him by God, yet he fell into Satan’s hand, and became the dupe and vassal of Satan from that day forth. Christ was led into the wilderness, and there was tempted forty days. He was not in Paradise, but Scripture tells us “in the wilderness, forty days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts” (Mark 1:13). Not only was He with the brute creation, but observe there was nothing to meet or minister to Him. Scripture tells us He fasted for forty days. It was a time of perfect privation.
He was tempted of the devil for forty days, but the great temptation was at the end of the forty days, and it was threefold, in “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” It was the same threefold temptation in the garden of Eden. When Eve “saw that the tree was good for food,”— that is the lust of the flesh, — “and that it was pleasant to the eyes,”— the lust of the eyes, — “and a tree to be desired to make one wise,”— that is the pride of life, — “she took of the fruit thereof.” Satan passed before the Lord Jesus the same character of temptation. The first, “If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread,” was a personal temptation—Help yourself, use your own power. The second is a worldly temptation; Satan offers him all the kingdoms of the world, if He will give up His allegiance to God. The last temptation is of a spiritual nature. He would be an object of interest to every one—this is the pride of life.
In the first place Satan says, “Take care of yourself, think of yourself, make these stones into bread. Do better for yourself than God has done for you.” That was a personal temptation. In the second place he shows Him the whole of the kingdoms of the world in a moment, and says, “I will give you a good place in the world.” How many a man has sold his soul for a good place in the world! Alas how many! Lastly, Satan would have Him put God to the test by casting Himself from the pinnacle of the temple.
A clever man once said to me, “I don’t believe in this story of a personal devil, the devil is inside a man.” What is the devil then? You reply, The devil is the proclivity in a man’s own heart to evil. You believe that? Stop! If that be true you cannot be saved. Why? The answer is simple. If you think that the devil is the proclivity in man’s heart to evil, you have at once to admit that there were proclivities to evil in the heart of Jesus, for He was a man, and was “tempted of the devil,” and so you have lost the Saviour. The man with proclivities to evil in his heart cannot be your Saviour nor mine. No, no, my friends, God’s Word is plain and distinct. There were no proclivities to evil in Jesus, yet He was tempted of the devil. Thank God, He was a sinless Man, and we have in this passage Satan coming up and testing Him with this temptation of a threefold character.
What is His defense? He only quotes Scripture. He is a truly dependent Man, and clings to God, and God only, and how does He meet the devil? With the sword of the Spirit in His hand—the Word of God—and not merely the Word of God, but quoted as the Word of God. Jesus rebuts and defeats the devil, only by quoting Scripture as being the Word of God.
“It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God,” defeats the first assault. The second temptation is met in the same way. The devil takes Him up and shows Him the kingdoms of the world. Christ knows that they belong to Him, but He will not take the world in its sinful state. He will have the kingdoms of the world, but that will be on the ground of redemption, and He will have them from God’s hand, and not from the devil’s hand. His answer is simple again, “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” The last temptation suggested that Christ should throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple to test God, and make Himself an attraction. If you got to the top of the Scott Monument, and were perfectly certain that you could throw yourself down without injuring yourself, I venture to think that you would attempt it, just to show that you could do it, and you would be an object of interest to all. That is the pride of life.
It is well to note that Satan can quote Scripture to trap the unwary. He quotes, or rather misquotes, Scripture in this last temptation, citing from the 91St Psalm— “He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.” But have you observed that the devil omits four little words? God had said, “He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” The devil dropped those words out. Since that day often has he misquoted Scripture to tempted souls, and has turned them into paths of sin and danger. But Jesus knew the Scriptures, clung to Him who had written them, and by dependence gained a moral victory over Satan, who then “departed from him for a season.”
Notice the book—Deuteronomy—from which Jesus quoted in each instance. Moses, we are told now-a-days, is to be regarded as a very old-fashioned, obsolete, and unreliable author. In fact, it is very boldly affirmed that Moses did not write the Pentateuch. If, therefore, you will be counted wise, and up to date, you will have to entirely disregard the Pentateuch, and cut these five books right out of your Bibles. That is what our learned religious infidels, and higher-criticism professors, are telling us now-a-days. It is a very remarkable thing, however, that in this threefold assault Jesus answers Satan from the Pentateuch, and the Pentateuch only, which, later in His life, He frequently attributes to Moses. We had better hold with Jesus than with His foes in this matter. These wiseacres, that are cutting up Scripture now-a-days, forget that the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. God’s Word is what the devil hates. He cannot abide Scripture; and the secret of the strength of the young men—in the sense in which John speaks of them, as being Christians, of course—lies in their possession of the Word of God. If you, my Christian reader, would go on growing in the knowledge and the service of the Lord, and if you are going to get the victory over the devil, you will only do so by the use of Scripture; for it, and it alone, is the sword of the Spirit.
But look again at this scene in Luke 4. It is beautiful! Satan retires beaten. The first man, Adam, was driven out from Eden. Satan was the conqueror, the victor, and man was defeated; but here I find that a Man, leaning in dependence upon God, has defeated Satan at every point. I read, “And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.” Satan retired beaten, and he is always beaten when we quote Scripture as the Word of God. Friend, study it; may it be precious to your soul; make it the man of your counsel, the man of your right hand. First of all, the Word lets you know that you are saved by faith in Jesus, and then it guides and helps you through the pathway in this scene. We must meet temptation, but I do not think the devil tempts sinners—them he governs, and impels to evil. He only tempts God’s children. His own cohorts he leads on blindfold to eternal ruin. He does not need to tempt them; they are in his power. He places temptation before the man who is out of his power. The man who is in his power he leaves alone. If Christ has not delivered you, you are still the vassal of the devil, and are under his influence, for he “deceiveth the whole world” (Rev. 12:9).
Mark now how the Lord proceeds. Having defeated the enemy, He goes out into the world to deliver man, and His pathway is one of goodness and mercy. Miracles of mercy on every hand proclaim Him to be the Son of God, and the Christ of God. When you come to the ninth chapter of Luke’s Gospel you find Him going up to the top of the mountain, where He is transfigured before three of His disciples; while the Father again confesses Him, saying, “This is my beloved Son, hear him.” He might have passed up into glory from the mount of transfiguration, but instead of that He turns in grace and goes down to die, that others, redeemed by His death, may be associated with Him in the glory of which He is deemed worthy as Man. As He goes down He casts out devils once more; and one of His servants—John—comes and tells Him, “We saw one casting out devils in thy name,” His name was mighty, “and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us” (Luke 9:49, 50).
Well, you say, I think I am for Him. Stop. At that moment He claimed all that were not against Him, as being for Him. If you pass on to chapter 11 The whole thing is reversed. There His opposers were beginning to say, “He casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils” (vs. 15). His reply is remarkable— “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and over-cometh him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth” (vers. 21-23). You see the point. If you are not thoroughly for Him, you are against Him. That is how Christ regards you. But who is the strong man? I have no doubt it is the devil: the strong man is Satan. He is too strong for you, and too strong for me—for every man. And how is he armed? I will tell you. He is armed with what will overcome you, and with what will keep your conscience quiet.
Dear unsaved reader, there is a strong man holding you, but there is yet a stronger—Jesus. The world is Satan’s palace, and sinners are his goods; but there is a Saviour—a blessed Saviour. And how does He become a Saviour? By coming down and dying for men. The query, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? “has its answer in Christ and His work. “Thus saith the Lord, Even the captive of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered” (Isa. 49:24,25). Christ as conqueror of the mighty is the deliverer of the captive sinner.
W. T. P. W.
WE know of few things more dangerous than intellectual familiarity with the letter of Scripture where the spirit of it does not govern the conscience, form the character, and shape the way. We want to tremble at the Word of God, to bow down in reverential submission to its holy authority in all things. A single line of Scripture ought to be sufficient for our souls on any point, even though in carrying it out, we should have to move athwart the opinions of the highest and best of men.
C. H. M.