"Jesus answered: Go away Satan! The Scriptures say- worship the Lord your God and serve only Him." (Matthew 4:10)
Reading: Matthew 4:1-11
This story reflects the only time the devil saw Jesus as just a man... and only a man. (Why would one bother to tempt God?) But Jesus resisted and fought temptation also as a man... and only as a man. (How could he be tempted just like us if he was tempted as God?) So how did Jesus do it? (As a man and only a man). I need to understand the nature of satan's temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4 in order to grasp the way that Jesus responded to temptation. Temptation really has one two-fold purpose: to separate me from intimacy with God by going against His heart and by going against His lordship.
The devil tempted Jesus three times. Twice he tried to get Jesus to deviate from the purpose that his Father had for him. And that one time the devil tried to get him to replace his Father's lordship in his life. As Jesus cultivated his spiritual relationship with God, he realized that he had a special relationship with Him. God was his true Father. That made him God in human flesh. But as a man and only a man... he could only live that truth in an intimate relationship with God... where he experienced God as his Father. The temptation then was to break this intimacy with God by deviating from God's heart and desire... and by throwing off God's lordship in his life. Satan's temptation measured the depths of the intimate relationship that Jesus had with God. This depth is reflected in how much Jesus lived and breathed his Father's revelation in Scripture.
Jesus did this as a man and only a man. Now I can answer temptation as a man... and only a man.
"Lord what an awesome display of strength in the thick of temptation. I only want to stay intimate with you Lord. Help me resist what is not your heart and desire in anything I encounter and experience. Stay in the center of my life where you belong."
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