Final Exam Time

Luke 4:1-2

There once was a woman who was perfect.  She was superwoman! She was the whole package of brains, beauty, purity and Godliness. She appeared invincible. She was married. And her husband was quite a man. In fact, he was without sin, and so was she.  They lived in a perfect environment, in a perfect world.  They had everything that could possibly be given them by God…and the first time they were ever tempted to sin, they did just that.  They fell, both the man and his wife, and they catapulted all of humanity into condemnation. Now we sin like them.

Now we meet another perfect man: Jesus. Is Jesus like Adam? Yes. But is this another Adam, who though perfect at the start, can't sustain that standard when under fire from the enemy? We need to know that. We cannot have a victim for our Savior. We can only have a victor. We cannot have someone who is as susceptible to sin/the devil as we are. We need someone who can conquer sin, conquer death, conquer Satan, and conquer hell. If one is to be the Savior of the world, there is one rather formidable credential that one must possess.  Since the problem in the world is a sin problem, and since it is sin that has damned all humanity, produced death, catapults sinners into eternal hell, is under the dominion of the prince of this world, the devil, if one is to come and break the power of sin and conquer evil and defeat Satan, He must be able to defeat the devil.  And that’s precisely what Jesus does in this chapter. Adam and Eve were defeated by the serpent. But Christ was victorious over that snake.

vv. 1-2     Messiah's credentials would be incomplete without this battle.  If Jesus cannot defeat Satan head on, one on one, then He is not adequate to redeem sinners.  If He Himself is not impervious to sin, if He does not come out pure and spotless in the midst of the most violent conflict with the devil, then He cannot be the Savior.  If He is to save sinners from their sin, if He is to save them from the devil, and from death and hell, then He must conquer sin and Satan himself.  That is what this text will prove.

The Jews knew about the devil.  In the Old Testament he was called Satan, which means adversary, or enemy.  He first appears by name in Job, then again in Zechariah, then again in 1 Chronicles, but he appears, first of all, as the serpent, Lucifer, in the third chapter of Genesis.  The Jews knew Satan as the source of evil.  They knew that he had brought down the whole human race in Eden.  And the question was: If Jesus is the Messiah, can He overturn this?  Can He bring back paradise lost?  Can He conquer the enemy of God who is the enemy of our souls?

This is the final exam that Jesus passes to qualify as the Savior of sinners. He is a son of Adam, but He is far beyond Adam.  He, like Adam, is human, but unlike Adam, He cannot sin.  Hebrews says He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 

Lots of people question the deity of Jesus.  Mormons deny the deity of Jesus.  Jehovah's Witnesses deny the deity of Jesus.  [Muslims / Hindus / Buddhists] Liberals deny the deity of Jesus.  But I'll tell you one group who doesn't deny His deity: Demons.  Demons do not deny the deity of Jesus and the devil never denies that He is God. He always assumes it.  Repeatedly he says to Him, “If” [since] “You are the Son of God." verse 3.  It never was a question, never.  Elsewhere in the gospels we read of demons calling Him the Son of God and begging Him not to cast them into the abyss of hell. They know who they are dealing with and Satan knew exactly who he was dealing with and what he wanted to accomplish and that was to somehow overturn Jesus’ holiness and force Him into sin in order to destroy Jesus' ability to save sinners and to prevent himself from being punished eternally by Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:45

The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

The last Adam was confronted with temptation like the first Adam.  The first Adam was also sinless, like the last Adam.  But the first Adam fell. The last Adam did not.  The first Adam put the whole race into sin and damnation, and the last Adam, Jesus lifts sinners to heaven.  It all comes down to the issue of defeating sin.  And His Father could say of Him, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. 

Think about the distinction between Jesus and Adam: 

• Adam was in a garden, the best imaginable place.  He was in Eden,  in paradise.  Jesus was in an anti-Eden, the most desolate, forsaken, and dangerous place in the Judean desert, barren and empty.
• Adam lived in a sinless environment.  Jesus lived in a sinful world. 
• Adam never had known any temptation.  Adam fell at the first temptation, which means there was no prior assault to try to break down his resistance.  Jesus had thirty years of temptation and then forty days of temptation before the final three come, and all of that was attempting to break down His resistance. [not just 3 temptations]
• Adam had perfect human strength.  Adam was delightfully and wonderfully fed by all the lush provisions of the garden.  Jesus was weakened by forty days with no food.
• Adam had all conceivable things to enjoy, never knowing hunger.  Jesus was hungry. He was starving. 
• Adam needed nothing.  He had everything.  He ruled everything.  Jesus had nothing, no food, no authority, no kingdom.  He's all alone.

Jesus has a right to eat. He’s the creator and yet He has no food.  Jesus has the right to rule as King but He has no kingdom.  Jesus has the right to divine care and divine protection but He’s exposed to the severest dangers. 

And the point should be clear. Jesus didn't fall, though Adam did.  And that tells you what a vast difference there is between Jesus and Adam.  In the best of circumstances, Adam fell.  In the worst imaginable circumstances, Jesus did not.  This is our Savior.  This is our Messiah.  And this is the proof of it.  Adam, innocent, perfect, rich, lacking nothing, fell under the first assault.  Jesus did not, though poor, alone, weary, hungry - and yet He is triumphant.

This is absolutely critical to the issue of salvation.  That's why it's here.  It's not just an interesting incident. It's the heart and soul of everything.  Jesus can't save us from sin and death and hell if He Himself cannot conquer it.  So where the first man failed, and in Adam we all died, the last Adam succeeds…in Christ we can be made alive.

Could He have sinned?  There have been theologians through the years who have said “yes, He could have sinned.” They're wrong, clearly. God can't sin. "He's of purer eyes than to behold evil,” “can't look upon iniquity."  He has no capacity to sin.  Jesus had no capacity within Him to turn anything into a sin. It was impossible because there was nothing in His nature to do that. He is holy. He is separate from sinners.

Then some say, "Well if He couldn't sin then temptation wasn't real."  That's not true.  You don't always sin when you're tempted which means you could be tempted and not sin.  You can be hit with some strong temptation and you can be victorious and walk away and not sin and be triumphant.  That doesn't mean it wasn't a temptation.  The fact that Jesus couldn't sin doesn't mean He couldn't be tempted.  The devil came and tempted Him personally.  Demons came and tempted Him.  Demons worked in the wicked leaders of Israel who then came after Jesus. He was exposed to sin all around Him as the system of Satan worked its way through human depravity.  He saw it all.  He understood it in His mind but He had no internal capacity to sin.  But it doesn't mean that He didn't feel or experience the reality of that temptation.

What it really means is the temptations got stronger and stronger because He never caved in.  Think about it, if you're standing there and somebody is trying to push you over and you brace yourself and you keep standing and they keep pushing and keep pushing, and if at some point you fall over, you're never going to know where their full strength was.  But if you never give in, if you just keep resisting, standing there, you will know the full fury of everything they have to offer until they finally run out of energy and back away.  That's exactly what happened in the case of Jesus.  He is tempted and the temptation goes to its maximum capacity and He never budges.  So it isn't that He didn't feel the temptation, it is that He felt it in its fullest.

Jesus is qualified to be our Satan-conqueror.

Through the temptations He demonstrates His invincibility.

Let’s see just the beginning of the temptation story, and save more for next time. Jesus left the Jordan valley where He was baptized and He went west, up the steep slope of the plateau on which Jerusalem sits at about 2,500 feet.  The Dead Sea, the end of the Jordan river is 1,500 below sea level, so it's a tremendous climb up for Him.  He was led by the Spirit into a wilderness. 

Mark 1:12, "The Holy Spirit drove Him into the wilderness." 

Isn’t it interesting how sometimes our highest moments are followed by our deepest trials?  Jesus has been waiting since eternity past for this and then waiting another thirty years as a human in the obscurity of Nazareth for baptism and the launch of His ministry. At the high point, the Father commended Him, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."  His soul was charged with joy and purpose.  And it's immediately after that that the Spirit of God drives Him from the highest point in His life to the lowest point, into mortal combat with the devil.  And it's not as if Satan came looking for Jesus. It's that Jesus came looking for the devil under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

That area is called "the devastation."  It's a really terrifying place.  It’s dry, loose rock, jagged, ragged, craggly peaks with severe ravines that go down hundreds of feet.  It is barren.  It is inhabited by wild animals, snakes, scorpions and all of that.  It is certainly a place where Jesus would be more alone than any other place in Palestine.  And the fact of the matter is, the only reason we even know what happened there is because Jesus allowed it to be recorded because He was the only one there.  It’s almost an unthinkable experience to spend six weeks alone in such a place.

There's no one there to aid Him. There's no one there to deflect some of the temptation, there's no one there to offer counsel or encouragement.  It is critically important that Jesus be all alone, one-on-one, in order to defeat the devil.  If He needs help to win, we're in trouble.

This fallen angel, Satan, who once was heaven's praise leader, then decided that he wanted to take the whole human race into his rebellion, and he succeeded with Adam and Eve and plunged all humanity into sin.  Now he comes after Jesus, the incarnate God-Man Himself.  And he must destroy Jesus because He is the last Adam, and He has come to bring life back to the dead.  He has come to rescue people from hell.  He has come to conquer sin and to destroy the devil.  So the devil knows that he's fighting for his own life here, because if he loses, then he loses eternally and he's going to end up in the Lake of Fire.

So into the wilderness went Jesus, all alone, led by the Spirit of God, to face the devil for the confrontation.  This loneliest of all places, this anti-Eden, this most cursed piece of land where no garden grows - and for forty days the devil throws everything he's got at Him.  He's going to try to get Him to sin.  And if he can't get Him to sin, he's going to try to kill Him.  And for forty days the onslaught goes on without success.  For forty days the enemy tries to break the resistance of Jesus.  For forty days Jesus concentrates His mind on the conquest of evil, fully dependent on the Holy Spirit in proving that He is impeccable, invincible, impervious to iniquity.  For 40 days Satan gains not one inch of ground and the devil finally gives up after 40 days, but only for a moment.

v. 2b        Jesus had eaten nothing for nearly six weeks.  He's in a serious condition.  He feels the hunger and the devil senses a new opportunity.  He smells blood; he senses vulnerability, and he moves in for what he hopes will be the kill.  And so, starting in verse 3 come the three final temptations, as he pulls out the big guns.  He's found an angle in Jesus' being starved and weak, and he's going to exploit that to the max and see if he can't crush the Son of God under the power of his assault.  That's when the battle really begins.  It is drama beyond drama.  We'll see that next time.

Aren’t you thankful for our victorious Savior? Do you know Him?