How Do We Understand the Temptations of Jesus in the Wilderness?
Growing up, I heard my father preach, and he would often tell of a friend who faced a major temptation. His friend was a businessman who traveled often. Those of you who travel often for business know the temptations that arise when you’re away from home. You’re in a new city with all the thrills and constraints taken off.
This man had a long day of meetings and was heading back to his hotel room on the 10th floor. As the elevator door was about to close, in walked a “woman of the evening” dressed very provocatively. It was just him and her in the elevator, and she made subtle advances toward him.
He had a choice in the heat of the moment—he could give in to temptation and cheat on his wife, and no one would ever know. After all, it had been a long day of meetings, and he deserved some fun. She was way younger than his wife, who had put on a few pounds, and this would be a great escape.
Or... he could flee temptation and get out of there as fast as he could. Even though his room was on the 10th floor, he immediately pushed the second floor button and got off and ran down the hallway as fast as he could to get away from her. In that moment, he fled temptation.
1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
The Bible repeatedly warns us to flee from temptation. To run as fast as we can away from it.
Yet, we know how difficult it is to say “no” to temptation.
1 Timothy 6:9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
Temptations come when we least expect them, usually when we are bored, tired, restless, or dissatisfied.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Before Jesus could begin His ministry as the second Adam, the true Son of God, He had to pass the test that the first Adam failed in the Garden of Eden.
Luke 4:1–2 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
The Holy Spirit was crucial in leading Jesus into the wilderness. These 40 days of testing were God’s sovereign will. It was purposeful.
The word “devil” means accuser or slanderer.
2 Corinthians 11:14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
The devil does not have unlimited power, but is under the sovereign control of God. The devil could only do what God ordained him to do. This is not a surprise attack by Satan, but a situation planned out sovereignly by the Holy Spirit.
What does it mean that the devil tempted Jesus?
Hebrews 2:18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
The question is this: How can Jesus sympathize with our weaknesses and be tempted in every way we were, yet be without sin, and still be a real temptation?
The assumption is that since Satan tempted Jesus, then logically, there was a possibility Jesus COULD have sinned.
There are two issues here: Sinlessness and the ability NOT to sin.
Adam was sinless, but was able to fall. Angels were sinless, but able to fall.
Jesus was sinless and was NOT able to sin. Jesus not only never sinned, but it was impossible for Him ever to sin.
Then the question becomes: How can the temptation be real?
The word “tempt” in the Bible can also mean to test or to endure a trial.
We need to think of temptation from two biblical aspects:
James 1:2–3 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials (πειρασμοῖς) of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
We can go through trials that test our faith. These may not necessarily be inner desires but outward situations that test our faith. These are circumstances or trials.
James 1:14–15 But each person is tempted (πειράζεται) when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
James uses the same Greek word her for “tempted” (πειράζεται) that he used above for “trials” (πειρασμοῖς)
There are two types of trials, tests, or temptations.
We can be tempted from WITHIN through our sinful lusts and desires, and we can be tested from OUTSIDE by Satan, friends, or the world.
We can be tempted by the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Now, how does this relate to Jesus? Can Jesus be tempted from within through sinful desires?
Jesus, because He was perfect and sinless and did not inherit any sin from Adam, never once had any impure lusts or sinful desires. He had no ungodly desires from within that would tempt him to act outwardly in real actions.
Norval Geldenhuys comments, “He was exposed to all the temptations that every human being has to contend with—except, however, those temptations that come from within as a result of inward original taint or the influence of former sins. Owing to His intrinsic spotlessness, temptations in His case could only come from the outside.” [1]
Yet, since He was truly a man, he could be tested or endure trials from outside influences—namely, the devil.
It may be easier to think of what the devil is doing as attempting to test Jesus or put Jesus through a trial.
Jesus experienced temptation passively and outwardly in the form of trials and the devil’s attacks, but not actively, in the form of disordered, or ungodly, desires from within.
John Owen states, “He was also like unto us in temptations, for the reason which the apostle gives in the last verse. But herein also some difference may be observed between him and us; for the most of our temptations arise from within us, from our own unbelief and lusts. Again, in those that are from without, there is somewhat in us to take part with them, which always makes us fail in our duty of resistance, and ofttimes leads to further miscarriages. But from these things he was absolutely free; for as he had no inward disposition or inclination unto the least evil, being perfect in all graces and all their operations at all times, so when the prince of this world came unto him, he had no part in him,—nothing to close with his suggestions or to entertain his terrors.” [2]
Jesus, as a man, was different from us in that He had no original sin. He had no inward inclination or desires to do evil. He had no evil thoughts.
Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof states, “We ascribe to Christ moral integrity and moral perfection, that is, sinlessness. This means not merely that Christ could avoid sinning, and actually did avoid it, but also that it was impossible for Him to sin because of the essential bond between the human and divine nature. . . He was free from both hereditary depravity and actual sin.”[3]
Jesus was not tempted by the sinful lusts of pride, envy, jealousy, or any evil desire. He was never inclined in his heart to pride or selfishness in any way. Christ had no sinful lust of any kind at any time.
We often think of Jesus not sinning only in actions or words, but because He was—not only sinless, but also not even able to sin—He never had a lustful thought or ungodly desire in his mind.
Theologian William Shedd wrote, “Christ was not only able to overcome temptation, he was unable to be overcome by it.”[4]
How do we understand that Jesus was tempted in EVERY way we were?
Shedd “sheds” light on this: “The meaning is not, that our Lord was tempted in every respect exactly as fallen man is—by inward lust, as well as by other temptations—only he did not outwardly yield to any temptation; but that he was tempted in every way that man is, expecting by that class of temptation that are sinful because originating in evil and forbidden desire.”[5]
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and was empowered by the Spirit to resist temptation. And that is where we are similar to Jesus—we can, by the power of the Spirit, resist temptation, but we can also give in to our flesh and actually commit sins by succumbing to temptation.
Jesus was fully God, which made it absolutely certain that He would resist temptation and never sin.
Think of the greatest army you can think of. Let’s say 500,000 troops with tanks, aircraft carriers, and nuclear missiles. Just because the army cannot be defeated or conquered does not mean it cannot be attacked. A smaller army may try to attack the massive army out of either stupidity, wishful thinking, or delusions of grandeur.
In the same way, Jesus was unconquerable. He was not able to sin. But that did not stop the devil from acting with delusions of grandeur to try to attack Jesus or test Him in the wilderness.
John Owen states, “Christ had only the suffering part of temptation. . . We also have the sinning part of it. When the devil came to Christ, he had no claim on him; but when he comes to us, he does have a claim on us. In one way, we are like Christ, in that we also experience trials and disturbances. . . In another way, we are unlike Him, in that we are defiled and entangled by temptation, and should by all means seek to avoid it.”[6]
Why the wilderness? And why 40 days? The Old Testament shows us that the number forty is associated with intense suffering.
Both Moses (Deut 9:9) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:8) fasted for 40 days; the flood lasted 40 days and nights; and the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years (Numbers 14:33)
Think of Adam’s temptation in the Garden—he fell under the most favorable of conditions in a wonderful, lush garden with only one temptation from Satan.
Yet, Jesus, the second and greater Adam, was victorious against Satan in the worst of conditions, after 40 days of extreme hunger and exhaustion in the middle of the desert.
What’s the overall point of the wilderness attacks on Jesus?
Is it merely a model for us to know how to fight temptation by using God’s Word? That’s important, but that’s not the main point.
The focus is not on us, but on Jesus.
Adam failed the test in the Garden and was kicked out.
Israel failed the test in the wilderness and never got to see the Promised Land.
Only Jesus, the beloved Son of God—who came in the flesh, born of a virgin, was able to stand against the attacks of the devil and pass the test in the wilderness. TIMES THREE!
If Jesus had not endured these tests in the wilderness and at any point sinned, He would not be able to die on the cross for us as a perfect Sacrifice. He would have been disqualified to be our Savior. He would have forfeited His claim as the Messiah.
In the face of the greatest of tests, Jesus resisted. He remained faithful. He stood on the Word of God.
Because He passed the test and won the victory against Satan, we as His people are free from the power of Satan.
Colossians 1:13–14 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews 2:14–15 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
His victory in the wilderness becomes the foundation for our ability to resist temptation.
When we are tempted, we go to Jesus who resisted in our place and won the victory. We don’t have the strength to withstand the way He did. We are not the Son of God in the flesh.
We are weak, frail, easily swayed people who are seduced by the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
We must watch out for temptations. We must have our eyes open to the seductions of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We must pray for protection. We must pray for the Holy Spirit to empower us and give us grace in times of need.
When tempted, we go to Jesus in prayer. We approach the throne of grace to find help in times of need.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus knows what we’re going through because He endured the worst of it from Satan himself. He can sympathize with our weaknesses. He was without sin. He passed the test. He won the victory.
He fought Satan head-on and conquered.
Because of Jesus’ victory over Satan in the wilderness and ultimate victory on the cross, we have an advocate.
We have a defense.
We have a helper.
We have the Savior who gives us strength to resist.
[1] Norval Geldenhuys, The Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977), 157.
[2] John Owen, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Volume 3 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1991), 468.
[3] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1938), 318.
[4]William G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, Volume 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1888), 330.
[5]Ibid., 343.
[6]John Owen, Temptation: Resisted and Repulsed (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1658), 49-50.