Miracles and The Temptation of Jesus Matt 4:1-11

[james1523]

Matt 4:1-11
4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.


What was the temptation of Jesus all about? Yes the temptation was involving hunger, protection, and worldly riches, but this was not what the temptation was all about. Satan already knew that Jesus was the Son of God and could do all these things, because Satan had stirred up Herod and others to kill the baby Jesus shortly after His birth. Jesus knew that He was the Son of God and could all these things, He was not stupid or ignorant, He knew who He was.

The test was not about seeing if Jesus could do these things. The test was all about seeing if Jesus would do these things. The real test was that Satan tempted Jesus to use His heavenly and divine status as the Son of God, to work miracles to defeat him. From God's point of view, this test was to show Satan that mankind could and would overcome and defeat him if they trusted in His Word and by doing so, restore God's original purpose for mankind to have dominion over the Earth, even the creeping things which signified Satan (Gen 1:26). From the Father's point of view, the temptation of Jesus was a test to see if His only begotten Son, having lived from eternity past in Heaven as the Son of the Most High, was qualified to live a life of humility and suffering on the Earth as the Son of Man and die as a man for the sins of the whole world. During those 40 days, if Christ had worked miracles of power to escape suffering and temptation, then He would not have been qualified to die on the cross for our sins, and most likely would have worked a miracle of power to escape the cross.

A Lesson for Us is to Not Depend upon Miracles but God's Word and Our Identity as Men and Women in Christ
We can see from the above passages that every time Satan said "if you are the Son of God", Jesus replied as the Son of Man,saying "God's Word says". Jesus did not defeat Satan by miracles as the Son of God, but by the authority of God's Word as the Son of Man. As a lesson for us, we should not attempt to defeat Satan by great miracles and works of power. When some Christians have troubles, the first thing they seek is a miracle, or they go to a pastor and want them to perform a miracle. Whether it is a marriage problem, finance problem, health problem, whatever, but somehow after they seek a miracle they seem weak and defeated, like the man who was vainly seeking a healing in the miracle water for many years (John 5:5-7). When we seek a miracle and it doesn't happen, once, twice, ten times, it weakens our faith through discouragement, and then we are stuck in a hole. A lot of dear people who go to healing evangelist crusades year after year are in this exact situation - all they need to do is spend some time in God's Word at home rather than chasing the miracle. Seeking a miracle can be a temptation or distraction from Satan to seek the miracle and become weak and defeated, rather than by faith standing upon God's Word and declaring it with authority. God created mankind to have dominion and be overcomers and in Christ our identity is restored (Gen 1:26). We can defeat Satan by using the Word of God and it will work every time.

 

[B-A-C]

I believe Jesus didn't call himself the Son of man more than any other name for no reason.

Jesus had to conquer temptation as man. To show us that we don't have to be God or have "god powers" in order to resist sin.
If Jesus would called the angels to save Him or turned the stones into bread, that would have been breaking the rules of man-kind is able to do.
It's possible an apostle or OT prophet could do this, (but even then the power came from God).

Some will argue we can do nothing good without Jesus. Perhaps, but even sinners and non-believers sometimes resist sin.
It's possible that the Holy Spirit will help us resist sin (I have been trying to find a verse to support this) but for the most part, we are simply told "resist the devil"
and to put on the armor of God so that "we can resist the evil one". I find no verses that say Jesus or the Holy Spirit forces us not to sin. We still have the
freedom to do so if we choose to. Thank God that Jesus didn't make that choice when it was His turn.

 

[james1523]

I believe Jesus didn't call himself the Son of man more than any other name for no reason.

Jesus had to conquer temptation as man. To show us that we don't have to be God or have "god powers" in order to resist sin.
If Jesus would called the angels to save Him or turned the stones into bread, that would have been breaking the rules of man-kind is able to do.
It's possible an apostle or OT prophet could do this, (but even then the power came from God).

Some will argue we can do nothing good without Jesus. Perhaps, but even sinners and non-believers sometimes resist sin.
It's possible that the Holy Spirit will help us resist sin (I have been trying to find a verse to support this) but for the most part, we are simply told "resist the devil"
and to put on the armor of God so that "we can resist the evil one". I find no verses that say Jesus or the Holy Spirit forces us not to sin. We still have the
freedom to do so if we choose to. Thank God that Jesus didn't make that choice when it was His turn.

Sure, any argument that we cannot do good apart from Jesus is a foolish argument. There are many non-Christians who do much good. It is possible for the natural man to resist sin and rule over it (Gen 4:7). Gen 4:7 and practical experience proves that we can. We can live a very good and upright life apart from Christ. But we cannot do anything of any true, genuine, eternal spiritual value apart from Christ. For a New Testament believer, our identity is in Christ and Jesus said in John 15:5 "....apart from me you can do nothing."

It does not mean that we cannot do anything without Christ. It means that at the end of our life, the only thing which truly pleases God is His beloved Son, Christ. For this reason, if we come before God in our own strength and our own goodness apart from Christ, it will not please God. Anything we do in our own strength is in fact vanity, and has no eternal value (Ecc 1:2). Even if we love our wife or children by our own natural love, it is really false and not genuine. The natural man apart from Christ is all about the self. Even though we may think we can love our wife genuinely by our natural man, deep down in our heart our self is on the throne and therefore it is a selfish love. Only by loving and serving others in Christ can we love others with a genuine love that is not selfish. Only by living Christ can we live the kind of life that pleases God, because Christ is the only one who truly lived a life pleasing to God.

If we are a genuine believer, then we are no longer living a life of independence from God. A change has taken place in our heart and now we live a "married" life with our "husband" Christ (1 Cor 6:17). The normal situation is for our natural man to be crucified (dead) with Christ, and us to be living a joined life with Christ. It means we do everything in, with and through Christ, even basic things such as showering or making a cup of coffee. If we want to do things by our self and not by Christ, we have missed the point of what it means to be a Christian (Phil 1:21, John 6:57, John 11:26). Even when we attempt to be righteous by ourselves, it is called self-righteousness. The end result of not living a life joined to Christ is to be burnt in fire (John 15:6). So there are many good reasons why we should live dependent upon Christ, even though we are capable to live a good life by our natural strength without Christ.