Living and Overcoming Through the Word of God
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ But Jesus answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”’Matthew 4:1–4
Within this account is a profound truth that every believer must fully understand. There are two critical aspects concerning the temptation of Jesus Christ that believers need to gain a revelation of:
- The temptation of Jesus reveals His absolute victory over Satan.
- The temptation also reveals the manner in which that victory was obtained.
Matthew records: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was hungry.”That simple statement, “afterwards He was hungry,” is of tremendous significance.
Jesus the Son of Man.
It is of tremendous importance for believers to gain the revelation that Jesus Christ encountered and overcame Satan through His ministry as the Son of Man. This truth must be firmly understood: if Jesus had entered the wilderness simply as God the Son exercising His divine attributes independently, there would have been no contest. Satan could never, ever hope to succeed in trying to overcome God. Yet this was not how Jesus faced the temptation.
A Man—Adam—through direct disobedience, was responsible for the fall of humanity into the dominion of sin. Therefore, it would be through a Man—Jesus Christ—in total obedience to the will of the Father, that the dominion of sin would be broken and the way opened for humanity to be restored to the Father. The statement that Jesus “was hungry” unmistakably reveals His humanity. Throughout His earthly redemptive ministry, Jesus functioned as a Man in covenant with Almighty God and as a Man anointed with the Holy Spirit.
The Word Became Flesh
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”John 1:14. When examining the words “became flesh,” it is important to understand that became carries the meaning of transitioning from one state of being or existence into another.
Although Jesus is eternally the Son of God, He did not overcome the devil by independently exercising the divine attributes inherent in His deity. Jesus humbled Himself and took upon Himself the state of true and complete humanity. This does not mean that He ceased to be God. Rather, He added true humanity to His eternal divine nature. The invisible God was now revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
Three Aspects Demonstrated
Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus demonstrated three vital realities that every believer must understand:
- Jesus walked and ministered as a Man, totally dependent upon His Father.
- Jesus was continually led and anointed by the Holy Spirit.
- Jesus demonstrated unwavering obedience to the Word of God.
Herein lies a vital truth that must be embraced. “The Word became flesh” speaks of the eternal Word taking upon Himself a form of existence that He had not previously possessed. He became fully man while remaining fully divine. The eternal Son entered into humanity so that He could accomplish redemption as the Son of Man.
Jesus Lived the Life Adam Failed to Live.
It must be firmly understood in our lives that whereas the first Adam failed in a pristine environment, Jesus Christ, who came as the LAST ADAM, overcame in the most arduous of situations: Jesus, operating as the Son of Man, lived the life that Adam failed to live:
- A life of perfect trust.
- A life of perfect obedience.
- A life of perfect and total dependence upon His Father.
This is clearly demonstrated in His response to every temptation. It is of great importance to understand that Jesus did not answer satan by appealing to His divine authority. Nor did He perform a miracle to escape His circumstances. Instead, Jesus Christ answered as the obedient Man, declaring: “It is written.” His confidence rested entirely upon what His Father had spoken. Jesus did not live by what He could do independently. He lived by what the Father had said.
Therefore, in the wilderness, Jesus Christ demonstrated exactly what He had come to reveal to humanity: a life of complete trust in the Father, total dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and unwavering obedience to every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
The victory over satan was not merely demonstrated by the fact that Jesus overcame the temptation. The greater revelation is found in how He overcame it. He overcame through complete dependence upon the Father and absolute submission to the Word of God. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”