Temptation

When Adam was tempted, he was tempted in what could be described as a gourmet restaurant. Jesus' test comes in the context of a fast, where He's not able to eat anything for 40 days.

And so while the first Adam was tested, while his belly was full, the new Adam was tested when he was literally starving. Jesus not only died for His people, but He also lived for them, and we get a focused glimpse into this aspect of His ministry during His temptation in the wilderness. Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and thank you for joining us today for Renewing Your Mind.

This week, R.C. Sproul will help us understand what Christ has done to redeem a people for Himself. And although we'll consider topics like His crucifixion and His resurrection, we begin today with an aspect of the work of Christ that has often overlooked His temptation.

Here's Dr. Sproul. In our last session, we looked at that very important episode in the life of Jesus when He submitted Himself to the baptism of John the Baptist, again, over John's objections when John said, you should be baptizing me, I shouldn't be baptizing you. And Jesus replied, suffer it now, John, because it's necessary in order to fulfill all righteousness. And we recall that at His baptism, the dove descended from heaven and came upon Jesus, symbolizing the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Now, following that episode, the very first thing the Spirit directed Jesus to do was to go into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days by Satan.

And before we look at the record of that temptation, let me ask the preliminary question, why? Why did the Holy Spirit drive Jesus into that desolate wilderness to be exposed to the unbridled assault of Satan? Well, I think it's clear that part of the essential work that Jesus was called to perform in His earthly ministry was the work of what the New Testament calls the last or the new Adam, showing the relationship that Jesus had to the first Adam, who also was subjected to a temptation by Satan. Let me just look briefly at what Paul says in the fifth chapter of his letter to the Romans in verse 12, where he says, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, he goes on to say, Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense, for if by one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by that grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded to many. And elsewhere he says, Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men receiving in justification of life.

For by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. And so we see this comparison and this contrast between the first Adam and his failure in the terms of his test, in the terms of his probation under the attack of Satan, and the successful obedience of the last Adam, Jesus, after he endures the same kind of temptation. Well, it was the same kind in some degrees, but in other ways the terms of the temptation of Jesus differed radically from those that were imposed upon Adam. Let's think for a minute where the temptation took place. In the case of the first Adam, the temptation came while Adam and Eve were enjoying luxury in the Garden of Eden, which we often refer to as paradise. Now the place where the Spirit drove Jesus to be tempted could hardly be called paradise. It was into the desolate Judean wilderness. If you've ever seen it or ever been there, you will be looking at one of the most ominous and foreboding pieces of God-forsaken wilderness to be found anywhere in this world. They say that the only inhabitants of the Judean wilderness are snakes and scorpions.

Even wildlife refuses to live in this place of desolation. And so Adam is in this gorgeous garden. Jesus is in the Judean wilderness.

What else is different? Well, Adam is exposed to the temptation from the serpent. He's in the company of his wife, who was given by special creation to him as his helpmate, whereas when Jesus goes into the wilderness, He is in absolute solitude. We know that loneliness is that which received the first malediction of God in creation.

After He created everything, He pronounced it good with a benediction. The first thing He said was not good was this. He said it is not good that man should be alone.

When we want to torment the criminals or prisoners of war, we find that they are often sent into the state of solitary confinement, where they are cut off from any kind of human interaction and friendship. And so it is what Jesus is driven there into the wilderness to face this temptation from hell completely alone. When Adam was tempted, he was tempted in what could be described as a gourmet restaurant, because there in the lush environs of Eden were trees bearing all kinds of fruit that were wonderful to eat, and it was given to Adam and Eve the freedom to choose from any one of those fruit-bearing trees to satisfy their hunger. Jesus' test comes in the context of a fast, where He's not able to eat anything for forty days. And so while the first Adam was tested while his belly was full, the new Adam was tested when he was literally starving.

And so we see the radical difference, one more difference that I think needs to be pointed out. Now, when Adam was tempted, there was no customary practice of sin. Sin was unknown before Adam and Eve committed it, where when Jesus is tested, there is nothing more commonplace in His world than the presence of sin.

And you say, well, so what? Well, because one of the greatest things that undermines our resolve to be righteous is that everybody around us is sinning, so why shouldn't we? But Jesus had to act against and contrary to the commonplace practice of human beings while He's undergoing these tests. Now, I've just pointed out the difference between the first Adam and the second Adam in terms of their temptation. But what I want us most to understand today is the similarity between the two temptations, that the points of the attack of Satan against Adam and against Jesus are virtually the same. Let's look first at the way in which the serpent attacked Adam through Eve. The serpent was called the most crafty of all of the beasts in the field, and when he came up against Eve, he came up with a temptation that was clothed in subtlety.

He came asking what seemed to be a very simple question. Has God said that you may not eat from any of the trees in the garden? Well, let me ask you, had God said that? On the contrary, as Eve corrected the serpent, she said to him, no, He didn't say that. He said, of all the trees of the garden, you may freely eat. But then He put this one tree off limits and said, we're not allowed to touch that because if we eat from that tree, we will surely die. So, do you see the subtlety of the way in which the serpent tempts Eve?

Did God say that you couldn't eat of any of these things? This is like a teenager that you have to deal with it in your house. On Monday night, the teenager says, can I stay out late tonight?

Go over to one of my friend's house. They're having a party, and you say yes, but I'll let you do it this night. But remember, there's school tomorrow, and you have to be home at a certain time. And the teenager says, oh, thanks. The next night, Dad, can I borrow the car?

Sure, you can have the car, but be sure you've put gas in it and get it back at an appropriate time. The next night, they want to go to the movie. The next night, to the fair. The next night, this.

And five nights in a row, you say sure. The sixth night, the teenager comes and says, I'd like to go out to another party. And you say, no, I'm sorry. You're not allowed to go out.

Now, what's the international standard reply that every teenager learns as soon as they turn 13? You never let me do what? Anything.

Right. You never let me do anything. If you say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and all of a sudden say no, you never let them do anything. That's the same suggestion that Satan is putting in the mind of Eve. Heth God said, you can't eat from any of these trees? Of course God hadn't said that, and the serpent knew very well that God hadn't said that. But the suggestion is if you're not autonomous, if you're not totally free to choose whatever you want to choose, if any restriction has been placed upon you by your Creator, then you're not really free, and He may just as well have said you can't eat from any of the trees. But He moves from this subtle hint to a direct contradiction. After Eve fights for the angels for a moment and says no, He said, from all these trees may, may freely eat, but we're not allowed to touch that one or we will die. Now Satan says, you will not die, but you will be as God, knowing good and evil. So, what I want us to see there is that the point of attack was at the trustworthiness, the authority, and the truth of the Word of God. Emil Bruner once made the comment that the hallmark of truth is contradiction. That's always disturbed me when he made that statement in Warheit aus Begegnung, because if it's true that the contradiction is the hallmark of truth, how could we ever discern the difference between godliness and ungodliness, between righteousness and unrighteousness, between obedience and disobedience?

You can imagine. Satan saying, well, yes, I know that I've contradicted what God said to you. I'm telling you, you won't die.

I'm telling you, won't die. But after all, contradiction is the hallmark of truth. And if God is a God of truth, I've just uttered the very hallmark of it, namely the contradiction. So that if contradiction is the hallmark of truth, not only was it allowable for Eve to follow the suggestion of Satan, it was an imperative for her to do it.

That's how distorted and twisted we get in our thinking. Now, the contradiction is the hallmark of the lie, and what the essence of the test was, the testing against the truthfulness of God with a contradiction. Now we see in the temptation of Jesus how it flows. Satan comes to Him after this forty days and forty nights when he was hungry, and when the tempter came to Him, listen to what he said, if you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.

Notice that. If you're the Son of God, then turn these stones into bread. What's the Son of God doing starving to death after forty days? You're hungry?

You have the power? Turn the stones into bread. Now remember, the last words that Jesus had heard before He went into the wilderness. After the Spirit descended upon Him, after He was baptized, after He was baptized, one of those rare occurrences where it is reported that God spoke audibly from the heavens, what did He say? This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He had just heard the Father publicly from heaven declare Him to be the Son of God. And now the serpent comes and says, Son of God, if you're the Son of God, or since you're the Son of God, subtly challenging the very affirmation that the Father had made moments before, forty days before really.

So how does Jesus respond to the temptation? Yes, I'm hungry. And yes, I am the Son of God, and I don't have to have breakfast to know that I am the Son of God. I don't need to turn these stones into bread because, Mr. Satan, the Word of my Father says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from my Father's mouth. Do you see it?

The issue? The Word of God. And the Word of God is more important to me, Jesus is saying to Satan, then my hunger, I will starve to death before I will deny the truthfulness of my Father's Word.

So then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, of the temple, and said to Him, if you're the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Well, if you're going to give, quote, Scripture at me, Jesus, and then you want to put the test to the Scriptures, let's try it out. You think the Scriptures can't be broken? You think that your Father's Word is true? Well, let's go up, and I'll cast you down from the pinnacle of the temple, and you don't have to worry about being hurt because the Bible says that your Father will give His angels charge over you, lest you dash your foot against your stone. So if you really believe that God is your Father, and if you really believe that the Word of God is true, you have nothing to worry about. Just jump off the temple. Jesus said, obviously you don't understand the first principle of hermeneutics, the cardinal rule of biblical interpretation, Mr. Satan, that you don't set one portion of Scripture against another portion of Scripture because all of Scripture is coherent because the Bible also says as it is written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. And so if I agreed to your proposal to go up to the temple and jump, I would be putting my Father to the test.

And you may tempt me, but I'm not going to tempt my Father. I know that the angels have given charge over me. I don't have to jump off of the temple to experience the truth of that statement. By now Satan is getting a little frustrated. And again, he took him up to an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Keep that in mind, all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And Satan said, all of these things I will give to you if you'll just fall down and worship me. All the glory that the world has to give, all the authority, all the monarchies, everything in this world I will give you, all you have to do, nobody's going to see it, nobody's going to see it is a little genuflection.

Just bow to me just once, and it's all yours. And I will give you this kingdom without suffering, without humiliation, without pain, without crucifixion, just a little genuflection, and it's yours. And Jesus said to him, away with you Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. Three times the assault comes, three times the assault is directed against the trustworthiness of the Word of God. And with every subtlety at his disposal, including quoting Scripture, Satan tries to seduce Jesus to go against the Word of God. Jesus says, thanks for the offer of all these kingdoms, but there's one problem. The Word of My Father says that you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. And Jesus drives the serpent from the wilderness, and Satan leaves Jesus for the moment.

This isn't the end. His whole life will be experienced by Satan continually coming up against him to try to get him to go a different way. The temptation will often come from his best friends. As soon as he tells them that he has to go to Jerusalem to suffer, they say, God forbid.

You can't do that. And when Peter said to Jesus at the Caesarea Philippi confession that he can't go to Jerusalem to suffer, and what did Jesus say? Right after Jesus had called him the rock, he turns around to Peter and he says, get behind me, Satan.

I've heard this message before. And so, Jesus obeys at every point in the temptation. And what happens? As soon as the serpent leaves, the angels appear and minister to Jesus in His hunger, in His loneliness, and in His pain. You know, they didn't just get there at the last second like the cavalry.

They were there the whole time. And Jesus knew that the Father would give the angels charge over Him. He didn't have to hear Satan spout the Scripture to that end. That end, and now what Jesus trusted in, in terms of the truths of His Father's Word, was fully realized when those angels came and ministered to Him.

That was R.C. Sproul on the work of Christ and His role as the second Adam. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind.

I'm Nathan W. Bingham. As we consider the work of Christ this week, we have two resources to help you in your further study. In addition to the complete 12-part series, What Did Jesus Do?, both the DVD set and lifetime digital access, we'll also send you the hardcover edition of Dr. Sproul's book, The Work of Christ. With both of these resources, you'll be able to reflect on the significance of Jesus' incarnation, His baptism, the Last Supper, His return, and more. So give your gift today by visiting renewingyourmind.org or by calling us at 800-435-4343, and we'll send you this 12-part series, What Did Jesus Do?, and the hardcover edition of Dr. Sproul's book, The Work of Christ. Of all people, you'd expect Christians to understand the crucifixion of Christ, but many have never been taught the fullness of what took place on the cross or struggle to articulate it to those around them. So I hope you'll join us tomorrow as Dr. Sproul considers what happened on the cross. That's tomorrow here on Renewing Your Mind.