Mat 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit up into the wilderness, to be tempted by the Devil.
Mark chapter one verse twelve says that immediately after His baptism the Spirit drove Jesus Christ into the wilderness. The Spirit moved Christ with a deep impulse for the purpose of being tempted by His adversary the Devil. Although the purpose of Christ being led to the wilderness was for the purpose Christ being tempted by His adversary; it is important to realize that, this temptation was not provided by God because God tempts no one with sin. Neither was this the last time Christ was tempted by Satan. Luke 4:13 reads; “And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.”
Jesus Christ full of the Holy Ghost without measure all the days of His life; had now received at His baptism and anointing of the Holy Ghost with a public declaration from the Father in Heaven. The Holy Spirit came upon Him making Him ready to fulfill all righteousness. Making Him ready for His public ministry, which involved glorious miracles; healing, raising people from the dead, giving like powers to His disciples, raising Himself from the dead and appearing to His Apostles, and primarily defeating death and sin. Nevertheless, one of the greatest gifts from His public ministry was the preaching of the Gospel. Remember in Luke 4:17 Christ was in Nazareth; He went to a synagogue on a Sabbath day, He stood and read from the book of Isaiah regarding a narrative of Him-self which reads:
Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is on Me; because Jehovah has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
And so it is my conviction; and ill say again and again; that the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift to preach the Gospel of Christ, so that we can follow the example and passion of Christ to release men from their captivity of death. If we resurrect people with the power of the Holy Spirit, then it is done not by our hands as Christ and the Apostles did, but men’s dead spirits are resurrected to a new life in Christ, as we preach the Gospel that the Holy Spirit uses as His means to resurrect the sinner who is spiritually dead and cannot live for Christ; until the glorious working of the Holy Spirit performing a miracle in the spirit of man; making him a new creation.
2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.
Prior to the public works of Christ; Christ is led by the Spirit to the wilderness to be tested as Adam was tested in the Garden of Eden. We see how Christ becomes a type of Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam failed as our initial representative but Christ became our new and victorious representative. We see the temptation of Christ manifesting Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” The victory of Christ’s temptation was the inception of the serpent’s head being bruised. We see the constant spiritual warfare between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, and for those of us who are in Christ now; we have a mutual enemy, but since the enemy of God has been defeated in Jesus Christ; he is no longer able to deceive us away from the Gospel of Christ, for those who are in Christ. So it is important to remember that the more direct enemy we Christians face is our own flesh. We have no valid reason to pass the blame of our falling into sin to God not even to Satan himself.
James 1:13,14 Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is not tempted by evils, and He tempts no one.
God is Holy and cannot be tempted to any evil. Evil does not proceed from the Father and does not tempt any man with evil. God tempts us as he did Abraham, the Israelites, and Job; in order to try their faith, to grow in spiritual maturity, to humble us, or so that sin and our own corruption may be revealed to us, but our Holy God never tempts any man with the intention of man falling in to sin, man does that all by himself!
James 1:14 But each one is tempted by his lusts, being drawn away and seduced by them.
This word lust is an interesting word. It is epithumia; in the Greek it means to have a longing desire for something which is forbidden. Easton’s Bible Dictionary says; “Lust, the origin of sin, (it) has its place in the heart, not of necessity, but because it is the centre of all moral forces; and impulses, and of spiritual activity.” In other words lust may be described as an innate human faculty within our own very nature. When there is a sinful temptation in the world; it automatically excites our faculty of lust, and are drawn to what is forbidden by God as naturally as a fish is drawn to the bait on a hook. When we sin it is not because we were tempted by an outside identity, but directly by our own self; we cannot even pass the blame to angels, demons, or Satan.
Jud 8-10 Likewise, indeed, also these dreaming ones even defile flesh, and despise ruler ship, and speak evil of glories. 9 But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the Devil, he argued about the body of Moses, he dared not bring a judgment of blasphemy, but said, Let the Lord rebuke you! 10 But what things they do not know, they speak evil of. And what things they understand naturally, like the animals without reason, they are corrupted by these.
In context of verse 8 the dreaming ones are the Jewish witchdoctors who falsely interpreted dreams. It is also in reference of false teachers in the times of the Apostles, which as it is written defile the flesh meaning that they give themselves to their corrupt desires without resistance. In essence we all as sinners effectively can be applied to this text. We do defile the flesh as we sin, but perhaps not to the extreme of those spoken of in this verse by Jude. Additionally it is written that they despise ruler ship and glories; also known as dignitaries, which may be applied to governments, civil magistrates, and any type of authority overall. The disrespect of authority in verse 8 is the vital principal to understand verse 9.
Michael, the archangel was contending with the Devil regarding the body of Moses. In the argument between them; Michael did not dare to rail any form of disrespect to the Devil but instead said, “Let the Lord rebuke you!” These are two powerful angels with great authority. Even Satan can be ascribed as a form of dignitary; a wicked and evil ruler yes, but nevertheless him and his fallen angels are of a powerful authority that we have no comprehension of, which catapults us into verse 10; “But what things they do not know, they speak evil of. And what things they understand naturally, like the animals without reason, they are corrupted by these.” This applies to any form of verbal disrespect to natural worldly authorities as well as spiritual authorities. Since we are dealing with the subject of temptation and what we may attribute it to. It is widely recognized in modern evangelical churches that some believers attempt to personally rebuke the Devil in the name of Jesus, or even accuse him and his fallen angels with disrespecting terms as they pray. This is done because of bad theology, biblical ignorance, spiritual immaturity, and a finite arrogant mind thinking they can exalt themselves above an authority they know nothing of. If this is you then repent; it is not honorable to God, and it is disobedient to the scriptures. God’s way of humbling us in verse 10 is to refer to us as brute beasts that corrupt ourselves and only understand the natural things of this carnal world. We as natural men have no business raising accusations against any spiritual dignitaries; so leave alone blaming them for our temptations and sins, that is something we need to own for ourselves, and that requires spiritual maturity and discipline. The only temptation from Satan we need to concern ourselves with; is the temptation between Satan and Christ, that is all and that is it.
Descendants of Grace Monergistic Agora 