One of the most entertaining classics of Christian literature is C. S. Lewis's, The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape is a senior devil who sends advice on the art of temptation to a junior devil named Wormwood. One of Screwtape's observations is a good introduction to our lesson. He says, "Your business is to fix [your victim's] attention on the stream [of immediate sense experiences]. Teach him to call it 'real life' and don't let him ask what he means by 'real'. . . . [Human beings] find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes." Here then is why any discussion of warfare between the believer and his demonic enemies strikes many people as remote, unreal, or even fanciful. We think that the real world is what we see, whereas what we see is a small slice of reality.

The Baptism of Christ

Christ's baptism marked the inception of His ministry as a prophet to the Jewish nation, a prophet "like unto" Moses (Deut. 18:18). His mission was to challenge the nation's self-righteousness and offer another way to righteousness through repentance and faith. But it was a mission destined to fail. The Jews would reject Him and applaud His crucifixion.

Before His conception, Jesus had existed from eternity past in heaven. But He left His heavenly abode and assumed human form. To become a true man, He emptied Himself of His divine attributes (Phil. 2:7). He did not give up their possession, but rather their exercise. Therefore, in His prophetic ministry He could not use His own divine power and knowledge. To know the mind of the Father, He had to rely on what the Father told Him through Scripture and through the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. To perform miracles, He depended on the Holy Spirit's power.

The Father's purpose at His baptism was to prepare Him for His ministry by supplying all that He lacked in His reduced condition (Luke 3:21-2). The Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove and lit upon Him, an outward sign that He now had full access to all of the Spirit's supernatural resources. Also, Jesus needed certainty as to His calling, so the Father spoke from heaven, assuring Him that He was indeed His Son and authorizing Him to proceed in His prophetic ministry. For Jesus, as for us, the knowledge that He was the Christ rested on faith in the Word of God.

Long before His baptism, Jesus had known His identity. God first revealed it to Mary and Joseph through angels. Then in a lifetime of meditation upon Scripture, Jesus had seen it confirmed in many ways. But now at His baptism, it was confirmed again.

The Temptation of Christ

After His baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness and fasted. Scripture says that the Spirit led Him there so that the devil might test Him (Matt. 4:1). His purpose in coming to this world was to die in our place. Therefore, it was necessary that He undergo the full experience of being human, so that the writer of Hebrews might be able to say, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15).

Liberal critics pass off the account of Jesus’ temptation as a preacher’s story. But anyone trained in literary criticism or psychology or in any other field requiring critical interpretation of complex narratives can see in this account a depth authenticating it as an account of a battle between great minds. It is obviously not just a nice little piece of religious fantasy.

The Gospel writers tell us that for forty days Jesus ate nothing. It was not His intent to harm Himself, nor was that the effect. Men can live without food somewhat longer than forty days. Hunger strikers have been known to survive sixty or seventy days. The number forty symbolizes a purging or refining, as when the waters of the great Flood fell forty days and nights upon the earth and as when Israel wandered forty years in the wilderness. The purpose of Jesus' fasting was not to gain merit through self-denial, but to withdraw from mundane things so that He might have closer fellowship with the Father.

First Temptation

After forty days of fasting, Jesus was racked with hunger. Satan came to Him and made an appealing suggestion. "Why don't you turn this stone into bread?" (Luke 4:2-3). Jesus could have done it, now that the Holy Spirit empowered Him. And He needed food desperately. To make food to meet a real need was surely not a sin.

Satan's strategy: Satan calculated that he might find three weaknesses in Jesus.

1. Jesus had become as hungry as a man can be, and a stronger fleshly desire than He had ever known before was urging Him to eat. Satan reckoned that He might yield to this desire, even at the expense of doing wrong.
2. The Father had just told Jesus that He was the Son. But what an incredible proposition to believe! How could Jesus believe that He, a mere man born of a woman, was really the eternal God? Therefore, Satan hoped to discover softness in Jesus' confidence that the Father had told Him the truth. He hoped to uncover some imperfection in Jesus' faith.
3. Satan's own fault in the beginning had been pride. It was therefore only natural for Satan to assume that if Jesus had any fault, it was pride also, especially after He had been told by direct revelation that He was somebody special—indeed, the most special person who exists, namely God. This revelation told Him nothing that He did not already know. From early life He knew His identity. Yet His identity had always been a learned fact requiring faith.

From his analysis of his chances in tempting Jesus, Satan concluded that the best course was to invite Him to do something seemingly innocuous but clearly wrong, and to provoke Him to wrongdoing by capitalizing on His hunger, as well on possible defects in His faith and humility. He decided to propose that Jesus turn stone into bread.

The course that Satan adopted is reminiscent of his approach to Eve. Then also he had offered food as bait. Moreover, his opening gambit on that occasion had been the question, "Hath God said?" (Gen. 3:1-5). Likewise, he began his temptation of Jesus by sowing doubt, saying, "If thou be the Son of God" (Luke 4:3)—implying that even though Jesus might choose to give Himself this exalted title, Satan was not convinced. Satan's intent in expressing skepticism was to wound Jesus' pride, if He had any, as well as to make Him uncertain and anxious as to whether He really was the Son of God. Satan was hoping to put Him on the defensive, so that He might feel constrained to prove Himself through a display of supernatural power—specifically, through an improper display that He might not recognize as wrong.

Why would it have been wrong for Jesus to follow Satan's suggestion? How was turning stone into bread different from turning water into wine, as He did a few weeks later with the Father's approval? Because Jesus had been granted the ability to do miracles for the limited purpose of furthering His prophetic ministry. Making food for others had the double benefit of meeting their physical need and showing them who He was. But to make bread for Himself on this occasion was improper for two reasons.

1. Throughout His ministry, as an example for us, He trusted the Father to supply Him with the essentials for life. He never used miraculous means to create food for Himself unless He was one of many who received the benefit.
2. His motive would have been to reassure Himself that He was the Son of God—a fact He was expected to believe by faith.

Therefore, to comply with Satan's suggestion would have been a misuse of the power He had just received.

Jesus' defense: To fend off the temptation, Jesus quoted from the Book of Deuteronomy, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Luke 4:4; Deut. 8:3). On the surface, His answer was a simple refusal to do Satan's bidding. But at the same time, His answer was a subtle rebuke of all three accusations implicit in Satan's attack.

1. By setting the Father's words far above bread in value, He was denying that hunger or any fleshly desire could induce Him to violate His Father's will.
2. In two ways He cleared Himself of the suspicion that He was weak in faith.
   1. He expressed utmost confidence in "every word" of the Father.
   2. He boldly repudiated any doubt as to His identity. "Every word" is a self-reference. Jesus Himself is the Father's Word personified. To deflect the "if" in Satan's thrust, "If thou be the Son of God" (Luke 4:3), Jesus alluded to His place in the Trinity. The Word that proceeds from the Father's mouth is the Son.
3. Jesus adroitly proved Himself free of pride by reminding Satan that He, Jesus the Word, would bring life to lost mankind. To accomplish man's redemption required great humility. He had to leave heaven's glory, assume human form, and die a gruesome death on a cross. Jesus was drawing a contrast between the proud angel who rebelled and the humble Son who obeyed.

Second Temptation

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke disagree on the order of the last two temptations. But because Matthew's organization is frequently topical rather than chronological, whereas Luke's is invariably chronological, we will follow the order in Luke. "And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, 'All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine" (Luke 4:5-7).

Satan's strategy: In the first temptation, Satan probed for weaknesses in Jesus and found none. Therefore, he shifted ground. Instead of continuing to look for chinks in Jesus' armor, he sought rather to turn one of Jesus' strengths against Him—in particular, the strength that, with telling results, He had just used to defend Himself. That strength was His confidence in the Father.

Accordingly, the next ploy Satan attempted was to represent wrongdoing as the Father's will. The proposition he offered Jesus is exactly the sort of thing we would expect from him. It contains both truth and falsehood, and the two are hard to separate. The true part is that he is indeed prince of this world, a title Jesus Himself recognized (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). The false part is his claim that power was "delivered unto me," presumably by the Father. He is implying that the Father, in an act of divine favor and approval, appointed him to his position of princely authority over the earth. In reality, Satan probably obtained his power by seizing it while in rebellion against the Father.

What was the purpose of the lie? He was trying to legitimize himself so that Jesus would be willing to place Himself under his authority. He wanted Jesus to believe that he, Satan, had the Father's authorization to offer Jesus all the world's kingdoms, and that by virtue of the position delegated to him by the Father, he had the right to ask Jesus for worship and service in return.

The temptation assumed that Jesus was interested in becoming world ruler. Satan knew that Jesus regarded Himself as the Christ. He knew also that the Christ of prophecy would someday reign as king over the earth. Therefore, Satan calculated that Jesus might accept a quick and painless road to what He regarded as His certain destiny. How much easier to fawn on Satan than to endure the cross!

Jesus' defense: Jesus was not fooled. He knew that Satan was a rebel. He dismissed the temptation by quoting again from Deuteronomy, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Luke 4:8, Deut. 6:13). The intended meaning was not simply that worship belongs to God alone. The "thou" was a pointed reference to Satan. Jesus was rebuking Satan for failure to obey this command. Thus, by implication, He was rejecting Satan's claim to be a legitimate ruler, as well as his insinuation that it would be the Father's will for Jesus to accept Satan's proposal.

Jesus also said, "Get thee behind me, Satan" (Luke 4:8). In reply to Satan's presumption in setting himself above Christ, Christ was asserting His superiority to Satan. Indeed, His thought flows directly from this rebuke to the quotation from Deuteronomy, making it quite clear that He wanted Satan to understand that He, Jesus, was "the Lord thy God" whom Satan was obliged to serve. Whereas Satan wanted Jesus to worship him, Satan should have worshipped Jesus.

Third Temptation

Satan had one more ploy. "And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone" (Luke 4:9-11).

Satan's strategy: Satan was evidently not persuaded that Jesus was above pride. Again, in an effort to provoke a foolish act of self-vindication, he tried to needle Jesus by accosting Him, "If thou be the Son of God." Again, he attempted to exploit one of Jesus' strengths. Twice before in defending Himself, Jesus had quoted Scripture. Therefore, Satan brought Scripture into his argument that Jesus should cast Himself into the Temple courtyard. Satan referred to two different texts, and, as we would expect, he distorted both.

1. In urging Jesus to start His ministry by making a dramatic descent from the sky into the courtyard of the Temple, he was assuming that Jesus was familiar with Malachi's prophecy, "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in" (Mal. 3:1). Yet this prophecy concerns the Second Coming of Christ, not the first. It will be at the Second Coming that He executes judgment on the nations (v. 2) and purifies the sons of Israel (v. 3).
2. Satan tried to persuade Jesus that if He refused to cast Himself down, He would be guilty of a cowardly lack of faith in God's promises—particularly, in the Psalmist's promise that the angels of God would allow no harm to befall God's favorite (Psa. 91:11-2). Satan quoted the passage correctly, but conveniently lifted it out of context, omitting verse 13. His failure to notice this verse is understandable enough. It is a promise that God's favorite will triumph over the serpent, who is none other than Satan. Ironically, in seeking to defeat Jesus, he called Jesus' attention to a passage that encouraged Him to resist. Perhaps, in seeking to legitimize himself, Satan was implying that he was not the dragon who tempted Eve. He hoped Jesus would assume that Satan would not quote this passage if he regarded himself as the dragon.

Jesus' defense: For the third time, Jesus answered from the Book of Deuteronomy. He said, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Luke 4:12; Deut. 6:16). Who was being tempted? It was Jesus. Therefore, Jesus was unmistakably identifying Himself as God.

In the first two temptations, His claim of deity had been somewhat muted. But this time He left no doubt as to His meaning. The devil had said, "If thou be the Son of God." Jesus retorted, in essence, that He was not only the Son in relation to the Father, but also the Lord in relation to Satan.

The Three Lusts

It has often been observed that the three temptations of Jesus sifted Him for the three kinds of lust (1 John 2:16). If He had turned stone into bread, He would have displayed lust of the flesh. If He had grasped for possession of the kingdoms brought before His sight, He would have displayed lust of the eyes. If He had sought acclaim by descending supernaturally into the Temple, He would have displayed pride of life.

It was necessary that the second Adam, sent into the world to offer Himself as a perfect sacrifice for sin, prove Himself free of every fault found in the first Adam. In disobeying God's command, Adam and Eve yielded to the same three lusts that were missing in Jesus. The fruit enticed Eve because it was "good for food" (it appealed to lust of the flesh), "pleasant to the eyes" (it appealed to lust of the eyes), and "to be desired to make one wise" (it appealed to pride of life) (Gen. 3:6).

The Seven Principles of Spiritual Warfare

The temptation of Christ holds many practical lessons for us.

1. Do not underestimate your enemy. The stratagems that Satan crafted against Jesus show that he is exceedingly subtle and clever. As a master psychologist, he knows you better than you know yourself. His henchmen have probably assembled a dossier cataloging all your worst errors in the past, giving a brutally frank assessment of your present strengths and weaknesses, and describing promising modes of attack in the future. The devil has a plan for your life—that is, he has worked out a plan of attack that he expects will overthrow you. His campaign against you, as in Jesus' temptations, will not be limited to crude enticement of your lusts. Through sly questions, he will sow doubt in God's Word. By quoting Scripture and arguing that sin is God's will, he will make sin sound spiritual.

The devil is a master of mind games. He is continually working on your thoughts to convince you of lies. To support these lies, he is great at manipulating circumstances to create false impressions. He is great at feeding you gossip. He is great at fanning your fears. He knows that every failure in the Christian life can be traced to wrong thinking. Protect yourself by focusing your mind on good things (Phil. 4:8) and filling your mind with the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).

2. Ignore whatever the devil says. Nothing that Satan told Jesus was exactly true. Therefore, it is best to pay no heed to his suggestions and arguments. You should not listen to him even for the purpose of discerning what is false. He may tell you the truth if he knows that you, considering the source, will reject it. Remember that when Paul went to Philippi, a demon-possessed girl followed him and his companions and cried, "These men are the servants of the most high God" (Acts 16:17). Such a recommendation, from a woman known to be wicked, was no recommendation at all. The devil was probably seeking to discredit Paul. Likewise, many of the demons that Jesus cast out called Him the Christ. They were probably laying groundwork for the Pharisees' charge that Jesus was in league with the devil.

The devil is quite capable of playing a game of bluff or double bluff. When you are headed in the wrong direction, he may vigorously oppose you if he knows that his opposition will solidify your determination to go forward. When you are headed in the right direction, he may dramatically assist you if he knows that his assistance will confuse the issue and raise doubts in your mind.

I know someone who went to a Chinese restaurant at the time he was considering whether to take a new job. After the meal, when he and his wife opened the fortune cookies, they both found the same message, "You will soon have a promotion." They knew that God was not using fortune cookies to guide them. Nor was it likely that the message was a coincidence, since it arrived at the very moment of decision. The source was obviously the devil. What was he was trying to do? He knew that they would recognize deviltry, so he encouraged them to do the exact opposite of what he really wanted. He wanted them to step back from the job, which they believed was God's will. All Christians have similar experiences.

As we have said before, the only reliable way to know God's will is by consulting His Word and His Spirit. Pay no attention to the devil.

3. Know yourself. As he did in his battle with Jesus, the devil will attack your weaknesses and turn your strengths to his advantage. Therefore, to thwart him, you must know yourself. But pride blinds you to your own faults. Since you need the grace of God to surmount pride, the road to self-knowledge is the road of grace. The entrance to this road is hidden except to those who are willing to confess known sins. You must search your heart with the intent of persisting in self-examination until you know the whole ugly truth about yourself. Then the Holy Spirit will show you your reflection in the only honest mirror, which is the Word of God. You will see both your vileness by nature and your potential by God's grace. Then you will truly know yourself.

4. Resist Satan with all vigor and might. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). He will not waste time on a losing battle against a determined foe. Hence, when all three temptations of Jesus failed, he left (Luke 4:13). Following Jesus' example, you must stand firm against Satan and yield no ground. Then you will soon put him to flight.

His parting shot may be to claim that because you perhaps struggled or faltered in the fight, victory belongs to him. He will say that he won. You should respond, “Did I fall into the grievous sin you wanted me to commit? Did I deny Christ? Has my faith been weakened?” If the answers are, no, then you are entitled to claim victory.

You must understand that the devil will use a successful tactic over and over again, so long as it works. If he has found a tactic that always causes you to stumble, do not accept chronic defeat. Dig in and fight. Prove to him that you are wise to his tricks, and that from now on they will fail. The battle may be long and hard, but eventually he will leave you alone.

5. Wield Scripture in your defense. Three times Jesus parried Satan's blow by quoting Scripture. The sword of the Spirit is our most effective weapon also (Eph. 6:17).

6. Seek divine refreshment after the battle. When the devil departed from Jesus, angels came and ministered to Him (Matt. 4:11). Likewise, if we stand bravely against our enemy, God will reward us afterward by tending to our wounds and restoring our strength.

7. Expect the devil to return. After the devil finished tempting Jesus, he departed from him, but only “for a season" (Luke 4:13). Even after his humiliating failure to make any dent in Jesus' perfection, he did not give up. He bided his time, waiting for an opportune moment to attack again. He returned later in an effort to keep Jesus from going to the cross (Matt. 16:23). He returned once more when Jesus hung on the cross, and then he tempted Jesus to come down (Matt. 27:39-43).

So also every believer who has won a battle against Satan can be sure that he has not seen the last of his enemy. Satan will someday return with another plan for temptation. It is therefore important that a believer remain on his guard even after a victory. If he slips into pride of success, he will make himself an easy target, for "pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16:18).