Tempted Like Jesus

Matthew 4:1-11

1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 
2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 
3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 

4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 
5  Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 
6  And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 
7  Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 
8  Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 
9  And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 
10  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 
11  Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. 

Here we read how Jesus was lead by the spirit into the wilderness for the devil to tempt him. After forty days and forty nights, when Jesus was hungry. Verse three tells us the tempter came and tempted Jesus with turning the stones to bread, if he was the Son of God.

Jesus responds with “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

The written word that Jesus spoke is found in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

The next temptation is found in verse five. This time the devil takes Jesus up into the holy city, and sets him on a pinnacle of the temple. Then in verse six, the devil tries his hand at giving scriptures to Jesus.

Matt 4:6  And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 

The devil quotes

Psalm 91:11-12 

11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 
12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone

Now of course it wouldn’t be the devil if he didn’t leave something out or twist it. Sure enough “to keep thee in all thy ways” had been removed.

Those angels ministered unto Jesus. They helped to keep him in all thy ways.

Jesus responds in verse seven, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

This verse can be found in Deuteronomy also;

Deuteronomy 6:16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

Now the third times a charm right? The devil tempts Jesus but one more time in verse eight and nine.

Matt. 4:8-9

8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 

In verse ten we see Jesus responding yet again by saying;

“Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

Once again we find Jesus quoting from Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 10:20 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name..

We also see in Exodus 23:3; Joshua 24:14-15, Deuteronomy 6:13 similar verses.

We have established that Jesus responds with scripture. At the same time becomes an example for some scriptures given to us later such as;

James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

We see in each response that Jesus points back to the word of God. In doing so it clearly shows him submitting himself unto God; and we see that in verse eleven the devil flees (leaveth him).

Also in the book of James we find in chapter 1:12-14

James 1:12-14

12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. 
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

We see that if you are tempted and you fail the lust was already in your heart to do so. Which we know there wasn’t any in Jesus as spoken in John.

John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

Because there is nothing found in Jesus that would make him go after the temptations he was tempted with. Jesus was still man at this point. He has not yet been crucified. He had to be tempted as a man, elsewise how could we be taught to not sin and be holy if he wasn’t man also during this time? Anyone could say but Jesus was God of course he couldn’t sin. Nope Jesus was man as we are too. He had the fleshy body. As we war against the flesh and the spirit so did he. Jesus did not let the flesh overcome his spirit. He had to go through temptation as we do. He just gave us the example on how to resist the temptation and walk in the spirit.

So James 1:15 does NOT apply to Jesus.

James 1:15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 

1 John 5:18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. 

So you see in 1 John we are told that the begotten of God keepeth himself, and the wicked one touches him not. Jesus had no sin in him. The devil couldn’t touch him. Jesus set the example for us to follow.

So you see we are tempted like Jesus, and just like Jesus we can resist and overcome!