When we first meet Satan in Genesis 3, we find out that he’s “more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.” And he sure seems sly, what with the way he tricks us into doing things we never expected. How else do you explain grown adults listening to Justin Bieber?
His creativity seems endless. When Satan tempted Jesus, he offered things that appeared to be completely unrelated (and completely irrelevant to regular people like us). Turning rocks into bread? Throwing himself off a building? Taking command over entire nations? Could anyone else come up with a more random combination?
But in all these temptations, Satan was only trying to do one thing: get Jesus to believe that God wasn’t enough. That he didn’t provide enough food for Jesus. That he didn’t protect Jesus enough from harm. That he didn’t give Jesus enough authority.
Satan only has one tool in his box. He might put different blades and attachments on it, but it’s still the same old Dremel. In every temptation, he wants you to take something besides God (usually something that’s not necessarily bad, like the bread he offered Jesus) and get you to value that thing more than you value God. And he’ll do this by convincing you that God isn’t enough.
Once you see what Satan’s doing, it gets a lot easier to resist his temptations. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 that God will provide you with a way of escape out of every temptation. And, as we saw on Sunday in Jesus’ coronation and temptation, the way of escape is knowledge of God’s approval.
Just before Jesus was tempted by Satan, he was crowned king by his heavenly father at the Jordan River. God announced from the heavens,”This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17). It was this approval, sealed by the Holy Spirit’s descent, that empowered Jesus to withstand pain and suffering in the wilderness, and to successfully resist the devil’s attempts to make him doubt God’s love, providence, and sovereign plan.
Now here’s the crazy thing: the approval God gave his son Jesus is the same kind of approval God offers us through Jesus. Take a few minutes to reflect on these profound statements:
- “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal. 3:26-27)
- “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” (Eph. 1:3-5)
- “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Rom. 8:35-37)
The Father’s intense love for the Son also extends to those of us who have been adopted as his kids. And that changes everything. If you know God is pleased with you through Jesus Christ, no matter how many times you give in to temptation, you can resist any temptation that comes.