How Jesus overcame temptation
Jesus is our standard of what is good and acceptable to God. He is our righteousness and victory in all situations. When we imitate Him in all things, we will always be victorious against any attack from the kingdom of darkness. There is no other way of defeating the devil except the way of Jesus. The Lamb of God will always be victorious against the devil because He uses a proven formula for victory. He uses the power of the word of God to overcome the devil.
When we rely on the power of the word of God, we will always overcome the enemy. The word of God is Spirit and is Life. When we take shelter in the power of the word of God, we rely on the might of God’s Spirit to defeat our enemy. The word of God is the power that is multiplied a million times hence the devil will always try to hide its power to us.
Any spiritual victory comes from the word of God because God is united with His word. When we are tempted by the devil, we must always invoke the word of God and proclaim what God says in His word. When we do this, the grace of God would be released upon us. The Lord would release His power so that it could help us to overcome the enemy.
When we stand on the strength of the word of God, we will always frustrate the devil. There is power in the word of God, and the devil will ridicule the word of God so that he could blind us to the might of God’s power which is released when we invoke His word. The Lord always watches over His word to perform it, and when we invoke the word of God, we receive the strength of God on any matter that we seek God’s grace on.
“You have seen correctly, for I watch over My word to accomplish it” (Jeremiah 1:12).
If we need the victory against temptation, we need to study how Jesus defeated the devil when the serpent tempted him in the desert. The responses that Jesus gave the serpent were all effective against temptation because they all use the might of God’s word.
Jesus had two natures, He was both a Man and God at the same time. As God, He has infinite knowledge of all things, and He also has unlimited power to do all. He has the power to do anything with his word. Jesus created the universe and all that inhabits it, and He is One who created all the angels, including the devil. He understands everything about the devil. He knows the strength and the weaknesses of the serpent. Not only does He know the strength and weaknesses of the devil, he knows the strength and weaknesses of every created thing.
As a Man, Jesus had a human nature like all other human beings. He walked, ate and did all the things that a normal human being is able to do. And because Jesus had a human nature, He had a human weakness that all of us, except being sinful. Even though Jesus had a human nature, He was pure without sin, because he did not follow his human nature, but followed the will of God.
Before Jesus was born as a Man, He existed in heaven as God. When the devil was an angel, he could never think of tempting Jesus because the Master is incorruptible. Jesus is holy and due to this, He has all the power and wisdom that no other created being has. The devil is wise and knows his limits, he could never think of tempting God the Son because there was no possibility of Jesus falling into temptation.
Indeed, the devil is very devious and persistent. Since Jesus chased Him away from heaven, the devil has always wanted to avenge his humiliation. Satan was one of the angels that were surrounding God in heaven, but he was thrown out of heaven when he wanted to be like God. Since the devil was humiliated by Jesus, he has an unfinished business with the Master.
“ Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels also fought, but he could not prevail, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was thrown out — the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him” (Revelation 12:7-9).
The birth of Jesus as a Son of Man gave the serpent hope that he could prevail over him. Satan thought he could tempt the Lord to move away from the righteousness of God. He observed the human nature of Jesus, which was like the human nature of any person. And when he looked at Jesus, he thought he could use the same temptation strategy he has used for many generations to lead him astray from the love of God.
Indeed, when Jesus was born as a human being, the devil thought his chance had finally come to settle old scores with Him. He thought he could prevail against Jesus because the Lord had a human nature that was like ours. The Lord could thirst, hunger, cry, and bleed.
To achieve his objective of defeating Jesus, the serpent tried to use temptation as a weapon that was meant to take away the glory of Jesus so that the snake could prevail against Him. The temptation of the devil was aimed at the human weaknesses of Jesus. Indeed, the serpent did try many times to exploit the human weaknesses of Jesus, but he failed in all his efforts.
He failed because the Spirit of God sustained the life of Jesus in every way possible. The Spirit of God clothes Jesus with the power of God, and this power was able to stand against any form of temptation or attack from the kingdom of the serpents. Jesus succeeded to stand against temptation because His soul yielded to the Spirit of God which was in Him. He did not rely on His strength to fight against the serpent, but He depended on the Father to supply Him with grace to overcome the serpent.
Jesus is holy and His holiness will always give us victory against the devil. There is only one thing that defeats the devil, it is the holiness of Jesus which was released upon those who believes in His righteousness. Righteousness is a spiritual nature of God that is able to defeat the devil in all situations.
The serpent will always fail to attack anyone who lives in holiness because holiness is a spiritual state of victory against all the powers of the kingdom of darkness. Holiness is a spiritual light and this spiritual light will always overcome any spiritual darkness. The serpent is spiritual darkness, and because of this, he will always come second best against the power of holiness, which is Jesus.
Satan is darkness and Jesus is the light of God. The two spiritual states have nothing in common, and due to this difference, they will never coexist. Where there is Jesus there will always be light, and where there is light there is life. The serpent lives in darkness, and owing to this, he will always be flushed away by the holiness of God, which is the greatest Light in the entire universe.
The Spirit of God is light, life, power, and strength, but the spiritual darkness is powerlessness and death. Darkness will never prevail against the light of God. Satan does not have the capacity to defeat us when we abide in the light of God. To stand a chance against us, the devil must use deception as a tool that could make us spiritually weak.
We must not be fearful of the serpent, as he has no power over righteousness. When we live in righteousness, the devil is unable to look at us because the light of righteousness blinds him. The light of righteousness is too bright for the devil, and because of this, the devil would not want to be around us. This light of holiness does not only blind the devil, it exposes all his dirty moves against us. Satan is always doing bad things in darkness, and the light of righteousness will always reveal all the bad things he is doing against the children of God.
That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:5)
The devil must deceive us to lose our righteousness so that he may attack us. When we abide in righteousness, the serpent cannot touch us. The spiritual light is too bright and powerful, and, the serpent cannot penetrate its shield. Anyone who abides in righteousness abides in the light of protection which the devil will never overcome.
The word of God radiates the spiritual light of God upon those who have a relationship with it. It clothes us with the glory of the Lord, and this glory is maintained by a holy life. When we live in holiness, we will always defeat our enemy, that old serpent called the devil.
Assuredly, the serpent can only overcome us by tempting us to sin. Sin is a spiritual pollutant that attracts spiritual darkness into our lives. When we do sinful things, we will always attract darkness which is death and failure.
The Lord is the biggest spiritual Light, which is the source of life and goodness. The Lord cannot abide in an environment of spiritual darkness. When we attract the spiritual darkness into our lives, the Light of God will depart from us. When we are devoid of the light of protection, the devil will attack us with impunity.
Satan knows when to attack us. When we are devoid of the protection of the Lord, the serpent could attack us from all the fronts. He could destroy us completely, make us sink into a more sinful life, or he could destroy any area of our lives.
When the glory of the Lord does not cover us, we would exist in the same spiritual state of darkness which the devil abides in. This is the law of the likes, darkness attracts darkness, and the light of God, which is the righteousness of God avails all the grace of God to us. The light of God is the light of victory against all the powers of darkness, and it will always be victorious against the kingdom of the snakes. On the other hand, when we abide in darkness, we abide in powerlessness and in death.
Satan tempted Jesus in the desert because he did not understand the balance between the two natures of Jesus. The Lord had a human nature and a nature of God in one person. The serpent knew that he could not overcome the God nature of Jesus, and a because of that, he focused his attacks on His human nature.
Surely, the serpent knows the weakness of our human nature because he has attacked many people before. He thought he could attack Jesus the same way he has attacked others.
After Jesus was led to the desert by the Spirit of God, he fasted for forty days, day, and night. After this fast, the human nature of Jesus was hungry as he ate nothing for forty days. His human nature was weak and hungry, and this state gave the serpent hope that he could attack the human nature of Jesus without understanding the interaction of the Spirit and the human nature of the Lord.
Even though Jesus existed as a human being, His God-nature was always in control of his human nature. When the Spirit of God abides in a human body, it will always seek to dominate the human nature. The Spirit of God will always try to influence the soul of man to behave like God.
When the soul of a man yields to the discipline of the Spirit of God, it will have the nature of the Spirit of God. And because of this, it will always be sensitive to the word of God. When our souls are sensitive to the word of God, they would always want to please the Spirit not self.
Jesus, the Son of Man, yielded His will to the power of the Spirit of God who lives in him. As a result of this, the human nature of Jesus was pure and holy. The Spirit of God who abides in Jesus controlled the life of Jesus and due to this, it mitigated the weakness of His human nature. The human nature of Jesus yielded to the Spirit of God in every situation hence Jesus was pure and spotless all the time.
The Son of Man understood the secret of yielding to the authority of the Spirit of God who abide in Him. He also understood that God’s power is only released to those who are obedient to the authority of God’s word. Anyone who is obedient to the word of God will have full access to the power of the Holy Spirit. When we rely on the word of God, all the grace of God would be released to us. We would be able to access any power that we need from God.
Jesus used the word of God to defeat temptation. When the serpent tempted Jesus, he smelled the blood. He thought he was about to be victorious against Jesus because of the weakness he noticed in him. Jesus has just come out of a very long fast and his body looked weak as a result.
The serpent concentrated on the weakness of His body and disregarded the strength of His Spirit. When the Spirit is strong, it would strengthen the weak human body. Life and power are in the Spirit, and when the Spirit is alive, the body would also be alive. When the Spirit of a person is powerful, the body will also be powerful despite looking frail.
The Spirit of God is the one who led Jesus into the desert so that He may fast for forty days. The will of God is our strength, and when we are doing the will of God, the Lord would always avail His grace for our benefit. He would always strengthen us so that we may bear with any challenge we may face in our quest to do His will. This is exactly what happened to Jesus in the desert, the Spirit of God helped Him to bear the torment of hunger for forty days.
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand’’ (Isaiah 41:10).
Jesus had a Godly nature that knows all and is able to do all that none of us could do. When the devil tempted him in the desert, Jesus did not use His wisdom to defeat the serpent, he used the power of the word of God to prevail against the devil. The Lord could have said many things about the devil because it was He who created the serpent, but he chose to use the most potent weapon against the devil, which is the word of God. The word of God is the power that no temptation could prevail against.
The Master quoted scriptures to defeat temptation. All His responses against the serpent came from the book of Deuteronomy.
This is the first temptation against Jesus, and the Lord handled it with the power of the word of God.
“The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of
bread’" (Luke 4:3).
Every attack of the serpent is always laced with traces of pride. Satan might attack us using any weapon. However, many of his weapons are laced with pride. Pride is the gunpowder that makes it possible for the bullets of the serpent to be released against us. When the devil mixes any weapon with traces of pride, these weapons would stand a greater chance to hit the target. The devil will always try to appeal to our sense of pride in order to move us away from the righteousness of God.
The devil knew that Jesus was the Son of God, but he nonetheless said, ‘If you are the Son of God. ‘By saying this, he was actually saying ‘Prove to me that you are the Son of God and you have the power to change stones into bread.’ Jesus did not fall into this bait because He knew that if He listened to the devil, he would give him power to dominate him.
There was nothing Jesus needed to prove because the serpent knew exactly who Jesus was. He knew that Jesus was the Son of God who could do anything. When the serpent said, ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he was appealing to the sense of pride which he thought Jesus had. Unfortunately, the Lord had no issue with pride, He was humble like a powerless child.
The devil is very cunning, he would use our strength to appeal to our sense of pride if we have any. He would want to exploit our strength to his advantage. And every time we want to prove to him how powerful or knowledgeable we are, we would fall into his trap. This is what he wants to achieve, he wants to lift us high so that he could pull us down.
Anyone who wants to prove how powerful or knowledgeable he is would be controlled by the devil. When we want to prove who we are, we would do foolish things to show others how great we are. This is the trick that the devil uses to make us feel tall so that he might cut us down to the ground.
Jesus knows the tricks of the devil, and He understands that there is no better way of beating the devil than using the power of the word of God. He did not want to entertain the suggestions of the devil but used the word of God to proclaim what God proclaims in His word.
When we use the word of God to proclaim what God proclaims in it, we rely on the power of God to defeat any temptation. By using the power of the word of God, we give the Lord power to fight against any spiritual attack against us.
Our power is not in ourselves, but it is in God. The devil cannot fight with God directly, and when we use the word of God as a bullet against the serpent, the serpent will run away from us. Assuredly, the devil cannot stand the power of the word of God because the word of God is programmed to be victorious against him all the time.
God is our strength, and due to this, we need to rely on His power to defeat any temptation. He is the only one the devil is very afraid of. And every time we use the power of the word of God, we will always be victorious against all forms of temptations. It is for this reason that every child of God needs to know the whole Bible so that we could use proper spiritual bullets to fight against any temptation. Bible passages or verses are our spiritual bullets against the devil. And every time we quote a passage or verse against any form of temptation, we will defeat the serpent.
When the devil laces any weapon against us with pride, he wants us to focus on our strength instead of relying on the strength of God. The word of God is the strength of God against any temptation, and when we use the power of the word of God to fight against temptation, we are glorifying God above our own strength. By glorifying Him above ourselves, we invite His grace to help us to defeat the enemy.
Indeed, when we rely on the strength of the word of God to defeat temptation, we emphasise how weak we are doing anything on our own. When we count ourselves as nothing and powerless, the fullness of God’s strength would be availed for us. The grace that would be released upon us would help us to overcome all the powers of the enemy.
It is only the Lord who has the ability to defeat the serpent. When we rely on the grace of God to fight against our enemy, we shall be victorious all the time. But when we rely on our own strength, we will give the serpent power over us.
When we lift ourselves above God, we lift the devil above our own defence. Anyone who relies on his strength to fight spiritual battles will bite the dust, because when we lift ourselves above the Lord, the power of the Holy Spirit will be withdrawn by God. And when we rely on our own strength, we will always stand without any help from God.
Jesus is our perfect example in all things. Jesus, the Son of Man had the same weaknesses that we have, except he was pure and holy all the time. He came down from heaven so that He could defeat the power of sin, and to show us the secret of defeating the devil. He relied upon the power of the Father to give Him victory against all the powers of the darkness.
The temptation of Jesus in the desert is the perfect example of how we must deal with temptation. We could only defeat temptation when we act the same way Jesus acted. When the devil tempts us, there is no other formula of success against the serpent except the way of the Master.
The devil threw three nets of temptation against Jesus and the Lord beat Him by using scriptures. This is how Jesus responded to the first net of temptation thrown towards Him by the serpent
“But Jesus answered him, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone’’’ (Luke 4:4)
This response that Jesus made against the above temptation comes from the book of Deuteronomy.
“He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then He gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
When we invoke what God says in His word, He will always help us with any grace we need. The Lord has an unbreakable contract with His word. His word binds Him in every possible way. God is the truth, and He will never forsake this important covenant that He has with His word. When we call upon the power of His word, He will release upon us every grace with need from Him. There is nothing God value more than His word. His word is His vow, and because it is His vow He will always perform it.
“The LORD said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I watch over My word to accomplish it’” (Jeremiah 1:12).
Jesus is our righteousness, and when we behave like Him, we will always walk in the will of God. God delights in those who forsake their will for His will. When we abide in the will of God, we will always be covered by the blanket of righteousness which will protect us and it would also give us all the grace we need from the Father.
The first act of temptation against Jesus tempted Him to do His will instead of God’s will. The devil wanted Jesus to change what God did not want to change. It was not the will of God to change stones into food, and any effort to do so would have undermined the will of God.
The will of God is our shield because when we remain in the will of God, the Lord will supply us with all the grace we may require of Him. But when we act in opposition to the will of the Father, we will always stand on our own against dangerous weapons of the enemy.
Sometimes, the snake might tempt you to do your will instead of doing the will of God. He would say there is no specific commandment in the word of God that forbids you to do a certain thing. The serpent is a master deceiver, he mixes the truth with lies so that he may trap you to fall into his net of temptation. There might not be a specific word in the Bible that forbids you to do a certain thing, but if you know the will of God or what God expects you to do but you do not do it, you have sinned against God. Any direction that you take in opposition to the will of God is a sin.
The will of God dictates everything a child of God must do and say, and when anyone acts in opposition to the will of the Father, that person has chosen the devil over God. We are called the children of God because we have voluntarily lost the right to dictate the direction of our lives. Every child of God has voluntarily given the control of their lives to Jesus.
The devil wanted Jesus to do the devil’s will, but Jesus did not fall into that trap. He stuck to the will of the Father which was to allow God to strengthen His weak body without eating any food.
Jesus understood the glory or power of God. He knew that there is food for the body, which is a spiritual manna that God supplies to those who need it. The Son of God knows that there are many ways God could use to give us strength, and he also understood that no one could die from hunger when they depend on God to feed them. The word of God is our spiritual food which supplies us with the strength of God.
The word of God encourages us to fast so that we may reach some spiritual goals. The Lord promises to answer any prayer of fasting if we do it correctly. Anyone who fasts is doing the will of the Father, and the Lord will strengthen them with His power. Fasting is a spiritual act and anyone who fasts would be supplied with spiritual food that would give them strength so that they may overcome hunger that would result from not having food for a prolonged period.
“Whenever you fast, don’t be sad-faced like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so their fasting is obvious to people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward! But when you fast, put oil on your head, and wash your face, so that you don’t show your fasting to people but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:16-18).
In many cases, the children of God need spiritual answers instead of the answers they might be looking for. One might pray for a job without realising that one has been sustained by the Holy Spirit despite not working. Anyone who lives for the Lord in righteousness will never lack anything because this is the promise of the word of God.
The word of God will release all the grace that one need in order to overcome any difficult situation. The word of God has power over any situation, and any promise God has made in His word will be fulfilled. God will fulfil it in His own way, not according to our expectation.
Indeed, our Father will always sustain us in His own mysterious ways. When we trust in the power of His word, we shall all be supplied with all the grace we need in all situations.
The second temptation against Jesus focused on his possible weakness, which is the love of power and uncontrollable pride. Many people love power because pride controls their destiny, but Jesus had none of these.
“ So he took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. The Devil said to Him, ‘I will give You their splendor and all this
authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. If You, then, will worship me, all will be Yours’” (Luke 4: 5-7).
Temptation overcame many people because the devil has shown them all the things he would give them if they worship him. When he takes them to the top of the mountain, he shows them all the splendour of his power. Assuredly, when he showed them all the treasures of his kingdom, he shows them what their hearts desire. He promises to share the splendour of his kingdom with anyone who would worship Him.
The sting of temptation is given power by the promise to give people instant success or riches. According to the serpent, people do not have to wait for an answer from God as the devil has a quick solution to their problems. Temptation makes promises that are too good to be true, hence many people have fallen into the trap of the serpent.
People only realise when they start to bleed that the devil has deceived them with lies, and sadly, many of them are not able to overcome the consequences of their sinful actions. Some die from their sinful actions whilst others are permanently disfigured by sin.
Those who have been disfigured by sin may run back to God, and the Lord would take them back to His heart, but the scars of sin would be permanently visible in their bodies or lives. The Lord will forgive anyone who runs back to Him for salvation, but sadly, for some people, the scars of sin will not go away as they would be a constant reminder of their sinful actions.
On the other hand, God operates in accordance with His will. His will determines what He will do for us and how He would do it. His will is perfect all the time. Indeed, His will is perfect whether it makes us cry or not. The blessings from God do not add any pain because they come from a good Father. But the trappings of success which comes from the devil will come with shackles of bondage that will shackle many people for the rest of their lives or until they decide to run to Jesus.
“The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it”
(Proverbs 10:22).
Glory belongs to God. It is only God who could glorify us among our peers. And when He glorifies us, He would do it for Himself. All the good things that God does for us are meant to glorify His name. We are the instruments that glorify