Humanity has a notorious problem, even after one is saved and has accepted Christ, the battles become endless in doctrine and debate.
We have an issue in seeing the deeper things of God and we fashion our pet doctrines and ideas around these preferences.
Even some Christians have fallen into the trap with books upon more books from one author after another author. Strutting his credentials having earned a Ph.D. in philosophy or having earned a name for themselves listing their degrees in seminaries with a host of all their accomplishments in scholarship.
They are the “scholars ” after all, the respected ones in academia.
From cosmology to geology the list is long.
Men crave recognition and respect from colleagues and laymen alike.
We have a continuous battle with pride, one that you would expect that the Creator Almighty Himself would have, if anyone would have any right to have an ounce of pride, it would be Him alone since he is the creator of everything.
Except he isn’t like that, God literally stepped into our skin.
What a humbling act.
There’s not one historical act in all the universe that is more humbling than for God to lower himself to the level of stepping into our skin, and yet he did it.
In the thick of things
The fall occurred in a luscious Garden. A paradise where keeping a garden was pleasant and not toiling by the sweat of the brow.
But in a fatal decision made by Adam and Eve, all was lost in a moment.
This is where it all began and this is where it would end with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane being hauled off to face death.
It’s not some coincidence that death’s grip began in a Garden.
Jesus didn’t face-off with his enemy in a luscious Garden, as Adam had, that had been lost, what was left shouldn’t evade us. Jesus faced the enemy on our behalf in a barren wilderness for 40 days. The reality is quite grim.
Jesus being the second Adam, is literally the second Adam. The first Adam utterly failed and now Christ steps into the skin literally to face off on the same footing where the first Adam had failed. To face off with an enemy there is equal footing, placing yourself in the gap and taking another’s place.
To take the place of another, you’re back to square one, except now there is a massive problem; Adam had everything, a full belly, spending time with God walking in the cool of the day, and a beautiful lush garden.
But this place? There is no full belly to be had, with food at your disposal at your every whim while sitting comfortably in a lush garden of delights, No, Adam had lost it all and now instead of a lost paradise, Jesus gets a barren wilderness- Because that is what was left, dirt and dry barren land as far as the eye could see.
This is what we inherited, and this is where humanity has fallen and Jesus has to begin to win back the territory in the landscape that was left and face the adversary in this barrenness.
Nobility and Honor
It’s apparent with God’s high caliber of character that he is deeply ethical and has a sense of values that cannot be ignored. There seems to be ingrained this sense of fairness that shouldn’t be overlooked, although oftentimes it’s rarely mentioned.
God could take advantage, after all, God is God and he makes the rules and who tells him what to do? But we shouldn’t overlook the sense of respect he has for his creation, even if his creation becomes an enemy.
Jesus would have two battlefronts to cope with, confronting Satan head-on which includes a spiritual dimension and warfare, and winning back the territory lost in the epic struggle AND standing in the place for humanity to atone for his sin.
God doesn’t overlook the fact that Adam lost it all and his Son has to begin his journey from the bottom of the barrel dust-bowl that is barren and desolate.
A good example would be owning property such as a home and you rent it to a couple that takes great care of your property and you never have to worry about the home due to the value they place on your property, taking care of it like it was their own.
Then they move to buy a home of their own, so you rent to a new couple.
This new couple is not like your first renters, they have no regard at all for taking care of your property, totally destroying your home and gutting it, and then leaving you to deal with the mess.
When you rent again, you’ll have some major expense and hard work to get the property livable. Let’s just say you happen to know a handyman that agrees to do the work as long as he can stay awhile rent-free, this is the situation Jesus would have inherited. Land totally decimated due to Adam’s sin. He did not inherit the paradise but had to go through temptations just to reach the garden again. Jesus is like the handyman, needing to start from the bottom up.
This is an extremely honorable character to the highest degree.
The ground that was left due to failure is the ground that begins the battle between good and evil.
From Adam being on the very pinnacle of comfort in the garden of Eden to losing it all and Jesus having nothing but barren wilderness climbing one step at a time to reach the pinnacle to face the enemy for forty days in the wilderness in the terrain that was left by Adam and he did it while fasting 40 days!
Climbing the Pinnacle
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food
(lust of the flesh),
and that it was pleasant to the eyes
(lust of the eyes),
and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
(pride of life)
she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.” Genesis 3:6
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
1 John 2:16
Step One
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God“, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Matthew 4: 1-4
The very first temptation came with the added bonus of attacking the relationship with God. Man’s relationship due to the fall had a relationship consequence severing humanity.
Satan attempts to blast Jesus with words of doubt on the relationship he has with God -planting a seed of doubt into Jesus’ mind by doubting the relationship to his own Father by stating “If you are the Son of God,” this was an arrow hurled at Jesus which could have cast doubt about Jesus’ divinity, which was meant to tear at the fabric of the relationship with God.
As the first man, Adam had severed his relationship, so it would seem valid that this would be one of the aspects Christ would have to face, in a complete reversal of what happened in Adam’s disobedience, Christ stood firm in his relationship to his Father.
Remember, God, reassured Jesus before this temptation with the words “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” right after he was baptized and then lead into the wilderness to fast and face temptation.
Jesus in the same way faced the same temptation the woman faced in the garden with eating something that was held up like a carrot, which was much harder for Jesus to bear because he wasn’t in a lush garden with food at his disposal, he was fasting.
So Satan attacked in a two-pronged assault-
Attack the relationship-tempt with food.
-Lust of the flesh- Temptation in the garden/ wilderness, pertaining to the appetite.
-The Consequence
The Relationship- a consequence of failing to obey God (sin severed this)
Step Two
The devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Matthew 4
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’
Again with the attack on the relationship
Testing God is a serious offense. We are allowed to test God only in giving but to test God in something we lack like the Israelis did in Exodus 17:1-7 is serious. Israel doubted God’s reliability because they felt he was not meeting their expectations.
Pertaining to the forbidden fruit, the seed of doubt was planted that God was withholding something good from Adam & Eve and it looked pleasant to the eyes.
It is the lack of faith and this revolves around mistrust. In Jesus’ case, passing the first temptation substantiated that he had rock-solid trust in his Father. Jesus completely trusted his Fathers reliability because he knew he would meet his expectations. So Satan attempted to change the expectations Jesus had, moving it up a notch by using this idea making it seem appealing to Jesus, anyone in the area while Jesus leaped off the high area would have been astonished.
Throwing yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple would be appealing knowing angels would swoop down and protect you, it’s the first real admission that Jesus was someone very important if angels would come to his rescue. This also shows the devil knew the word of God very well quoting psalms 91. Throwing oneself from a high area entails a severe falling and hoping God comes charging in.
In a very real sense, this is the very thing God planned to do for humanity because of Adam’s ignorance. This situation has undertones for why Christ came to earth, the very reason why he was born and sent by his Father in the first place. Adam and Eve did not leap to their fall, they were coerced.
Seems this temptation was a veiled mockery, the very idea that God himself would go to such lengths for the human race who had fallen headlong into a desperate situation and now the enemy is taunting Jesus at this soon unfolding plan to rescue the human race.
The devil had secured humanity, grasping them within his clutches by luring them to hurl themselves at breakneck speed in a fall that would have severe consequences for the human race and the devil’s invitation was for Jesus to do the same.
-Lust of the eyes- Something that looks appealing
-The Consequence
*The Relationship- a consequence of failing to obey God (sin severed this)
*The Fall- a literal change in human nature.
Step Three
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Matthew 4
This is the only time in the temptations that Jesus isn’t attacked concerning his relationship with the words “If you are the Son of God” and there is a very good reason for this, which I will explain later **
It does pertain to the pride of life, but there is far more to it.
This cuts right to the heart of the consequence caused by the fall of humanity.
Rather than obtaining the desired outcome, (wisdom), man became subject to a tyrant, the enemy of God. Man is the proverbial imbecile who attains a corrupt sense of one’s personal value and status and acquires a nature that is debilitating.
The spiritual picture given to us from God’s point of view of man’s dilemma is a type of Job, who sits in the dust, scratching his boils with a broken shard from a clay pot, throwing dust upon his head. But man views himself quite differently, having a corrupt sense of one’s personal appraisal and affirmation, whose main target in life revolves around self interest.
Humanity was transferred lock stock and barrel due to the fall and he has a new master in town.
This temptation Christ faced cuts straight to the heart of man’s position he finds himself in, but it also cuts to the heart of the situation that happened in heaven. Lucifer once again tries to strong-arm God into bowing to his desires.
This temptation seems to be giving us a bit more insight into the fall of Lucifer.
Wanting Jesus to fall at his feet and worship him, was what began this whole war in heaven in the first place. He wanted God to abase himself and worship him, just like he had abased humanity.
– The pride of life – desiring to be wise in your own eyes, rather than obey.
-The Consequence- Transference from one master to another
The Real Kingdom
Jesus not only resisted the horror of being offered the Kingdoms of the world, which would have been absolutely devastating, but he also did a one-two punch, right in the devil’s gut.
Jesus lowered himself and became a servant to humanity.
The miserable, bankrupt, human-race is so much lower than the forces Jesus was dealing with in the wilderness. Jesus humbling himself, to his Father’s will, serving to the point of death is not exactly up there in the pinnacles of a glorious throne and being served.
Rather than the pomp, he traded the gold crown for thorns, the glorious robes for the bloody stripes in the attempt to rescue humanity.
When the devil wanted Jesus to bow in worship to him, Jesus became a lowly servant to man who is lower than the angels
The consequence of Adam and Eve’s disobedience caused a schism within the relationship between God and his creation, they were tempted in key areas:
The lust of the flesh, The lust of the eyes, and The boastful pride of life.
Adam and Eve’s spiritual death was quite abrupt, suddenly they were cut off from the tree of life and the garden itself. A sin nature was manifest and spiritual death swallowed them up.
Adam and Eve both sensed the broken aspects of the relationship with God.
Only God himself could reach out and repair the bridge that divided the human race.
Christ faced attacks with his relationship with God, because this is the very thing Adam had lost. Christ faced not only the same temptations as Adam and Eve but he faced a double assault the two-pronged attack with one pertaining directly to the sins committed by Adam and Eve, but also these attacks were formed in a way that mirrored the consequences below.
Seems to be perfectly reasonable since Christ is the mediator between the two parties
The Relationship
The Fall
The Transference
Jesus would soon take upon himself a plan that his Father sent him to do: which would entail repairing and undoing in a very real spiritual sense the broken aspects of the relationship with God. Christ the God/Man was the only way to bridge the deep chasm between the two secluded parties.
Jesus could mediate between the offended party (His Father) and the offender (Humanity)
Jesus would secure a way for humanity to become reborn and acquire a new nature and Jesus would be the bridge that would repair the chasm that divided God and man and make a way so humanity could enter into a New Kingdom in a very real spiritual sense by being born-again.
“IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD”
Jesus faced three temptations with accusations hurled twice
“IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD”
-Accusation ONE pertaining to the relationship Christ has within the Godhead. (facing his temptation of turning stones into bread)
-Accusation TWO pertaining to the relationship Christ has within the Godhead. (leaping off the pinnacle of the temple)
-No Accusation whatsoever (bow and worship)
Looking at this it is pretty clear to see why the devil did not lodge a third accusation at Jesus pertaining to his relationship.
It would not have made any sense for the devil to do so, since the devil knew exactly who he was dealing with and who Jesus was.
Jesus is one of the three persons in the Godhead. To blast Jesus with a third accusation would have been inconsequential and absurd because Jesus could not deny himself.
Jesus faced the accusation twice pertaining to the relationship to God, and a third time would be Jesus’ denial of himself, since Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily
Christ represented the fullness of God, and is God himself, so arrows hurled in his direction that pertained to his relationship could only be lodged twice because Jesus is one of the persons within the Godhead, his relationship to the other two in the Godhead could be used as arrows to shoot doubt, but Jesus certainly couldn’t doubt that he was one of the three.
Another telling aspect to one of the mocking accusations
“IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD” is the fact that the devil took Jesus to the very top of the pinnacle of the temple. The devil knew exactly who Jesus was.
Jesus himself is the very PINNACLE OF THE TEMPLE, and to hurl yourself from that position, seems to have cogitations of the judgment that the devil would be facing in the future when he is being hurled from heaven into the earth. So the devil’s future demise was used as a little twist, to tempt his own Creator, to do the very thing that his Creator would do eventually to him, hurl him down. But it is a very serious admission that the devil knew who this Jesus of Nazareth was, being the very pinnacle of the temple, and one of the persons in the Godhead.
Lust of the Flesh
Lust of the Eyes
The Pride of Life
-Consequence-
The Relationship
The Fall
The Transference
The consequence for these three behaviors caused The Relationship, The Fall and The Transference for Adam & Eve and the whole human race.
Jesus faced attacks in the same areas, and also attacks in their mirror forms : Lust of the Flesh, Lust of the Eyes, The Pride of Life
Also Jesus faced attacks pertaining in the relational aspect personally, but only twice due to being one of those within the Godhead.
This is an internal witness of the truth of the Bible. These stories were written thousands of years apart and there is absolutely no possible way these precise details would be made up out of a human mind. Men are intelligent, but they cannot conspire in this plot of coercion and conceive of these when they live literally thousands of years apart.
You can argue unceasingly over the authors of each book in the scriptures, you can even argue over short periods of time when these were written, but one thing is glaringly obvious -Thousands of years had transpired between the temptations in the garden story and the temptations that Christ faced.
I give men credit for brilliant work, but this is far beyond him.
These internal pieces of evidence are NOT apparent when reading the scriptures.
The casual reader will not find them and even a serious reader will have difficulty without the Holy Spirit shining the light on the scriptures.
Only a super-intellect could have authored the scriptures and there is absolutely no other possibility
Garden of Gethsemane
The change of terrain is apparent when Jesus is arrested in the
Garden of Gethsemane, that is not some abstract idea, he won the assault against the enemy attacks in the temptations, there is no longer a barren landscape set before him, this is the very landscape that he leaves when he ascends to Heaven
Since the battle had been a two-prong assault the next phase stood before him.
Luke describes psychologically what was occurring as the disciples slept in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose up from prayer and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Luke 22: 44-46
Sorrow has a lasting numbing effect and deep grief does induce sleep. When the disciples should have been agonizing with their Master in prayer, instead they were overcome and succumbed to the wave of sorrow and grief rather than arming themselves against this supreme moment of temptation that was soon to come upon them.
With the torture and humiliation that was set before him, Jesus wrestled in great sorrow alone.
Deep depression can cause a person to become totally exhausted, and so the disciples are completely and utterly spent in their sorrow, falling into a deep sleep. This is not cold indifference, these men had left their old lives behind to follow Christ for 3 years and due to their great attachment to Him, their deep sympathy with Him in his sorrows seemed more than they could bear. They probably fell asleep weeping in grief for the agony they saw before them due to Jesus being distraught.
The thought of the death of Christ would have been a blow, a complete emotional trauma with a million questions swirling without the ability to ask anything seeing The Lord in such agony.
Three times Jesus tells his disciples to wake up in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus has already won the terrain in this aspect of the war in a real spiritual sense during the temptations and he’s in the Garden facing the most difficult path that lays before him, now these that he came to win back are told to awaken Matthew 26: 36-46
It is not a coincidence that Jesus tells his disciples three times to wake up.
There were three temptations he faced
Jesus has been involved in the complete reversal of what occurred in the Garden of Eden and now it’s time to awaken to life, redemption is drawing near.
It is no happenstance that it begins and ends in a Garden when Jesus ascends into heaven and when he returns his feet will land on the Mount of Olives. Zechariah 14:4