HOW JESUS DEFEATED SATAN
MATTHEW 4:1-4 NKJV
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."
4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"
Jesus had just been empowered by the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. This was to be a time of challenge for Jesus. He was fasting for forty days and nights and having to deal with Satan.
Matthew calls Satan the tempter. And he came hard at Jesus. How Jesus handled the temptation, and Satan is not just for history but an example for us to utilize today.
"If you are the Son of God..." Right off the bat, Satan was attempting to raise doubts in Jesus regarding being the Son of God. Then Satan tried to get Jesus to prove His divinity by commanding stones to become bread. Keeping in mind that Jesus had just finished a 40-day fast, not eating food, so He was hungry. This was a legitimate temptation, but Jesus had an answer.
"It is written," Jesus answered the enemy with a Scripture from the book of Deuteronomy. A very important thing to note here is what Jesus did not say to Satan. He did not say get out of here; I am the Son of God. Jesus did not fall back on His being divinely born. He did not recount how He was recently baptized and the Holy Spirit descended on Him. Nor did He remind Satan that just 40 days earlier, God had spoken from heaven, declaring that Jesus was the Son that God was pleased with.
No, Jesus resisted Satan and the temptation based on God's Word. Reading the rest of the chapter, we see Jesus use the same weapon against the devil's temptations every time. Jesus knew what God had spoken in His holy word, and it was enough for Him to act upon and win. Every time!
APPLICATION:
It is important for us to understand what Jesus did. If Jesus had relied upon His supernatural birth and sinless life to resist Satan, we would be at a huge disadvantage. We were not virgin born, and all of us have sinned. So we would be at a loss to resist Satan and his schemes. But Jesus used God's Word to resist, and He is our example.
We must remember that Jesus was the divine sinless Son of God, but He set aside His divine privilege and operated as a man empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is not just our Lord and Savior. He is our pattern for life. We can look to Him for how to live. If Jesus prayed, we need to pray. If Jesus became weary and needed rest, we need rest. If Jesus resisted temptation, we can resist temptation. And if Jesus utilized God's Word as a weapon against Satan, we can also.
The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus and described the armor of God. Much of the armor is defensive, but the one offensive weapon revealed is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17). We can use the sword of God's Word against the attacks of the enemy.
'It is written' was effective for Jesus, and God's Word has not lost any of its power. 'It is written' will work for us today!
PRAYER:
Thank You, Lord, for Your example. And thank You for Your word, Your powerful word that is still effective today against the temptations and attacks of the enemy!