1. THE TEMPTER, OCCASION, AND
SCENE OF CHRIST’S TEMPTATION.
"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness,
to be tempted of the devil"-Matt. iv. x.
No chapter of our Lord’s brief yet eventful life-if we
except the narrative of His Death and Resurrection-is replete with such
marvelous interest, profound instruction, and rich comfort to the Christian
Church, as His conflict with Satan in the wilderness. Nor will this appear
surprising if we weigh the fact that Christ was a representative Person. In
no instance of His life did He act other than in His official relation. Thus
all He taught, did, and endured had a substitutionary reference to
His people, and in no instance was exclusively of a personal and private
character. That our Lord’s Temptation was an indispensable part of His
mediatorial work,-that it entered essentially into the lesson of "obedience
He was to learn by the things which He suffered,"-and, moreover, that it
constituted an absolute element of His personal fitness to "succour them
that are tempted, being in all points tempted like as we are," will not
admit of a doubt. Yet, nevertheless, all that He taught, did, and endured
was as the legal and accepted Representative of His Church, in whose place,
as its "Head over all things," He stood. Turn we now to the study of our
Lord’s Temptation, as endured, not exclusively for Himself, but as in
mystical union with His people,-"tempted in all points like as we are."
The inspired narrative is simple and concise. The Evangelist Matthew,
with inimitable simplicity, thus introduces the remarkable event: "Then
was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the
Devil."
"To be tempted of the Devil"-The language of the
inspired narrator admits of no reasonable misconception. He speaks of the
Tempter in terms perfectly intelligible. There are individuals who, in their
judicial blindness and supercilious self-conceit--influenced, perhaps, in
their opinion in many cases by the terror which guilt inevitably inspires
have found it convenient and soothing to ignore the positive existence of
Satan altogether, affirming that there is no Devil! Others, while admitting
the existence of a Prince of Evil, whose ravages they dare not deny, whose
subtlety they cannot explain, and whose malignity baffles their astutest
comprehension, yet reject the idea of personality, substituting for it the
vague, incoherent notion of a principle of evil-an impersonal influence-a
phantom of power! That our Lord was not acted upon by an abstract principle
of evil-a shadowy, impalpable foe-all the circumstances of this most
wonderful transaction clearly demonstrate. But the doctrine of the
personality, equally as the actual existence of Satan, admits of the most
rational and simple proof.
Among the angels "who kept not their first estate, and
are now reserved under chains and darkness to the judgment of the great
day," Satan, or the Devil, must be numbered; to whose pre-eminent
dignity and power-the "tall archangel" of Milton-was conceded by his
compeers the rank and supremacy of the Prince, or Leader of the countless
legions spoken of as "the Devil and his angels." It is impossible
intelligently to study the agency and power of Satan as recorded in the
Bible, and yet predicate that agency and power as a mere influence, or
abstract principle of evil! That the personification of a principle of evil,
according to a well-known figure of speech, may exist apart from any claim
to a real and personal existence, we fully concede. The Book of Job supplies
numerous instances of this personification, where
wisdom-height-famine-death, &c., are thus personified. But no obscurity
veils the sense in which the figure of speech is here employed: every
intelligent reader understands that the impassioned language is merely
designed by the writer to impart a poetic animation and effect to his
discourse. But how vastly different the style and force when Satan is the
subject both of Christ and the inspired penman! Can language like this be
predicated of a mere attribute-influence-a principle of evil: "Satan sins
from the beginning." "Ye are of your father the Devil, and the works of your
father ye do: when he speaks of a lie, he speaks of his own; for he is a
liar, and the father of it." "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be
able to stand against the wiles of the Devil." Does this language of
Christ and the Apostle sound like a figure of speech-a principle-an
influence,-or, is it of a personal existence-a being of vast intellect,
consummate subtlety, fiendish malignity, clothed with a power, exerting an
agency and ruling over an empire, second only to God Himself-of whom the
sacred writers speak, and against whose machinations the Apostle thus warns
us: "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the Devil as a roaring
lion walks about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the
faith." Accept the Unitarian hypothesis of an abstract principle of
evil, a mere influence or attribute, as all that is meant in the Bible of
the Great Tempter, and as affording a correct interpretation of these
passages we have quoted proving his personality, and we have an example of
reductio absurdum of the most felicitous description!
O Christian! forget not that in the great moral conflict
in which you are enlisted, you are opposed by no mere principle, or
influence, or phantom of evil, but by a Foe possessing a distinct personal
existence, to whom-without the slightest deification-we ascribe an
intelligence, power, and presence second only to the Divine Being Himself:
whose presence is everywhere and at the same moment; who is conversant of
your every action, and who reads your every thought, volition, and purpose,
with all the ease and accuracy of a book! "Wherefore take unto you the
whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and
having done all, to stand."
Passing from this view of the Tempter, let us consider
the Temptation itself.
The Occasion of our Lord’s Temptation was
remarkably significant,-it was on the solemn and holy administration of
His Baptism. Immediately after His submission to this sacred
rite-immediately following His "fulfillment of all righteousness,"
immediately after the heavens had opened and the Spirit had descended upon
Him-and the Father had testified to His Divine Sonship, and His
well-pleasing-immediately that He had thus, by His Baptism, inaugurated His
public ministry-lo! "He was driven into the wilderness, to be tempted of
the Devil!" How similar and impressive this feature of Christ and the
Christian's temptation! Our Lord, as the Mediator of His Church, had lessons
to learn which could only be learned in this fiery conflict-a fitness to be
attained as the sympathizing High Priest of His people, which only could be
acquired as He Himself was tempted in all points as we are. No wonder, then,
that, while His robes were yet streaming with the baptismal waters, and the
halo of the Spirit’s glory yet encircled His head, and the cadence of His
Father’s voice yet lingered upon His ear, that He should be led into the
depths of the forest-the abode of wild beasts-to battle with the "Prince of
Darkness," surrounded and backed by the confederated host of countless
demons!
Is not this often the experience of the believer? In
nothing, perhaps, is the identity of Christ and the Christian more signal.
Have not some of our sharpest temptations, and sorest trials, and heaviest
afflictions immediately succeeded a season of high, holy, spiritual
exercise? After we have discharged some pious duty-have obeyed some Divine
command-have performed some Christian service,-after a season of close
communion with God, and a gracious manifestation of the Savior to the soul:
lo! we have descended from the Mount, and are led into the wilderness to be
assailed and wounded by some deadly shaft of the Devil! Thus was it with
Paul: descending from the third heaven-glowing with its effulgence, and
filled with the rapture of the scenes he had beheld, and the music he had
heard-lo! he is led yet deeper into the wilderness, to become a shining mark
for the enemy’s flaming shaft-"the messenger of Satan to buffet him."
Be not surprised, then, if thus it is with you, O Christian! Never have we
greater need to be whole nights in our watch-tower-to be more strongly
fortified against the assaults of the Devil, than when descending from the
mount of transfiguration, or emerging from a fresh baptism ‘in the sea and
in the cloud’ of God’s love.
"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the
wilderness, to be tempted of the Devil." The relation of the Holy Spirit
to the Temptation of Christ-and thus His association with us in all our
temptations-is a most remarkable and instructive feature. In the symbol of a
dove He had just appeared in the baptismal scene of our Lord; and now, in a
not less remarkable and significant way, He appears on the field in one of
the most important events of Christ’s life. The forms of expression which
record it vary, yet all agree as to the personal and actual relation of the
Holy Spirit with the circumstance. Matthew records the more gentle influence
of the Spirit-"led by the Spirit into the wilderness." Mark expresses
it in stronger terms-"the Spirit drove Him into the
wilderness"-impelled Him, as it were, by a strong, irresistible influence.
Luke says, "Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returning from
Jordan," &c. The original text, perhaps, more literally and expressively
renders it-"Then was Jesus carried as by the Spirit." But whatever
the force which the Holy Spirit employed, enough that He was personally
connected with our Lord in His conflict with the Evil One-sustaining,
comforting, and crowning Him with victory. Descending upon Him in the emblem
of a dove at His Baptism, He now appears in the closest sympathy with His
Temptation-a twofold baptism thus imparted to our Lord,-the baptism of
water, and the baptism of the Spirit!
And thus, beloved, associated with all our temptations,
is the Holy Spirit our Shield and Comforter. Not a shaft can touch, not a
temptation befall us, but the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us as His temple, is
present to quench the dart, or, if it wounds us, to heal, comfort, and
sanctify. Thus in all the assaults of our great adversary the Devil, every
Christian has the same Holy Spirit that led Christ to the scene of His
trial, to prepare us for, to maintain us under, and to bring us through, the
fiery ordeal; never for a moment withdrawing His presence, or averting His
eye from the course of the winged arrow, or the inflamed wound of the
victim.
The place of Christ’s temptation was "the wilderness."
Our Lord was already upon the border of the wilderness of Judea: but it
was necessary that He should be led deeper into its remoteness and
solitude-a depth so profound and desolate, that one of the Evangelists
records the fact that He was "with the wild beasts," far removed from
the abode and intercourse of man. The Son of God herding, as it were, with
the brute creation-the companion of the untamed denizens of the forest!-O
Thou glorious tempted One! to what abasement did Thou not submit, that, thus
trained in the school of temptation, Thou might be one with Thy
saints in theirs!
It is in this wilderness of the world we too find the
scene of our temptation. The world itself is not the least successful agent
of temptation employed by Satan to accomplish his hellish designs. The
world is one of the greatest snares of the Christian. Its scenes-its
grandeur-its show-its refinement-its friendship-its science-its pleasure-its
wealth, its pomp-yea, its very religion, all conspire to give significance
and force to the warnings of God’s Word: "Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,
and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but
is of the world. And the world passes away." "And be not conformed to this
world; but be ye transformed." But, apart from the world itself there is
nothing in our individual history which Satan may not make the occasion and
instrument of a temptation. Our social position in the world may be one of
peculiar snare; our calling in life especially so: our sore trials, crushing
afflictions, and pressing needs all may furnish ample material for the
purpose and devices of the Enemy. Yea, there is nothing that may not be an
instrument of sore temptation-our poverty and wealth; our exalted position
and our low estate; the publicity, the privacy of our life; our loves and
hatreds, friends and foes may all become powerful engines of evil in the
hands of our great, terrible, powerful, and unslumbering Enemy. The books we
read-the literature we cultivate-the science we pursue-the recreations we
indulge;-yea, the very religions we profess, and the Christian serviced we
promote,-may, with all their apparent innocence and sanctity, but conceal
from our eye the slimy trail and the deadly venom of the serpent! Then,
"let us not be ignorant of Satan’s devices."
Settling in our individual consciousness,
scripturally and honestly, the momentous question, on whose side we are
arrayed-that of the Great Tempter, or that of the Great Tempted One;-let us,
treading in the footstep of Him who was in all points tempted like as we
are, "put on the whole
armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places; wherefore take
unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the
evil day, and having done all, to stand."