How one interprets a given biblical passage depends largely upon what questions one brings to the text. One of the basic concepts that must be kept in mind when interpreting Scripture is the proper distinction between law and gospel. This distinction is a big topic, but to put it simply, the bible’s teachings can be divided broadly into those two categories. The law tells us what to do. The gospel tells us what has been done for us in the person and work of Christ. The law condemns. The gospel saves. There is a little more to it, but those are the nuts and bolts.
This distinction is indispensable. As Paul states in Galatians 5:4, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” In short, the law cannot save you. Nor does it function as the basis for the Christian's standing with God. Faith is God’s chosen instrument of salvation, and faith comes by the hearing of the gospel. To have faith is to trust in the person and work of Christ for eternal life.
As important as it is to properly distinguish between law and gospel, the need to do so is often overlooked, with the result that scripture passages like this one get misinterpreted. The account of Jesus’ wilderness temptation is a thoroughgoing gospel passage, but the questions one brings to a given text do matter. When one goes looking for laws, commandments, or practical tips for living a more effective Christian life in a passage meant to show us what God has accomplished on our behalf, the passage will necessarily be misconstrued, and the Christian will be robbed of precious, gospel comfort. To put it succinctly, if you ask law questions of a gospel passage, you will get a distorted answer. There is a particular, common misreading of this text which springs from just this sort of mistake. Evangelical Christians, and others, failing to distinguish law from gospel, have turned the wilderness temptation into a how-to manual on overcoming temptation. The logic goes something like this: “When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he quoted scripture back to the Devil. Therefore, we should do the same thing when we are tempted. Jesus is modeling for us how we are to fight the temptation”.
This misreading of the text is both understandable and very enticing to the flesh. Indeed, do it yourself spirituality is one of the primary deceptions to which we are drawn, both before and after the new birth, and our constant tendency to self-righteousness often makes us unable to see a gift for what it is. We are inclined to want to add our effort to whatever God has already accomplished.
To clarify I certainly do not want to discourage anyone from seeing thorough knowledge of scripture as an antidote to sinful temptations. Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” So, yes, knowing God’s word will strengthen you against the world, the flesh, and the Devil. That is true. It is also clearly a principle that Jesus takes seriously. It’s just not what this text is about. This passage, far from being about you fighting the Devil, as though you would stand a chance against him, is about Jesus fighting and defeating Satan for you. To see this more clearly, we must touch on the subject of Christ’s active obedience.
As Protestants we mean a particular thing when we speak of Jesus as our substitute. We say things like, “Jesus died for our sins”, and understand that on his cross, he underwent the wrath of his father in our place, as a vicarious sacrifice, a penal substitution. We get that and it is an indispensable reality. But we often forget that Jesus’ substitutionary work is two sided. He was not only our substitute in his death, but in his life as well. While his suffering and death, often called his "passive obedience", gets most of the attention, a full-orbed understanding of the gospel requires that we understand his active obedience also.
The doctrine of Christ’s active obedience says that before Jesus died for us, he lived for us. During his perfect life, Jesus did all of the law keeping that his unrighteous people don’t do, starting with Adam. Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 show us Christ as the new and obedient Adam, the head of redeemed humanity. The Cliff Notes version is this: Adam fell and blamed God and his bride for his own sin. Christ stood up and covered his bride’s sin with his righteousness. Christ is also the new and obedient Israel. Israel failed the test in the wilderness. Christ did not fail. Israel went after idols. Israel tested God. Israel complained about God’s provision, showing their lack of trust in him. The New Israel perfectly trusted and obeyed. That is key because Paul writes in Ephesians 2 and in Romans 11, that we have been brought into the people of God by the blood of Christ, grafted into the one olive tree. Being grafted into an unredeemed, unrighteous Israel would do us no good. As the obedient Israel, he is our corporate righteousness, and your personal righteousness. Christ is our sin bearer, but the gospel is even bigger than that. His death absolves you of sin, but you still need positive righteousness. You must be more than not guilty to stand before God. You must be righteous. His innocent death removed our guilt. His perfect life earned righteousness for us. And that is very good news.
In case you are skeptical, let me show you the idea of Jesus fulfilling the positive requirements of righteousness for us in the immediate context. In chapter 3, Jesus comes to be baptized by John, but John refuses initially, insisting that Jesus should be baptizing him, which seems obvious at first blush. Jesus' response is instructive. “Permit it to be so now, for It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”. Fulfill righteousness for whom? Jesus doesn’t need righteousness or repentance. We do. John’s baptism, was a baptism of repentance. Jesus underwent a baptism of repentance to “fulfill all righteousness”. This righteousness is for us, which is why Jeremiah 23:6 says of the Messiah, "In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." 2 Corinthians 5:21 is also directly relevant. "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
It is also important to realize that Matthew wrote his gospel to first century Jews, people steeped in the narrative of the Old Testament. This is seen for instance when Matthew portrays Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Covenant promise of the coming Davidic king. It is also seen in that Matthew doesn’t stop to explain references to Jewish customs and culture, like the other gospel writers. This means that Matthew assumed that his target audience was already familiar with those things. It is a hard and fast rule of biblical interpretation that you cannot rightly apply a text to yourself until you understand what the author wanted to communicate in his particular context. Understanding what Matthew was writing to his intended audience makes it possible to see what this gospel means for you. A First Century Jew would have seen what Matthew was saying about who Jesus is and what he was doing. Now to the text.
The first thing to notice is that Jesus had a purpose for going into the wilderness. Verse 1 says that Jesus was “led up by the Spirit...to be tempted by the Devil”. This temptation was not an accident, nor was it a sneak attack. Not only did Satan not catch the Lord by surprise, he was playing into Jesus’ hands. It was the purpose of the triune God that Jesus Christ be tempted in that place at that time. Jesus did not walk into a trap. Satan did.
That is crucial to get because it helps us see what Jesus is doing in the wilderness in the first place. In chapters 2-4, Matthew has Jesus typologically recapitulating the Exodus. Look at Matthew 2:15. It says that Jesus came out of Egypt that a prophecy might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I have called my son”. This is a direct quote of Hosea 11:1, but Hosea is actually referring back to the literal, historical Exodus. Matthew wants his readers to see him drawing a line from Israel’s exodus out of Egypt to Jesus’ exodus from Egypt. He does so by connecting the two things by use of Hosea 11:1 and his Jewish audience would not have missed it.
According to the Exodus account, the first thing Israel encountered upon leaving Egypt was the Red Sea. After crossing the sea, they went into the wilderness. Notice the direct parallels between the Exodus and chapters 2-4 of Matthew’s gospel. Israel was called out of Egypt. Christ was called out of Egypt. Israel goes through the Red Sea. Christ goes through the water of John’s baptism in Matthew 3. After going through the sea, Israel went into the wilderness for forty years. After going through John’s baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days. It is impossible to unsee it once you have seen it. Matthew has re-written the exodus with Jesus as the central character. It is at this point that what is not parallel must be noted.
Israel failed in the wilderness, while Jesus did not. This is good news for you and me. Satan tempted Jesus in chapter 4:3. “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread”. Remember, Jesus went out “to be tempted”. Here Satan unwittingly hands Jesus the means of fulfilling his purpose in the desert. Throughout the Old Testament this theme repeats itself over and over again. The very means by which Satan attempts to destroy the people of God are turned back upon him, defeating his schemes.
Israel grumbled against Yahweh in the wilderness because they had no bread. He had already promised that he would bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. What should they have done? They should have believed God’s promises. When Jesus responded to Satan, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”, he was not denying that people need food or that he was hungry. He was confessing two things. First, he confessed that God’s word was more important than his physical appetite. Second, he was confessing that he trusted his father to provide. When God said, “This is my beloved Son”, Jesus trusted him. He knew that his Father would not deny him what he had promised. The first Israel disbelieved. Christ, the second Israel, trusted.
In chapter 4:6 Satan tempted Jesus a second time. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down: for it is written, “he will give his angels charge concerning you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone”. Notice the subtle, ingenious nature of this temptation. In the first instance Satan tempted Jesus to doubt his Father’s care. In this instance he challenges Jesus to put his money where his mouth is. In fact he actually feigns to grant Jesus’ point. It’s as if he is saying, “Okay, fine, you say you trust God. Prove it. Throw yourself off the temple as an act of faith.” Notice that Satan is not lying here. He is being deceitful with the truth. He is that clever and subversive. That is one reason, incidentally, why we need Jesus to do this for us. Satan is far too intelligent for you and me. But Jesus doesn’t take the bait. Why? It seems at first blush like Satan has a point. He even quoted scripture.
Question: When you trust someone implicitly, do you find ways to test what he says, just in case? Of course not. Satan, in challenging Christ to prove that he trusts the Father, is still tempting Christ to make the Father prove himself. The Lord sees through this ploy and responds, “It is written again, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test”. Jesus knows that trying to force God’s hand is evidence that one does NOT trust him, and he knows that all attempts to force God’s hand in the past have ended in disaster.
Abraham and Sarah hatched a plan to force God’s promise of a son. The result was pain and suffering for everyone involved. After the children of Israel refused to trust God and go take the Promised Land, they tried to force the promise. They tried to take the land without God’s blessing. As a result they were routed by the Canaanites. Israel showed their lack of faith by grumbling and then tried to force God to fulfill a promise on their terms, which led to their being judged severely. Jesus knew that trusting God’s promises meant trusting them on God’s terms, and he acted accordingly.
Then in Matthew 4:8-9 Satan came with one final temptation. He showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and offered to give them to Jesus if he would simply bow down and worship him. What is going on here? Look at Exodus 32:1:
“Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
The Israelites had become impatient. “Moses delayed…” So the Israelites decided to take a shortcut to what they were waiting for and worship God, or “gods”, on their own terms. This is called idolatry. In essence Satan is presenting the same temptation to Jesus Christ. He is offering him a shortcut to what he wants and where he is going. In Luke 4, which is parallel to Matthew 4, we read that Satan told Christ that the authority of the kingdoms of the world was his to give to whomever he wished. He knew who Jesus was and why he had come. He had come to save his people and establish his kingdom rule over the earth. In Matthew 28 Jesus tells his disciples, “all authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to me”. But there were still three years, a lot of work, and a whole lot of suffering in between Jesus and his goal. Satan attempted to get Jesus to worship him as a way of getting to his destination without delay and without suffering. Who were the Israelites really worshipping when they made that golden calf?
Israel was tempted and went into idolatry. Jesus was tempted with idolatry, tempted to take a shortcut around his suffering and his Father’s perfect timing. Jesus responded like Israel should have. “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve”. Jesus passed his test perfectly. In verse 11 it says then that the devil left him and angels came and ministered to him.
What about us? How often do we betray our lack of trust in God by losing our peace and questioning God’s provision and goodness when life gets difficult? We don’t need to be forty days hungry to start doubting our Father’s gracious provision and promises. Sometimes things get really hard. We all experience things like job loss, death, sickness, loss of home, or the breakup of a family. We are called to trust his promises even in those times. And his promises are good, even, perhaps especially, in those times.
However, if we’re honest, it often takes considerably less than that and we begin, like the Israelites, to accuse God of abandoning us. Car trouble, a frustrating job, minor health problems or family discord, the wrong party wins the election, and various other issues, often relatively inconsequential in nature. In any case, we are all guilty of not trusting God's Promises when things are not going the way we think they should. The fact of the matter is, none of us trusts God as we ought to.
You know it if you take a moment’s time to reflect honestly. On your best day your faith is mixed with unbelief. But our duty to trust God is NOT a call to trust him partially. We are to trust him totally, every moment of every day, in everything, without wavering. And we don’t. That makes us unbelievers, and unbelievers go to Hell. How many idols do you still cling to, Christian? I don’t care if you’ve been a Christian for five minutes or fifty years. You have them. Martin Luther wrote a succinct definition of the first commandment in his small catechism. “‘You shall have no other gods’. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things”. That is brilliant in its simplicity. How do you know what your idols are? What do you fear, love, and trust?
When you’re weary and in need of rest, where do you turn? Leisure is a good thing in its place, but if you turn to leisure for rest before you turn to God, then you love and trust leisure more than you do God. Where do you turn when you need comfort? Do you turn to food, drugs, alcohol, entertainment, sex, or some other source of pleasure? The list could go on almost indefinitely. Where do you find rest, joy, peace, comfort, assurance, relief from anxiety, or any other number of things one might seek in this life? If there is anything in this life to which you turn, in which you hope, before or instead of your God, then you have identified an idol. If any circumstance in this life causes you to lose your peace and become discontented, angry, afraid, hopeless, etc., when you still have Christ, then you are an idolater. Idolaters go to Hell. That is terrible news for all of us.
So upon what basis do we go through life with anything but absolute dread filling our hearts? We have only one hope, but it is a sure and unfailing one. Our hope, halting and imperfect though it is, is in the finished, perfect work of Jesus Christ. We trust in him, not only because he died for us, but because he has lived for us.
So take heart, idolater! Take heart, adulterer, fornicator! Take heart, drug addict, alcoholic! Did I miss your sin? Take heart, sinner! Jesus Christ, the righteous one, has lived for you! He lived perfectly for you, earning the righteousness that you can’t! He died under the wrath of the father so that your weak, failing faith and obedience is forgiven and completed. He has lived the life you can’t, paid the price you owe, and risen in the resurrection that you are now promised. All those who trust in him have all of his righteousness imputed to them and have had all of their sin left in the grave that he walked out of on the third day. In him you are perfect. In him, by faith, you have been saved.
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