Why does God allow temptation? That, together with the origin of evil, are great mysteries and they’re closely related. The Bible gives us no explanation as to the ultimate origin of evil but is undoubtedly connected with the devil. When we open the pages of Scripture he already existed. The prophet Ezekiel tells us that Satan is a created being, an angel of the highest rank. ‘The Sovereign Lord says: “You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty”’ (28:12). He was given a position of superiority but he became lifted up and consumed in pride. Instead of leading the worship and the adoration of God in heaven, he desired to be worshipped himself, and to be equal with God. He raised himself up against his Creator, sinning against God.
Isaiah tells of his downfall: ‘How have you fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! … You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise up my throne above the stars of God … I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit’ (14:12-15). Satan so hated God that his great ambition was to destroy God’s creation as he had no power against the Almighty. Mankind, too, was made in perfection. Genesis records that God said: ’Let us make man in our image, in our likeness’ (1:26). The first couple, Adam and Eve, was endowed with a natural and spiritual perfection. But here again there’s mystery: why did they fall? Although made in the image of God, they had in their possession the gift of freewill which held the possibility of disobedience. God had placed them in a beautiful garden. Adam was the park keeper, the estate manager. It was in that ideal setting that we learn of the:
PROTOTYPE OF TEMPTATION
It was all sheer enjoyment in the Garden of Eden. There was no evil, no cause for unhappiness at all. It was a place where God talks with man. The highpoint of the day was when God would come to meet Adam ‘in the cool of the evening’ and have fellowship with him. God had made man in order that he might have this companionship. Man would also benefit, for being made in God’s likeness, he needed communion with his Maker. It’s been said that man has a ‘God-shaped gap’ in his make-up. It was a state of perfection - a state of innocence - a state of perfect bliss.
At the centre of the Garden were two trees - the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. These were to be crucial in the relationship between God and man. The trees were God’s reserved territory, standing as a symbol of God’s supremacy over his creation. The ‘knowledge’ the Tree represented was ‘deciding for oneself what is right’ – ‘doing your own thing’ without God. It’s the morality of humanism where ‘anything is right’ if it suits you. It’s at this point that our forebears made a crucial decision whether to:
OBEY GOD’S LAW OR THE DEVIL’S TEMPTATION
This is something we have to do every day! Adam and Eve’s freedom in the Garden was limited by one prohibition. They were told quite clearly that the Trees were "out of bounds" - they weren’t to be touched. God had established a moral boundary in the divine command ‘You shall not eat.’ God has set moral boundaries for our good. And if we over-step those boundaries, the word comes to us as it came to Adam and Eve, ‘In the day that you eat of it you shall die.’ The prohibition not to eat of the Tree wasn’t a harsh restriction, but rather given for the good of our first parents.
Freedom without bounds can all too quickly become destructive. That’s why we tell children not to play with matches! True liberty is only found within bounds. If you have a goldfish in a bowl and somehow it gets ‘liberated’ from its water, it won’t survive long in its new-found freedom! Adam and Eve were told that their continued life of bliss depended on obedience to the word of God.
This was a risk that God took, as there was the awful possibility that the freedom He had given the human couple might be expressed in disobedience. Part of the freedom of the Garden of Eden is the freedom not to trust God, and when taken it becomes the doorway to the loss of freedom itself. Why God created the world with the possibility of man’s fall is a question we ultimately have to leave within the mystery of God. However, for a time all was well and yet there was menace in the air! Here we see:
THE SUBTLETY OF SATAN’S TEMPTATION
There now appears a new character in the human story - the serpent. This reptile was the agent or the tool of Satan. The serpent was Satan incarnate, the Devil. Scripture declares him to be a real personality. He is described as ‘the god of this world’ (2 Cor 4:4), ‘the prince of the power of the air’ (Eph 2:2). He’s the powerful being who lives in a world of lies and deceit, aggression and retaliation. He’s still alive and well on planet Earth.
Adam and Eve were faced with making a choice between God and the Devil. The temptation came in the form of the voice of the snake; the cover for the supernatural evil being called Satan, the devil. The voice of temptation was cunningly disguised as one who was trying to be helpful to Eve. First there was a reflection upon the goodness of God. ‘Where is your freedom when God has prohibited the fruit of a particular tree? Why should He keep you from this delicacy?’ It’s typical of Satan to focus upon the single prohibition and ignore the bountiful provision that God had made.
The devil then became even more subtle in his temptation in questioning the accuracy of what God had said: ‘Has God said this?’ Then once the seed of doubt had been sown, he added ‘and don’t you realise that God has said this to keep you bound?’ That was the seed of discontent. They had previously realised that they were dependent upon God the Creator, but now they began to dislike this and wanted to be equal with God. ‘You shall become as gods’: that was the inviting prospect laid before Eve. Isn’t that just what Satan tells the world of today? ‘Mankind has come of age! You don’t need revealed religion any more! Cast off the superstitions of the past and do as you please!’
Eve swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker. We’re told that ‘She saw … she took …’ She was no longer guided by principles and truth, but instead followed her own desires - and it was too late! It wasn’t long before Adam followed her example. Obedience had given way to rebellion and suddenly their wonderful world of perfection crumbled. There was a sense of shame. Their eyes were opened. The Devil had said ‘they should know’ and so they did – but it was grief, sorrow and shame. And what’s more, they lost their self-esteem. Their relationship was over.
When I hired a car on holiday I was given a diesel engine vehicle and was told by the car hire representative, ‘Be careful to fill up with diesel, not petrol, because if you put the wrong fuel in, it will foul up the engine and will have to cleaned out at considerable cost to you!’ It’s the same with our lives. If we disobey what God intended, ignoring the Maker’s handbook, the Bible, we get the logical result, loss of vital contact with God. Adam and Eve had enjoyed fellowship with their Creator God but now His presence in the Garden, calling out to them made them uncomfortable, even a threat. It was a defining moment in human history and was the beginning of mankind’s vulnerability to withstand Satan’s temptation until the promised coming of the Messiah, Jesus, God’s Son, in human form. It’s in His close combat with the devil we see He was:
TRIUMPHANT IN TEMPTATION
The devil wants to thwart God’s purposes whenever and wherever he can, but his main attack is on those who love God. Our Lord’s experience illustrates when, where and how it happens. Let’s look at the issues involved. We see:
THE TIMING OF THE CONFRONTATION
The Gospel writers record that this spiritual warfare took place immediately after a high point in our Lord’s public confirmation of His messianic calling. There was the voice from heaven at His baptism in the Jordan: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’ (Mark 1:12). As someone put it rather well: ‘After the approval of heaven came the assault of hell; after the dove, the devil.’ The timing is significant: He was ‘led by the Spirit’ (Matt 4:1), ‘full of the Holy Spirit’ (Luke 4:1), but now His call was to be tested. As Jesus said to His disciples, ‘No servant is greater than his master’ (John 13:16) so it’s unrealistic to think that we can escape a test of our calling.
Jesus knew that His mission was against evil and the devil had to make his challenge at the very outset. It’s very often after a spiritual high that the evil one would try to catch us out. In the cold light of the next day the tempter questions the reality of the blessing. The silent voice asks: ‘Can you be sure that it wasn’t just an illusion, that you weren’t simply being carried away in the emotion of it all?’
It’s significant that the challenge took place in the wilderness. And what’s more it was at the end of forty days of fasting, for we read that Jesus ‘ate nothing during those days, and at the end he was hungry’ (Luke 4:2). There’s no- holds barred when it comes to temptation; the devil tried to capitalize on physical weakness. It’s not only in the ‘highs’ of life that he attacks but also in its ‘lows’. We’re particularly vulnerable when we’re ill in body or spirit; in times of loss or discouragement. The wilderness in which Jesus was led to was indeed a bleak place. Mark reports that ‘he was with the wild animals’ (1:13). Winston Churchill used to complain of his ‘black dog days’ – when you’ve been let down, misrepresented or misunderstood. These dark days come to all believers in Jesus. Be prepared, for Satan takes advantage of our weak moments. Then there’s:
THE INSINUATION OF DOUBT
The devil said to Jesus, not once but twice, ‘If you are the Son of God …’ (Luke 4:3 and 6). ‘So you are the Son of God? Very well: if that’s true, then prove it.’ This was a variation of his ploy to Eve when he insinuated that God didn’t really mean what He said: ‘You will not surely die’ (Gen 3:4) and she began to listen to the slanders against God, doubting God’s word and God’s love.
Jesus must have been ravenous for some bread after His long fast. Why, we get hungry after a few hours! Satan came to Him and suggested, ‘Tell this stone to become bread’. On the face of it there was nothing wrong, but it was a devilish temptation. The stones in the desert would look exactly like round loaves. If Jesus could work the miracle, He could do the same for the multitudes in a social programme and it would be a short-cut to popularity, but that wasn’t God’s way to gain the Kingdom. Hunger and hardship aren’t evils of themselves if they teach us how God meets our deepest needs. What God provides or allows must be used in obedience to, and in dependence on God. Later on in his ministry, Jesus would make bread and perform wonders, but always for God’s glory, and not for self-gratification.
Jesus resisted the tempter. He quoted the word of God given by Moses in Israel’s wilderness experience, ‘Man does not live by bread alone’ (Deut 8:3). There’s a greater hunger than the physical which can’t be satisfied either with bread, or riches, or material comforts. He would be aware that He Himself would be the ‘bread of life’ (John 6:35) to the salvation of mankind in His broken body on the cross.
The second temptation concerned political control. The devil showed Him the kingdoms of the world: ‘I will give you all their authority and splendour … if you worship me, it will all be yours.’ What a way to win the world! Surely it’s His right to receive power over all nations, and to become King of kings. Since the world was under Satan’s control because God had allowed it, the evil one could deliver it, but there was the slight proviso that He acknowledge Satan as His Lord. A warning bell rang in Jesus’ mind. This wasn’t in accordance with God’s plan of redemption for the world.
Sin had to be atoned for. There was no way to short circuit the reconciliation of lost mankind to a holy God without the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus refused to bow the knee to the devil. Again He quoted from Deuteronomy: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only’ (6:13). This tells us that there’s no room for compromise in the Christian life. Discipleship of Jesus must be on His terms, not ours.
The third temptation was to win admiration through a spectacular stunt of throwing Himself off the temple and landing safely by being caught in time by angels. It would have been sensational but not God’s way. People would only come to God via the way of repentance and faith. Again Jesus refuted Satan by resort to Scripture: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’ (6:16), proving that Satan can only be resisted by following God’s way, as revealed in His Word.
Temptation comes to us all, whether we’re in the pew or the pulpit! It can be pride in our Christian service in whatever form it takes, even, or perhaps especially, in preaching! The well-known evangelist of few decades ago, Smith Wigglesworth descended a pulpit and heard the admiring comment ‘Great sermon’. He responded by saying, ‘Yes, I know, Satan has already told me!’
Jesus conquered the devil at the height of the enemy’s temptations. The devil produced all his reserves but our Lord defeated him utterly and absolutely. These temptations are the fundamental ones that wreck our humanity: to use our gifts selfishly for ourselves, to achieve happiness by our own plans and not God’s way, and to use God to make others admire us. Jesus’ wilderness experience was recorded so that we are:
FOREARMED AGAINST TEMPTATION
Jesus’ whole life mission would have collapsed if He had yielded to the devil’s temptations. No wonder Paul speaks of ‘the strategies and deceits of the devil’ (Eph 6:11). Satan is a terrible taskmaster. Here’s a helpful quotation which summarizes his deceit: ‘He promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honour and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure and pays with pain; he promises profit and pays with loss; he promises life and pays with death’ (Thomas Brooks). Adam and Eve failed miserably in facing the devil’s subtle temptations, but thank God He didn’t desert His creation but provided a way of redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ. But in addition to being our Saviour, He’s our great role model. We have His great example and pattern to follow in the triumph over temptation.
The great pastoral encouragement of the temptation of Jesus is that He ‘has been tempted in every way’ (Heb 4:15) like us so He understands and promises His grace to help in our times of testing circumstances. That’s one side of the coin; the other is that we have an active part to play. The apostle James urges his readers to: ‘Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you’ (4:7). And what’s more, we mustn’t put ourselves in the way of temptation. There’ll be occasions when we find ourselves in these circumstances but it’s dangerous to stay there deliberately. As someone put it: ‘Temptations are certain to ring your doorbell; but it’s your own fault if you ask them to stay for dinner!’
Jesus was tempted and wasn’t beaten. But He knows what the battle is like. We shall be tempted, and sometimes we’ll certainly be beaten. But thank God for the provision made by our Saviour on the cross, for as the apostle John assures us: ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness’(1 John 1:9).
Prayer
Father in heaven, we thank you for Jesus who successfully overcame our enemy the devil. Help us to live in His victory as we learn to use the weapon you provide, the Holy Scriptures. Give us, Lord, an ever watchful heart, which no subtle temptation may lure us from you. Give us a steadfast heart that nothing unworthy may drag us downward. Grant us, we pray O Lord, understanding to know you, diligence to seek you, wisdom to find you, and a determination to be faithful to the end of our lives.
