(1) And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, (2) Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. (3) And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. (4) And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. (5) And the devil taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. (6) And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me: and to whomsoever I will I give it. (7) If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. (8) And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (9) And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: (10) For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee: (11) And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. (12) And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. (13) And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
It was one part of the covenant of redemption, that the human
nature of Christ should be anointed to the arduous work, which the Son of God, when taking into union with himself that holy portion of our nature, for this vast purpose, engaged to do. Hence those scriptures: Isaiah 11:1-2; Psalms 89:19-24; Hebrews 1:8-9. with Psalms 45:6-7. And what makes this subject most blessed is, that the spirit of Jehovah not only rested upon Christ, but was in Christ. Holy men of old, and the Prophets of God, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The influence given to them was limited at certain times, and greater or less as occasion required; but God gave not the spirit by measure unto Christ. He always spake the words of God. So that in every other person, the Holy Ghost was as in a vessel, but in Christ as a fountain. In Jesus, full, overflowing. To everyone of us, saith the Apostle, is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 2 Peter 1:21; John 3:34; Ephesians 4:7
We shall do well, in our entrance upon the subject of Christ's temptations to observe, how immediately after his baptism, temptations began. And we shall do well also to observe, how everything tended to heighten those temptations with the Lord Jesus, in long and severe fasting; and in a wilderness uninhabited but with wild beasts. Reader! it is one of the most endeared views of Jesus, which the Holy Ghost hath given us, when we behold him going through the same exercises, and being assaulted with the same fiery trials his people are made acquainted with; inasmuch as these things carry with them a palpable evidence, that he knoweth all our feelings by his own. All the angels of light cannot give us that assistance, neither can they enter into our feelings, because their nature is not human. But Jesus's affections are like our own, only infinitely heightened, both from the greatness and holiness of his nature, and his own personal experience in his humanity. It was a precious love-token of our Lord, and, if I do not greatly mistake, intended to act in this way, when after his resurrection, in appearing to them, he saw and felt for their fright, and comforted their minds into this assurance, from fellow-feeling. A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. Luke 24:39. It will be well both for the Writer and Reader in all their temptations, while reading those of the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep this thought in view.
The limits I must observe in a work of this kind, will not allow me to lead the Reader through all the several particulars which might otherwise be noticed in our Lord's temptations. It will be sufficient to observe, that under three great branches are included all sorts of sin, to which the devil tempted Christ in our nature, and which John calls the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. 1 John 2:16. If the Reader will examine the several different artifices of Satan, here used by the accursed enemy to seduce Christ, he will find that all may be classed under one or other of these. But I am more concerned that both myself and Reader may have suitable apprehensions of the cause of those temptations of the Lord Jesus, when acting as our surety and representative, than to attempt exploring what human intellect, in the present unripe state of things, can never arrive at, and in a subject so deep and mysterious as the temptations of Jesus.
And we shall at once get into very precious and blessed discoveries of this most interesting subject, such as the temptations of Christ are, when, under the Holy Ghost's teaching, we behold Christ as sustaining those attacks from Satan on our account. By the fall of man, our whole nature was become the lawful captive of the devil. See Isaiah 49:24-26. Here then Jesus enters the field in our behalf, and goes into the very territories of Satan, to rescue our nature from his dominion. And when the devil had discharged the whole of his artillery, he departed for a season. We find his renewed attacks in the garden of Gethsemane, the particulars of which are related to us, Luke 22:1. to which I refer the Reader. But in this part of his temptations in the wilderness, we behold him giving out, and Christ victorious.
Let not the Reader however, even for the present, dismiss the subject, before that he hath first, under the Holy Ghost's teaching, taken with him one or two improvements arising from the same, which may the Lord make profitable.
And first, let it be remembered, it is said of Christ, that though H e were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. Hebrews 5:8. From hence we may safely conclude, that it was in our nature Christ sustained the attacks of Satan; and therefore his personal knowledge and fellow-feeling of our nature, give his redeemed an interest in that knowledge and fellow-feeling, upon every occasion of trial. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he knoweth how to succour them that are tempted. Hebrews 2:18
Secondly. To this should be added, that though Jesus is now in glory, yet is He the same Jesus still. It is not his nature that is changed, but his state. And He is now in glory, as the head of his body the Church, and consequently as an head, he knows and feels what everyone of his members feel. Every attack of Satan, on the humblest of his people, Jesus is perfectly acquainted with. And if Jesus, in the days of his flesh, offered up strong crying and tears, and was heard in that he feared, how sure, how very sure is it, that he will hear and answer all the cries of his redeemed!
And thirdly, to add no more, and what according to my view of things, becomes as sweet a thought as any, all that mercy, help, compassion, and the like, which Jesus will impart to the tempted state of his members below, will be his Jesus-love, that is, his God - man love, made everlastingly secure and full, to all the unnumbered wants of his whole tried family upon earth, by virtue of his Godhead; but at the same time no less most graciously suited, to be communicable to them by virtue of his manhood, in flowing in one and the same nature from his heart to theirs, in an endless succession of love and kindness.