tween God and man had been restored.
Satan saw that he must either conquer or be conquered. The issues
of the conflict involved too much to be entrusted to his confederate
angels. He must personally conduct the warfare. All the energies of
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apostasy were rallied against the Son of God. Christ was made the
mark of every weapon of hell.
Many look on this conflict between Christ and Satan as having no
special bearing on their own life; and for them it has little interest. But
within the domain of every human heart this controversy is repeated.
Never does one leave the ranks of evil for the service of God without
encountering the assaults of Satan. The enticements which Christ
resisted were those that we find it so difficult to withstand. They were
urged upon Him in as much greater degree as His character is superior
to ours. With the terrible weight of the sins of the world upon Him,
Christ withstood the test upon appetite, upon the love of the world,
and upon that love of display which leads to presumption. These
[117] were the temptations that overcame Adam and Eve, and that so readily
overcome us.
Satan had pointed to Adam’s sin as proof that God’s law was
unjust, and could not be obeyed. In our humanity, Christ was to
redeem Adam’s failure. But when Adam was assailed by the tempter,
none of the effects of sin were upon him. He stood in the strength
of perfect manhood, possessing the full vigor of mind and body. He
was surrounded with the glories of Eden, and was in daily communion
with heavenly beings. It was not thus with Jesus when He entered
the wilderness to cope with Satan. For four thousand years the race
had been decreasing in physical strength, in mental power, and in
moral worth; and Christ took upon Him the infirmities of degenerate
humanity. Only thus could He rescue man from the lowest depths of
his degradation.
Many claim that it was impossible for Christ to be overcome by
temptation. Then He could not have been placed in Adam’s position;
He could not have gained the victory that Adam failed to gain. If
we have in any sense a more trying conflict than had Christ, then He
would not be able to succor us. But our Saviour took humanity, with
Temptation 87
all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of
yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear which He has not
endured.
With Christ, as with the holy pair in Eden, appetite was the ground
of the first great temptation. Just where the ruin began, the work of our
redemption must begin. As by the indulgence of appetite Adam fell,
so by the denial of appetite Christ must overcome. “And when He had
fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. And
when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God,
command that these stones be made bread. But He answered and said,
It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
From the time of Adam to that of Christ, self-indulgence had
increased the power of the appetites and passions, until they had almost
unlimited control. Thus men had become debased and diseased, and
of themselves it was impossible for them to overcome. In man’s
behalf, Christ conquered by enduring the severest test. For our sake
He exercised a self-control stronger than hunger or death. And in this
first victory were involved other issues that enter into all our conflicts
with the powers of darkness. [118]
When Jesus entered the wilderness, He was shut in by the Father’s
glory. Absorbed in communion with God, He was lifted above human
weakness. But the glory departed, and He was left to battle with
temptation. It was pressing upon Him every moment. His human
nature shrank from the conflict that awaited Him. For forty days
He fasted and prayed. Weak and emaciated from hunger, worn and
haggard with mental agony, “His visage was so marred more than any
man, and His form more than the sons of men.” Isaiah 52:14. Now
was Satan’s opportunity. Now he supposed that he could overcome
Christ.
There came to the Saviour, as if in answer to His prayers, one in
the guise of an angel from heaven. He claimed to have a commission
from God to declare that Christ’s fast was at an end. As God had sent
an angel to stay the hand of Abraham from offering Isaac, so, satisfied
with Christ’s willingness to enter the bloodstained path, the Father had
sent an angel to deliver Him; this was the message brought to Jesus.
The Saviour was faint from hunger, He was craving for food, when
Satan came suddenly upon Him. Pointing to the stones which strewed
88 The Desire of Ages
the desert, and which had the appearance of loaves, the tempter said,
“If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made
bread.”
Though he appears as an angel of light, these first words betray
his character. “If Thou be the Son of God.” Here is the insinuation
of distrust. Should Jesus do what Satan suggests, it would be an
acceptance of the doubt. The tempter plans to overthrow Christ by
the same means that were so successful with the human race in the
beginning. How artfully had Satan approached Eve in Eden! “Yea,
hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Genesis
3:1. Thus far the tempter’s words were truth; but in his manner of
speaking them there was a disguised contempt for the words of God.
There was a covert negative, a doubt of the divine truthfulness. Satan
sought to instill into the mind of Eve the thought that God would not
do as He had said; that the withholding of such beautiful fruit was a
contradiction of His love and compassion for man. So now the tempter
seeks to inspire Christ with his own sentiments. “If Thou be the Son
of God.” The words rankle with bitterness in his mind. In the tones
of his voice is an expression of utter incredulity. Would God treat His
own Son thus? Would He leave Him in the desert with wild beasts,
without food, without companions, without comfort? He insinuates
that God never meant His Son to be in such a state as this. “If Thou be
[119] the Son of God,” show Thy power by relieving Thyself of this pressing
hunger. Command that this stone be made bread.
The words from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), were still sounding in the ears of Satan.
But he was determined to make Christ disbelieve this testimony. The
word of God was Christ’s assurance of His divine mission. He had
come to live as a man among men, and it was the word that declared
His connection with heaven. It was Satan’s purpose to cause Him
to doubt that word. If Christ’s confidence in God could be shaken,
Satan knew that the victory in the whole controversy would be his. He
could overcome Jesus. He hoped that under the force of despondency
and extreme hunger, Christ would lose faith in His Father, and work
a miracle in His own behalf. Had He done this, the plan of salvation
would have been broken.
When Satan and the Son of God first met in conflict, Ch
