“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).

Most of us are aware that God has good purposes for the temptations and trials we face as Christians. But if we’re ever inclined to doubt God’s guidance in the midst of tribulation, note that Jesus was led by the Spirit into a time of testing. As shocking as it may sound, there were things God intended Jesus to learn that required time in the wilderness with the devil.

Interestingly, the devil’s temptation of Jesus never challenged His identity as the Messiah. Who He was had been established by the voice from heaven and the descending Spirit (John 3:16-17). What He intended to accomplish—salvation—was also left uncontested. Instead, the devil concentrated his attack on how Jesus would go about His work in the world.

The temptation of Jesus consisted of three powerfully placed invitations to do good ... but in the wrong way. The devil’s cunning was his tactic of enticing Jesus to fulfill God’s mandate without doing it God’s way.

Jesus’ three great refusals in response to the devil’s temptations highlight the essence of what it means for us to accomplish “Jesus ends” using “Jesus ways.” First, Jesus refused to define His usefulness in terms of meeting physical needs. Hunger is a legitimate passion. But in the end, a full belly does not make a transformed person. “Man shall not live by bread alone” was Jesus’ way of combating the temptation to reduce salvation to merely alleviating poverty or social injustice.

Second, Jesus refused to distort His purpose by resorting to sensationalism. Throwing Himself off the temple would certainly have garnered attention and excited the crowds. But Jesus was interested in more than entertaining the masses or being the exception to the ordinary. Our culture has excelled at creating exotic escapes and temporary ecstatic experiences, but it has failed miserably at knowing how to truly live. Jesus came to give abundant life—a way of living deeply and fully that starts in the midst of life-as-it-is and lasts forever (see John 10:10).

Third, Jesus refused to use power to impose external control. The devil offered a way for Jesus to rule the world—but without love, sacrifice, or forgiveness. In such a role, Jesus could have mandated what was “right,” but at the expense of human freedom and God’s glory. While Jesus has much to say about how the affairs of the world should be conducted, His way never bypasses the heart. He will not “de-soul” us to make us good.

For those of us who would follow in the way of Jesus, we too must refuse the temptation to do Jesus’ work in the devil’s way. The devil will test and entice us to take a shortcut: to reduce following Jesus to a means of meeting needs, generating excitement, or controlling behavior. These ways are functional and efficient, but they are also manipulative and impersonal. We must not fall prey to the devil’s way of doing God’s work.

 

Del Fehsenfeld III. Content adapted from The Way of Jesus by Eugene Peterson.