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Luke 4:1-4
After Jesus was baptized (Luke 3:21-22) He was filled with the Holy Spirit, led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, then tempted by the devil for forty days, a number significant throughout Scripture. God told Noah in Genesis 7:4b (NKJV), “…I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” Sin still yet reigned on the earth and in the physical lives of man. Jesus would now spend forty days and forty nights in His physical body being tempted by the sins of humanity that would lead to His spiritual defeat of sin for humanity for eternity.
This is the example of overcoming sin in the physical body or “in the flesh” as Jesus leads us to put and keep our spiritual focus on Him to help us overcome these same sinful temptations.
This is Jesus showing and proving His dominance over sin through His purity and deity.
Jesus was required to be tempted by the devil just as we are tempted by the devil. Jesus was required to experience in His physical body the same sins as we face so that He could be justified as our Savior in the physical part of Him that was adopted into humanity to defeat sin. To be the ultimate pure sacrifice for the sins of humanity, Jesus had to experience the temptation that the first man, Adam, felt and fell to. And in doing so, Jesus proved His physical dominance over sin in the same way in which sin entered the world, through the deceit of temptation as Adam and Eve were first tempted (Genesis 3). Jesus has been victorious where Adam was defeated (Romans 5:12-21). Jesus is worthy!
In Luke 4:2 we are informed, “being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.” The devil will not tempt us when we are feeling close to God, he will hit us when we are down. After he had tempted Jesus for forty days and nights, when Jesus was hungry from not eating during this time, when Jesus was at His weakest physical point, after the temptation would have been thought to be over, it is then that the devil will hit the hardest. I am convinced that the only way to overcome temptation is through Jesus; if you have not invited Jesus into your heart to cleanse you from sin, then the devil still lives there. Jesus is willing to cleanse your heart from all your past sin and fill the void in your life with His Holy Spirit which is the only thing that will satisfy your longing. But He will not force salvation on you; you must ask Him, because love is a gift that He freely offers. It must also be freely, sincerely received. He offers, will you accept?
Dear Lord,
Jesus defeated the physical temptation of the devil and went on to defeat the spiritual sin and death that are works of the devil. Please help us to see that the only way we can defeat the temptations that the devil will throw at us is by placing our faith in Jesus and putting our focus on Him when temptation strikes. He is the way, the truth, and the life as He said in John 14:6. Please open our eyes, hearts, minds, and souls to the gift of life You have offered us in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior that we would experience life in Him. In Jesus name I pray, amen.