Matthew 3:15–4:11

Testing characterizes the whole life of the Christian. Each is called to unremitting warfare when enlisted under the banner of the Prince of Peace. There are many adversaries, especially Satan. Paul could say, “I have fought the good fight.” We are involved in war, not by the prince of evil, but by God, a war waged in the interest of righteousness. He said, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman . . . .” It is not true that the Christian is led by the nose by Satan, but the war is in God’s purpose to establish righteousness, and we are therefore always on the winning side—“more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (2 Cor. 2:14; Rom. 8:37). We see this manifested in the life of Christ, “the representative man,” the “second man” from heaven, heading a mankind redeemed by God from the wreckage of man fallen. We are “with Him” as we hear Him say (in Heb. 2:13), “Behold I and the children God has given me.” Our attention is focussed on Christ’s defenses as He went into the wilderness to be tempted, for these defenses are the only defenses available also to us, the Holy Spirit and the Word which He inspired. Christ in temptation uses nothing not available also to us.

We notice first the timing of the temptations. They came immediately after His baptism. He was baptized with the baptism of sinners (despite John’s hesitation because it seemed inappropriate). He had to become just like us—though without sin (Heb. 4:15), “made . . . sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). “He came so close to sin, as it were, John Murray used to say, that you couldn’t ‘put a razor between Him and it.’” At the beginning ofHis public ministry He, in His baptism, was identifying Himself with all those whom He came to redeem. Now, on Him as their new representative head, the Holy Spirit comes down to seal His union with His people, and the voice of God says, “This is My beloved Son”—that sonship effects our sonship—and He is “filled with all the fulness of God!”

What a blessing it is to know the fullness of the Holy Spirit, to be sealed by the Spirit of Promise forever into union with Christ. Don’t let over-reaction to the charismatic movement lead us to undervalue the power and work of the Spirit. We need the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit in preaching, rather than academic degrees, to move the nation toward God.

Now notice what happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon Him. We are being told today that the anointing of the Spirit will free us from problems and guarantee success-your wife will become pretty, your car will run well, your bank balance will improve, your deacons will become nice and all the elders will work as they never did before. But observe where the Spirit leads the Son-and the sons of God. The Spirit led Him into the wilderness where there was nothing to eat for forty days, there to be tempted of the devil! How often have the charismatics told you that? That is what happened to the Savior. Why should we expect anything different? Listen to the Bible, instead of to charismatic claims. Notice who is the General in control, organizing the field of battle and setting up the lines of conflict. It is not Satan, but the Holy Spirit. Christ “learned obedience through the things which He suffered.” The Holy Spirit may lead to strange and difficult, and sometimes lonely places. Ministers are often lonely, and our Lord was lonely as we will never be. He was led into the wilderness-which is a “garden gone wrong.” Man went wrong, God cursed man and the world became a wilderness. The leading of the Spirit does not always produce “warm feelings”—don’t be misled by subjectivism. Where God blesses, Satan is not far away. And he works, not by “permission,” but by the “determinate counsel of God.” When Job was tested, God rejoiced in him, saying, “Behold my servant.” We are tested because Christ came to live in us by faith, and the battle is really the Lord’s. Be thankful that the Holy Spirit does not forsake us in temptation. The Lord said of His people, “No one shall pluck them out of my hand.” And He reassures us that “all things work together for good to those who love God.”

Adam in Paradise succumbed to temptation. The Second Adam in the wilderness blasted because of sin, having come to redeem God’s world, had to stand in the ultimate place of God’s curse to be cursed. Mark tells us that He was “with the wild beasts.” There are none in Paradise. Was He petting them? Rather they were there to threaten. Don’t go into a zoo unless they are tied. His surroundings were typical of our conflict. Thank God that “this world is not our home.” “We, according to His promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). We are to be assured that in tests we are going nowhere where Christ has not been before us.

Look at the devil’s thrusts, “If you are the Son of God . . . .” What audacity and stupidity, assailing what God has attested. That is the way he always assaults—“Was it real?” God said, “This is My beloved Son!” The devil said, “If you are the Son, prove it!” Hugh Martin observed that Satan was not attacking Jesus’ eternal Sonship, but His sonship in human nature. He always attacks also our sonship, seeking to get us to act in contradiction of it. No wonder we have a charismatic movement! He says, “If you are a son, show it. Let’s have a miracle.” Jesus didn’t answer, “Yes, I’m the Son of God and I don’t have to turn the stones into bread . . . .” He said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” He “trusted in God.” We must ask God to give us patience in testing. Jesus had the Spirit, also our great guarantee. We have the Lord, our High Priest, who intercedes for us in heaven and, above all, we have the Word of God. If we would study more closely the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ, we would much better understand His work in the Christian believer. Our Lord’s teaching about the Holy Spirit in John 14–16 is basic to our understanding the role the Spirit takes. And the Lord in meeting the temptations, appealed to the book of the Bible that has been the particular butt of Liberal attack, Deuteronomy. He closed the mouth of Satan with the word of God that would choke him. “Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.” We need to pray to use the “sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.”

This summarizes the last of the three lectures of Douglas MacMillan of the Free Church of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, at last May’s Banner of Truth Conference at Calvin Theological Seminary. PDJ