The Lord’s Prayer (8) Lead us not Into Temptation (2)

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Mt 6:13)
 
Review
We’ve been talking about the Lord’s prayer. Last Sunday, we talked about the meaning of the prayer asking not to fall into temptation. 
 
While living in the world, we face all kinds of temptations. They don’t come from God because God doesn’t tempt anyone. We’re tempted when we’re dragged away by our own evil desires. What we’re tempted by is closely related to our desires because we’re moved to do things that we desire.
 
The problem is that we don’t have only good desires. When we were first created in the image of God, He put good desires in our hearts. We were created to love God and other beings in our relationship with Him.
 
But then Satan came to Eve and gave her another desire. Satan told her that she herself could be like God if she ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Then she looked at the tree and it looked different because now she had a desire that she hadn’t had before. With this desire, she was tempted to eat from the tree and she did so. That was the first sin.
 
After that, sin spread all over the world. With their sinful nature, human beings came to desire more evil things. Now, we see a lot of evil desires working in the world. But, every evil desire comes from the same sinful root, the desire to be like God. As Paul said,
 
“They did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.” (Rom 1:28-31)
 
What’s worse, the result of falling into these temptations is death. God told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate from the tree and it happened as He had said. Because of their sin, their relationship with God was severed and they could no longer have eternal life that only God had.
 
And this result came to all human beings since “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23)
 
The apostle James puts it this way:
“Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (Jms 1:15)
 
This is what happens when we give ourselves over to temptation. If we don’t resist temptations when they come to us but let them grow, we’ll end up falling into temptation and disobeying God, which will result in death.
 
So, it’s very important to know how to resist temptations when they come to us. But it’s impossible for us to overcome temptations on our own because, like I said earlier, temptations come from our desires, which we like to follow.
 
In many cases, we do certain things not because they are right but because we like to do them even though we know they are not right. So, it’s hard to resist temptation on our own. But the good news is that Jesus came to the world to set us free from our evil desires, temptations, and thus our sins and their result, death.
 
We see the perfect example of how to resist and overcome temptation in Jesus’ life. He was tempted to teach us how to deal with temptations so that we may be victorious over them and follow in His footsteps. In fact, the Bible says that that’s one of the reasons for the incarnation of Jesus Christ, which refers to the Word becoming flesh.
 
Hebrews 2 says, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity… he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Heb 2:14, 18)
 
Even though He was God in His very nature, Jesus made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a human so that He could be tempted the way we are tempted, understand us, and help us in our times of need.
 
Jesus is able to empathize with our weaknesses because He Himself experienced weakness when He was tempted in every way, just as we are. Yet, He did not sin, which means that He didn’t give Himself over to His temptations but overcame them.
 
The Temptations of Jesus Christ
Then, in what sense does the Bible say that He was tempted just as we are? First of all, it doesn’t necessarily mean that He was tempted exactly the same way as we are.
 
As James clarifies, each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desires. We’re enticed to do certain things out of our sinful desires or desires of the flesh. But Jesus didn’t have such evil desires because He was sinless and innocent, which means that Jesus couldn’t be tempted by the things that tempt us.
 
For example, sometimes, we’re tempted to hate others in our hearts or through our words and actions, but Jesus wasn’t tempted that way because He doesn’t have hatred in His heart. Only love motivated Jesus. Everything He did came out of His love for us.
 
Likewise, it seems that Jesus didn’t undergo temptations that we often undergo in our daily lives such as cheating, indulgence, pride, corrupt sexuality, and more. So, some people might say that He can’t really understand us because He didn’t undergo such temptations. That’s reasonable.
 
But, we can think about it this way. Jesus wants to identify with us to the greatest degree possible for our good. Jesus wants to be identified with us, so He came to the world in human form but He didn’t go beyond that. He didn’t want to be identified with us to the point of sharing our sinful nature. He was perfectly human, but He was different from us in that He was sinless. And that’s for our own good.
 
If Jesus identified with us to the point of sharing our sinfulness, He couldn’t serve as our eternal High Priest who offered Himself for the sin of the world. He couldn’t bear our sins in His body as the lamb of God because in the Old Testament, only animals without any blemish or defect could be used as atonement sacrifices for sins.
 
So, in order to make perfect atonement for our sins, Jesus had to be different from us. He had to have no sin at all. He couldn’t be our Savior if He shared in our sin.
 
If Christ had joined us in our sinfulness, He might have undergone the exact same temptations as we do, but He could no longer save us from our sins through death. That can’t be good news at all.
 
That’s why we can say that Jesus identified with us to the greatest degree possible. He was like us in the sense that He came to the world in human form so that He could understand us. But at the same time, He was different from us in the sense that He was sinless. And He had to be sinless to bear all our sins and pay the ransom for them on the cross.
 
Then, how can we understand the meaning of the verse, “we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are?” (Heb 4:15).
 
Again, it doesn’t mean that Jesus was tempted the exact same way we are tempted in our daily lives. But still, Jesus could understand us because He was tempted, I would say, in every area or category of our lives. That’s what we see from how Jesus was tempted in the wilderness.
 
The Bible says that after being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
 
The wilderness is a lonely and desolate place with no food or comfortable place to lie down. It’s very hot during the day and very cold at night. No one would want to live in the wilderness. But that was where Jesus stayed for 40 days.
 
And, when Jesus fasted forty days and became very hungry, Satan came to Him and tempted Him, saying,
 
“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” (Mt 4:3).
 
Of course, turning stones into bread is not sinful by itself. But, what Satan really tempted Jesus to do was to use His Messianic power given to Him to save people just to avoid suffering and meet His physical needs.
 
And, Jesus answered,
“It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Mt 4:4)
 
Jesus refused to turn stones into bread because He knew that His fasting and pain was in accordance with God’s will. Even though He could have used His power to avoid His physical pain and satisfy His hunger, He chose not to. Instead, Jesus chose to be obedient to God’s will even though it would cause Him pain and suffering.
 
By doing so, Jesus taught us a very important lesson that all God’s people must know. He taught us to rely on God’s word and His provision rather than worldly things. Jesus never denied the importance of eating food. What Jesus shows us here is that following God’s will must be the priority of our lives even when it requires us to be hungry, thirsty, or tired.
 
This principle can be applied in our lives as well. Even though we don’t have the power to turn stones into bread, we can still decide where to use our time, money, and abilities. We can use them for our own satisfaction and pleasure or for God’s righteousness and kingdom according to His will.
 
We’re often tempted to think that all the things we have are ours and forget the One who gave them to us. So we’re tempted to use them only to meet our needs, while neglecting God’s will for us to love and serve others with what we have.
 
The reason we can’t give is because we don’t trust in God’s provision. So we need to learn to live on every word that comes from the mouth of God, not on what we have. That will allow us to overcome the temptation to prioritize our own wills over God’s will and what pleases us over what pleases God.
 
After the first temptation, the devil took Jesus to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple.
 
Then, the devil challenged Jesus, saying,
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone’” (Mt 4:6).
 
What’s interesting about this second temptation is that the devil referred to Psalm chapter 91 to challenge Jesus. But the devil artfully changed the meaning of the passage.
 
The basic meaning of Psalm 91 is that God protects His faithful people in all their ways. But, Satan distorted the meaning and tempted Jesus to use the passage to prove that He is the Son of God.
 
Even though God can protect His people from all kinds of dangerous situations, we can’t use God’s word to prove who we are because it’s the same thing as testing God. Our attitude toward God’s word must be to obey it, not to test it.
 
So, Jesus answered the devil, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Mt 4:7).
 
Again, Jesus refused to use His power or authority to prove Himself. If Jesus had thrown Himself from the temple and other people had seen God miraculously rescue Jesus through His angels, Jesus would’ve received fame and great renown. 
 
But, Jesus wasn’t interested in proving Himself before others. He didn’t seek earthly glory or honor because His only interest was to follow God’s will. So, Jesus only used His power or authority when it was in accordance with God’s will.
 
The devil used God’s word for his own purpose to test Jesus, but Jesus used it for God’s purpose. In other words, the devil put himself above God’s word, but Jesus always humbled Himself under the word of God and obeyed it.
 
By doing so, Jesus lifted up God, rather than lifting up Himself. He wasn’t interested in proving Himself because He was captured by the desire to prove who God is and glorify Him through His life. That was the desire that the apostle Paul also had. He said,
 
“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Php 1:20-21)
 
That’s the desire we need to have to avoid temptations from the world. A lot of people are moved by the desire to make their names in the world, to be famous, and to have more followers. They think the number of people who follow them on social media shows what kind of people they are.
 
But we should be different as Christians. Rather than trying to prove who we are and lifting ourselves up in the world, we need to lift up God through our lives by humbling ourselves before Him and obeying His word. Then, He will lift us up. As James said,
 
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (Jms 4:10)
 
After the second temptation, Satan took Jesus to a very tall mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in all their splendor.
 
Then, Satan said to Jesus, “All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me.” (Mt 4:9).
 
Satan’s third temptation was related to wealth and fame. He promised to give Jesus all the kingdoms and their splendor if He worshiped him.
 
In this passage, we can find the key point of all of Satan’s temptations—whether we worship God and follow His will or worship Satan and follow the ways of the world. There are no other options. Our only two options are to worship God, obey Him, and walk in the light or to worship Satan and remain in sin and death.
 
If we choose the latter, we might enjoy this life and be satisfied by earthly things while we live here on earth, but they will ultimately lead us to eternal death. But, if we choose to worship God alone, we may have to sacrifice what we have on earth to follow His will, but it will lead us to eternal life.
 
And Jesus was able to easily overcome Satan’s temptation of fame, glory, and wealth in the world because He focused on eternal values in God, not on worldly things, which are temporary.
 
So, Jesus answered,
“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” (Mt 4:10)
 
Rather than worshiping Satan and enjoying the things of the world, Jesus chose to worship God alone, suffer for Him, and even lay down His life to follow God’s will because He knew how blessed it is to worship God and serve Him.
 
And, as Jesus’ disciples, we should make our decisions the way Jesus did. There are many things to enjoy in the world. There are many worldly things that give us momentary satisfaction and pleasure.
 
Those who belong to this world seek what the world offers—success, wealth, fame, power, influence, and so on. These are really tempting to us because we live in this world where those things are highly valued. But, if we run after them, we will end up losing eternal treasures in the kingdom of God.
 
So, we’ve talked about how Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness and overcame the temptations by relying on God’s word. And what I’ve found from Jesus’ temptations is that they cover every area or category of our lives.
 
Abraham Maslow, who was an American psychologist, said that human beings have five different needs or desires. They are physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. He said that when these needs are not satisfied, we’re motivated to do things to meet them.
 
We find these 5 different kinds of human needs in the temptations of Jesus. When Jesus lived in the wilderness and fasted for forty days, His physiological needs, safety needs, and belonging needs were tempted.
 
He likely wasn’t able to sleep well in the wilderness. It’s very hot during the day and cold during the night in the desert, and with dangerous animals around, it wasn’t safe for Him to sleep deeply. Jesus was alone in the wilderness, so He couldn’t have had any relationships with others during that time.
 
Nevertheless, Jesus wasn’t overcome by those strong physiological and emotional needs because He put God’s will first and trusted in Him.
 
During the second temptation, Satan told Jesus to jump from the temple in order to prove who He is, and during the third temptation, Satan told Jesus that he would give Him everything in the world if He worshiped him.
 
These two temptations are related to the fourth and fifth needs—esteem and self-actualization. As humans, it’s our natural desire to be respected by others and to prove ourselves to the world. But, Jesus refused to follow those desires and overcame the temptation to lift Himself up and prove Himself because He prioritized God’s will in His life.
 
So, we can say Jesus was tempted in every way as we are because He was physically, emotionally, and spiritually tempted in the wilderness. He knows what we need and desire as human beings because He Himself was perfectly human like us. And, because He was tempted like us, He is able to understand us and help us in our times of need.
 
Even though we can’t overcome temptation on our own, when we go to the throne of grace, where Jesus Christ sits as our eternal High Priest, we will receive mercy and find grace to help us overcome our temptations.
 
That’s what we need to remember whenever we pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Mt 6:13)
 
Let’s pray.
 
[Closing prayer]
Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching us the meaning of the Lord’s prayer and how we should pray today.
 
While living on earth we face a lot of temptations but don’t have the power to overcome them. So we put our hope in You because we believe that You are able to empathize with our weaknesses, understand us, and help us when we’re overwhelmed by our temptations.
 
Thank You for laying Yourself down and becoming like us. Thank You for being tempted so that You can understand our temptations and help us overcome them. We thank You for taking all our sins along with our weaknesses and deficiencies in Your body and giving us Your righteousness and holiness instead. And we thank You for showing us great examples of how to follow Your will in the midst of temptations.
 
Please open our eyes, minds, and hearts to Your word of truth. Let us be strengthened by it and live by it so that we can please You, lift You up, and glorify You through our lives.
 
We thank you, Lord.
In Jesus’ precious name, we pray. Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1. What are some common features you see between Jesus’ temptations and your temptations?
2. Have you experienced Jesus helping you overcome temptations? Please share your experiences if you have any.
3. Not falling into temptations is critical in Christian life, but we can’t stop temptations from coming to us. What are some practical things you can do to overcome temptations?