From the age of twelve to the start of His ministry aged 30, we know nothing of what Jesus said. He worked as a carpenter like His father and had other brothers and sisters (learning family relationships as we all must!) His baptism was the start of His public ministry, and here, we see His identity as God’s beloved Son affirmed by God Himself (Matt 3:17). Immediately after this, He was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness to be tested, to be tempted by the devil. (Matt 4:1-11) This is a key moment: if Satan could cause Jesus to sin as he had with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the plan of salvation would have been wrecked.
We see that the years of learning and the time spent in prayer and fasting led to vistory over temptation. Temptation itself is not sin, but can easily lead us astray (see James 1:13-15).Satan questioned Jesus’s identity as the Son of God and wanted Him to use His power for His own selfish ends – turning stones into bread (to assuage His obvious hunger after fasting for 40 days and nights), using God as His divine protector for no other reason than self-satisfaction. His final temptation was to try to prise worship from Jesus. On each occasion, Jesus defeated the enemy by the word of God, quoting from Deuteronomy 6 and 8. He used the sword of the Spirit, just as we must. The devil’s lies and half-truths cannot be argued with; they must be defeated by God’s powerful words of truth.
Jesus’s victory in the wilderness set the scene for His ministry throughout His life on earth. He would do God’s work in God’s way. He would put God’s will before His own (even in the Garden of Gethsemane.) He would live out His identity as God’s son not by pleasing Himself but by pleasing God. He would reserve worship for God alone, and would not seek to find security, significance or self-worth anywhere but in God.
In this, Jesus models for us how to overcome temptation. He does not listen to half-truths, but simply leans on the word of God as His weapon. The more we absorb the word of God, the better chance we stand of overcoming temptation and resting secure in our spiritual identity.
