We have mentioned before that God’s eternal plan is for Christ to be glorified and to be made the Head over all things. When Satan rebelled and man fell, God had to come in to deal with these two problems before He could accomplish His eternal plan. Originally God created man with the purpose of having man deal with the rebellious Satan and to displace his rule. But man was deceived and fell. Now God had to take care of two problems. What did He do? He dealt with these two problems through the Lord Jesus. Today we will consider the work of the Lord in God’s plan: how He solved the problems that stood in the way of God’s plan and how He accomplished God’s plan. The Lord’s work was carried out mainly on the cross. On the cross He dealt with sin and the sinner. He redeemed us from sin and removed us, the sinners. This is the negative side of the Lord’s work. In addition, the Lord stood in the place of Adam, that is, in the place of man and opposed, withstood, and defeated Satan by exercising His will as a man and seized the power of authority back from Satan.
Every incident in the Lord’s life was connected to God’s plan and related to the destruction of Satan. First, He was born in Bethlehem, taking on a body of blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14). This was not only for the purpose of having blood and shedding blood to forgive our sins, but also for the purpose of dealing with Satan. God wants the created man to deal with Satan. Satan could never touch the will of the man Jesus. In the second man Jesus, God gained what He could not gain in the first man Adam.
After the Lord was baptized by John in the Jordan, He rose up from the water and a voice from heaven said, “This is My Son, the Beloved” (Matt. 3:16-17). Then the Lord was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness and tempted by the devil (4:1-11). In the first temptation the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God...” (v. 3). Satan wanted Him to be the Son of God rather than a man. He wanted the Lord to leave His position as a man and take the position of the Son of God, that is, to be God. This was Satan’s deception. Satan knew that once the Lord took the position of God, He would lose His position to deal with him. But the Lord saw through Satan’s deception, and He answered saying, “Man shall not live...” (v. 4). It seems as if the Lord was saying, “I am here as a man, not as the Son of God. Although I am the Son of God, I am taking the position of a man.” The first Adam, who was a man, wanted to be God and failed. The second Adam, who is God, was willing to stand in the position of a man and prevailed. Only man can accomplish God’s eternal plan and only man can deal with Satan.
In the second temptation Satan seemed to be saying, “If You are a man after God’s heart, You should be able to jump down from the wing of the temple. God will surely protect You.” (There is no love in Satan’s temptation. Wherever there is love, there is not temptation.) Temptation comes when a person does not understand God’s will. When a person is ignorant, he will try anything. Satan tried to completely separate the Lord from God once He firmly stood in the position of a man. Yet the Lord would not tempt God. He knew that He was joined to God, and He did not doubt God. Hence, He did not take Satan’s suggestion to tempt God by jumping down from the temple. In the temptations that the Lord encountered in the wilderness, He was tempted to give up his position as a man and He was tempted to doubt whether He was one with God.
In the third temptation the devil said, “If You will fall down and worship me” (v. 9). Satan’s goal is worship. Since the Lord represented all men, all men would have failed if He had worshipped Satan. But the Lord stood on God’s side. He only worshipped God and served Him. He overcame Satan’s temptations. In the garden of Eden man’s will sided with Satan and brought in his utter failure. In the wilderness man’s will sided with God and was one with God. As a result man completely overcame.
The center of God is Christ, whereas the center of Christ is the cross. When the Lord became a man, He became a representative of all men and included all men. Because He included all men, all men suffered God’s punishment when He was crucified on the cross and shed His blood (2 Cor. 5:14). He included all men. Hence, when He died on the cross, everyone in Adam died as well.