According to Luke 4:3, the Devil said to the Lord Jesus, “If You are the Son of God, speak to this stone that it may become bread.” Jesus replied, “It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone.” The newly anointed Man-Savior had not eaten anything for forty days (vv. 1-2). Although He stood on the ground of a man, He was also the Son of God, as God the Father had declared at His baptism (3:21-22). For the Lord Jesus to accomplish His ministry, He had to defeat God’s enemy, the Devil, Satan. This He had to do as a Man. Hence, He stood as a Man to confront the enemy of God. The Devil, knowing this, tempted Him to leave the standing of man and assume His position as the Son of God. Forty days before, God the Father declared from the heavens that Jesus was the beloved Son of the Father. The subtle tempter took that declaration as the ground to tempt the Lord Jesus. If the Lord assumed His position as the Son of God before the enemy, He would have lost the standing to defeat him.
To cause a stone to become bread would certainly have been a miracle. That was proposed by the Devil as a temptation. Many times the thought of having a miracle performed in certain situations is a temptation from the Devil. The Devil’s temptation of the first man, Adam, concerned the matter of eating (Gen. 3:1-6). Now his temptation of the second Man, Christ, also concerned the matter of eating. Eating is a trap used by the Devil to snare man.
The Devil tempted the Man-Savior to take His position as the Son of God. But the Lord Jesus answered by saying, “Man shall not live on bread alone.” This indicates that He stood in the position of man to deal with the enemy. The demons addressed Jesus as the Son of God (Matt. 8:29), but the evil spirits do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (1 John 4:3), because in confessing Jesus as a Man they admit they are defeated. Although the demons confess Jesus as the Son of God, the Devil does not want people to believe He is the Son of God, because in so believing they will be saved (John 20:31).
Luke 4:5-7 says, “And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in a moment of time. And the Devil said to Him, To You I will give all this authority and their glory, because to me it has been delivered, and to whomever I want I give it. If You therefore worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” The Devil told the Lord Jesus that the kingdoms of the inhabited earth had been delivered to him. This must have taken place in the preadamic age. The Devil’s word here indicates that when God anointed the Archangel to be the head of the preadamic age (Ezek. 28:13-14), the authority and glory of the kingdom of the earth must have been given to him. The Lord’s word in John 12:31 confirms this. After Satan rebelled against God and became God’s enemy, he was judged by God (Isa. 14:12-15), but the full execution of God’s judgment upon him will not be completed until the end of the millennium (Rev. 20:7-10). Hence, before that time he still has authority over the kingdoms of the earth. He tempted the Lord Jesus by offering this authority and its glory to Him. His evil offer was rejected by God’s Christ, but it will be accepted by the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness (2 Thes. 2:3-4), at the end of this age (Rev. 13:4) to execute his evil wiles against God.
In Luke 4:8 we have the Lord’s answer to the Devil’s temptation: “It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone you shall serve.” The Man-Savior defeated the Devil by standing on the ground of man to worship and serve God only. To worship or serve anything other than God for gain is always the Devil’s temptation to secure worship.
In Luke 4:9-11 we have the Devil’s third temptation of the Man-Savior: “And he led Him into Jerusalem and set Him on the wing of the temple, and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, To His angels He will give a charge concerning You to protect You, and, On their hands they will lift You up, lest at any time You strike Your foot against a stone.” But Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God” (v. 12).
This temptation is related to religion. The Devil tempted the Man-Savior to demonstrate from the wing of the temple that He is the Son of God. But there was no need for the Lord Jesus to do this. This was a temptation to show that as the Son of God He was able to act miraculously. The thought of doing things miraculously in religion is a temptation of the Devil.
In the Gospel of Luke the sequence of the temptations is different from that in the Gospel of Matthew. The sequence in Luke is related to the highest standard of morality. Furthermore, in Luke the temptation to worship the Devil in exchange for the kingdoms of the earth is given in more detail. This also indicates the highest standard of morality.
Suppose you were offered all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth with their authority and glory. What would you do? I do not think any of us would be able to resist this temptation. However, the Man-Savior, the One who lived in the highest standard of morality, could not be seduced or moved by anything. Only a life in the highest standard of morality, that is, a life in which the divine attributes are expressed in the human virtues, can withstand such a temptation. I mention this to point out again that Luke’s record continually emphasizes the highest standard of morality.
In 4:1-13 the Man-Savior stood against the tempter and won the victory. The tempter was defeated and left Him. Concerning this, 4:13 says, “And when the Devil had concluded every temptation, he went away from Him until an opportune time.” This indicates that the Devil would seek for another time and would come back to tempt Him again and again at any time he saw fit (Matt. 16:22-23; John 8:40; Luke 22:53; John 6:70-71). The Devil went away from the Lord Jesus, but he did not leave Him permanently. Instead, he went away until an opportune time.