Now we come to the main point of the first test. At the time of Christ’s baptism, the Father opened the heavens and declared, “This is My beloved Son” (3:17), A voice from heaven declared that a little man from Nazareth was God the Father’s beloved Son. Immediately after this declaration was made, the Holy Spirit led this man into the wilderness to be tested to see whether He would care for His physical life or for His spiritual life. Then, based upon the declaration of God the Father, the tempter came to tempt this man by saying, “If You are the Son of God, speak, that these stones may become loaves of bread” (v. 3). Satan seemed to be saying, “We heard the declaration made forty days ago by God the Father that You are the beloved Son. Now if You are truly the Son of God, do something to prove it. Simply say, ‘Stones, I want you to become loaves of bread.’ If You are the Son of God, You must prove it to Yourself and to me and to everyone in the whole universe by doing something which no one else can do.”
The newly anointed King fasted in His humanity, standing on the ground of a man. However, He was also the Son of God, as God the Father had declared at His baptism. For Him to accomplish His ministry for the kingdom of the heavens, He had to defeat God’s enemy, the Devil, Satan. This He must 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 He was the beloved Son of the Father. The subtle tempter took that declaration of God the Father as the ground to tempt Him. If He assumed His position as the Son of God before the enemy, He would have lost the standing to defeat him.
To make the stones become loaves of bread would certainly be a miracle. This 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 always a trap used by the Devil to snare man.
Verse 4 says, “But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.” The tempter tempted the new King to take His position as the Son of God. But He answered with the Word of the Scriptures, “Man,” indicating that He stood in the position of man to deal with the enemy. The demons addressed Jesus as the Son of God (8:29), but the evil spirits did not confess that Jesus came in the flesh (1 John 4:3), because by confessing Jesus as a man, they would be defeated. Although the demons confess Jesus as the Son of God, the Devil does not want people to believe that He is the Son of God, because in so doing they will be saved (John 20:31).
The word “man” spoken by the Lord Jesus to the tempter was a killing word. The Lord seemed to be saying, “Satan, don’t tempt me to assume My position as the Son of God. I am here as a man. If I were only the Son of God, I could never be here, and I could never be tempted by you. But because I am a man, I am being tempted. Satan, I know that you are not afraid of the Son of God, but you are afraid of man. The first man, the man whom God created to defeat you and to fulfill His purpose, was defeated by you. Thus, God sent Me as the second man to defeat you. Now you are tempting Me to leave My position as a man to assume My position as the Son of God. But I tell you, Satan, I am standing here as a man.”
Although the demons shouted, “Son of God,” the evil spirits do not confess that Jesus came as a man. They will admit that He is the Son of God, but they will not recognize that He is a man. The reason the evil spirits do not want anyone to believe that Christ is the Son of God is that anyone who does so will be saved. But they do not dare recognize Jesus as a man; for if they did, they would be defeated. In dealing with the demons, Jesus is the Son of man. In saving us sinners, He is the Son of God. When we believe in Him as the Son of God, we are saved. But if the demons recognize Him as the Son of man, they will be defeated. Therefore, the Lord Jesus took a strong standing as a man to defeat Satan. In this first test Satan was defeated because Jesus took the position of a man.
The newly anointed King confronted the enemy’s temptation not by His own word, but by the word of the Scriptures, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. This word indicates that the Lord Jesus took the word of God in the Scriptures as His bread and lived on it. The Greek word translated “word” in verse 4 is rhema. Rhema, the instant word, differs from logos, the constant word. In this temptation, all the words quoted from Deuteronomy by the Lord were logos, the constant word in the Scriptures. But when He quoted them, they became rhema, the instant word applied to His situation.
All Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16). Hence, the words in the Scriptures are the words that proceed out of the mouth of God.