In this wilderness conflict, the God-man is there not alone as a man but as the Son of Man, not only as an individual but as the Representative of mankind. Satan is there not only as a personal enemy of “the seed of the woman” but as the avowed foe of God and of the human race. The enmity prophesied in Eden has a concrete fulfillment; the conflict foretold, which has gone on in secret for centuries and has its manifest fulfillment on Calvary, is brought out into the open and crystallized into actual combat here in the wilderness. The devil is no longer allowed to cover his identity through impersonation but is exposed as the devil, and his purposes are openly revealed. There in the wilderness, the spoiler of the human race faces the Savior of the human race in a decisive and terrible conflict. It will be proven here for all ages to come who is vanquished and who the Victor is.

Satan had tempted Adam with the one purpose of gaining sovereignty over him and securing his worship. He had tempted God’s first man in the Garden of Eden at the one point where he could be disobedient and had met marked success. He had come forth, victor. Adam had made a personal choice against the choice of God. He had acted independently of God and, by so doing, had stepped outside of God’s will into self-will.

In the wilderness, Satan impelled by the same purpose, tempted God’s second Man by employing the same methods and working toward the same end. A careful study of the great temptation (Matthew 4:1-11) will show that Satan made three separate attacks along three distinct avenues but with one purpose: to draw the God-man in desire and in deed outside the will of God; to induce Him to make a personal choice against the choice of God; to persuade Him to act independently. The supreme effort in each attack was to dislodge the God-man from the center of God’s will and to lead Him into disloyalty to His Father.

The temptation in the wilderness was the decisive test not only for Christ but for Satan as well. If Satan could only triumph over the last Adam as he had over the first, then he would be victor for all time to come. So, he offered to Him in the wilderness all that he had gained in the garden, even the kingdoms of this world if He would only fall down and worship him. Then he would indeed have dethroned God, and the Satanic passion to be “like the Most High” would have been realized. The only hope of man’s salvation would have gone, for Christ is the last Adam.

God’s first man exercised his right to will and willed Satanward. God’s second Man was also given the same right to will and the power to will Godward. He exercised the right to will and chose to will Godward. The first Adam became the victim of sin and of Satan; the last Adam became the Victor over sin and Satan.

The question is bound to force itself upon us, “Was it as God or as man that the God-man triumphed over Satan?” Unconsciously, we may comfort ourselves in defeat by thinking that He made use of the prerogatives and powers of Deity and that His victory was gained through means beyond the reach of man. If this be true, the whole benefit to mankind of that wilderness experience is lost, and it was only a personal and not a racial victory that the God-man gained. He alone would have profited by it, but there would have been no meaning in it for you and for me. For if He had recourse to Deity and to divine power not at our disposal, then His triumph over sin and Satan does not avail for us.

This, however, was the very thing the devil was tempting Him to do and the very thing He resolutely refused to do. Satan tempted Him to use His power as the Son of God. “He declined to use the prerogatives and powers of Deity in any other way than was possible to every other man. He did not face temptation or overcome it in the realm of His Deity but in the Magnificence of His pure, strong Manhood: tested for thirty years in ordinary private life and for forty days in the loneliness of the wilderness. Jesus was in the wilderness as Man’s representative” (G. Campbell Morgan, The Crises of the Christ, p. 170)

The last Adam gained His victory precisely where the first Adam failed. Scripture reveals two constituent elements in the God-man’s triumph in the wilderness. The first is the sovereign control of the Holy Spirit over His whole being, spirit, soul, and body. The second is His implicit obedience to God’s Word.

Matthew 4:1

“Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

God, the Holy Spirit, led Him into the wilderness to gain this racial victory. The temptation in the wilderness was no accident; it was not even the devil’s doings; it was part of the plan. The temptation from without did not take Jesus unawares; He was prepared for this crisis. In His earthly life, He was begotten, ruled, led, filled, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. While still having all the attributes of Deity, yet as God’s second Man, He voluntarily submitted to a life of human limitations that He might be tempted in all points like as we are and gain the victory over temptation in the only way in which we can gain the victory. So, He voluntarily put Himself under the control of the Holy Spirit and lived His life, and did His work only in the Spirit’s power.

The temptation of the last Adam in the wilderness was an assault upon His entire personality. Satan approached Jesus through “the lust of the flesh,” “the lust of the eye,” and “the pride of life,” but He found no vulnerable spot in Him. The human spirit in Jesus was dominant over both soul and body because it, in turn, was yielded wholly to the Spirit of God. The constituent parts of Jesus’ wondrous personality were in perfect adjustment to each other because the whole life was lived in right relationship to God. Hence when Satan came, he “found nothing in Him.” It was victory gained through submission to the dominant control of the Holy Spirit. Such a victory may daily be yours and mine.

The second factor in the triumph of the God-man was His obedience to and use of God’s Word. In Eden, God’s first man was defeated because he had listened to the devil’s voice instead of God’s; he had believed the devil’s lie instead of God’s truth. In the wilderness, God’s second Man was victorious because He had listened to God’s voice instead of to Satan’s; He had believed God’s Word instead of the devil’s lie. More than that, He had used that Word as a weapon against the devil and, with it alone, repulsed the threefold attack.

Matthew 4:4

“But He answered and said, It is written.”

Matthew 4:7

“Jesus said unto him, It is written.”

Matthew 4:10

“Then said Jesus unto him, “Get thee hence, Satan! For it is written.” 

“Then the devil leaveth him” for the victory was won. It was the victory of perfect obedience to the will of God revealed in the Word of God. Such a victory may daily be yours and mine.

The victory won in the wilderness over the tempter was both perfect and permanent. For both Satan and Christ, it had been a decisive test. From that time, the devil never again approached Christ in the same way, and Christ always treated Satan and his emissaries as a Victor treats the vanquished.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Hallelujah! Christ is Victor!