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February 5 Daily Devotional

Temptation

Frans Bakker

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.—Matthew 4:1

Bible Reading

Matthew 4:1–11

Devotional

The Lord Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Why was it necessary for Jesus to be in the wilderness? The answer is simple. There was no paradise on earth anymore. Thus the second Adam, Christ, had to be tempted in the wilderness because the first Adam, by his sin, had changed Paradise into a wilderness. Adam was tempted in the midst of lush trees and flowers. The second Adam was tempted in the dry sand of a desert. The first Adam, in Paradise, had food in abundance. The second Adam suffered hunger. When the devil came to the first Adam, he lacked nothing; the second Adam lacked everything in the wilderness. After forty days the Lord finally hungered. Due to extreme hunger, this temptation was more severe for the second Adam than for the first Adam.

The Lord Jesus was tempted in the wilderness because that is also the place of God’s curse. According to God’s law, someone had to be expelled to the wilderness carrying the sins of the people. To be in the wilderness meant to be outside of the communion of God. This is the curse that the first Adam incurred on himself and his posterity. Now the second Adam is under this curse. He is cast out in the wilderness.

In the Old Testament the scapegoat would be chased away into the wilderness burdened with the sins of God’s people. In our text we find Jesus in the wilderness bearing the curse of the sins of His people. Jesus is the Surety! Christ was tempted because of our sins and subsequent curse and shame. Christ bore Adam’s curse, but that is also our curse for, in Adam, we all sin. For our sins and guilt the Son of God suffered hunger. His suffering is our fault.

Christ suffered in the wilderness because we lost Paradise. His punishment is what we deserved. If we do not acknowledge that we belong in the wilderness of a lost paradise, then we can never be restored to communion with God. Only those who are outside can be placed inside. To be exalted with Christ, therefore, we have to be humbled with Him. For how can Christ ever be glorified in our lives unless He has first taken us along into His humiliation? Then we recognize ourselves as lost in the wilderness. The great Shepherd of the sheep came, even into the wilderness, to seek and to find lost sheep!

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.

 

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