I was listening to Matthew chapter 4 this morning, and a thought occurred to me. Now, I’m sure this has been preached on by a million different preachers, but this is the first time that it’s ever struck me quite this way.
Now, we’ve all heard the account of how, when Satan tempted Jesus, the Lord responded with scripture. Usually, it’s often argued that the point of this account is to show how scripture defeated Satan, but I’m not entirely sure that’s the case.
See, Jesus is Emmanuel — literally, God With Us. He has the authority, at any time, to simply “power up” and shut Satan down. But that’s not what Jesus does here. Instead, He did exactly what he did in the incarnation — He humbled Himself, limiting His response to the exact same tools that the most basic, immature Christian has at his disposal.
There’s a lot to unpack about that. I mean, not only does it give the usual credibility to scripture as being sufficient for us, but it also highlights the kind of confidence that Jesus Himself had in it. I mean, Jesus is literally the Word of God, made flesh to dwell among us, and here He is using the word of God to defeat Satan.
So WHY didn’t He power up? WHY did He let Satan try to tempt Him, when He could’ve shut him down immediately? I think it was to demonstrate that, however powerful Satan may seem to us, he’s already defeated. Jesus DIDN’T HAVE to power up, and in responding to Satan this way — in limiting Himself to the same tools that the most baby Christian has — He demonstrates that WE don’t have to power up either. Because Satan’s defeat is already written. Literally.
That’s the power of scripture in our lives. We’re variable, corruptible. We lie to ourselves whenever it’s convenient, and we believe our own lies. But scripture never changes. What is written is ALWAYS written, and we can use it as a landmark to reveal to us when we’ve shifted, and how far.
No matter where we are in life, no matter how the waves toss us back and forth, scripture is always there to draw us back like an anchor. Jesus, who could have commanded Satan to silence, instead choose to use this weapon to defeat him, a weapon crafted to be wielded by the least of us.
Uncliche the Fundamentals 