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Scripture Reading: Luke 3:23-38; 4:1-13
In this message we shall consider the status and the test of the Man-Savior (3:23—4:13).
In Luke 3:23-38 we see the status of the Man-Savior. Verse 23 says, “And Jesus Himself, when beginning His ministry, was about thirty years old, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Heli.” Thirty was the full age for God’s service (Num. 4:3, 35, 39, 43, 47).
The record of John’s Gospel, the Gospel of the God-Savior, begins from God and comes to man (John 1:1, 14). That Gospel emphasizes His divinity in order to attest to His divine-human status. The genealogy of Luke’s Gospel, the Gospel of the Man-Savior, begins from man and traces back to God (vv. 23, 38). This Gospel emphasizes His humanity to affirm His human-divine status.
Christ as the wonderful center of the Bible is all-inclusive, having many aspects. The New Testament at its beginning presents four biographies to portray the four main aspects of this all-inclusive Christ. The Gospel of Matthew testifies that He is the King, the Christ of God according to the prophecies of the Old Testament, the One who brings the kingdom of the heavens to earth. The Gospel of Mark presents Him as the Slave of God, the One who labors for God faithfully. Mark’s account is most simple, for a slave does not need a detailed record. The Gospel of Luke presents a full picture of Christ as the only proper and normal man who ever lived on earth, and thus the Savior of mankind. The Gospel of John unveils Him as the Son of God, the very God Himself, to be life to God’s people. Among the four Gospels, Matthew and Luke have a record of genealogies; Mark and John do not. To testify that Jesus is the King, the Christ of God prophesied in the Old Testament, Matthew needs to show us the antecedents and status of this King, proving that He is the proper successor to the throne of David. To prove that Jesus is a proper and normal Man, Luke needs to show the generations of this Man, attesting that He is qualified to be the Savior of mankind. For the record of a slave, Mark does not need to tell us His origin. To unveil that Jesus is the very God, neither does John need to give us a human genealogy. Rather, John declares that as the Word of God He is the very God in the beginning.
In 3:23-38 the Man-Savior’s genealogy is traced backwards from Jesus to Adam. Verse 38 says, “The son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” The kingdom, of which Christ is the King, is composed of Abraham’s descendants, including both his descendants in the flesh and those in faith. For this reason, the genealogy of Christ in Matthew begins with Abraham, the father of the called race, not with Adam, the father of the created race. God’s kingdom is built not with the created race of Adam, but with the called race of Abraham, including both the real Israelites (Rom. 9:6-8) and the believers in Christ (Gal. 3:7, 9, 29). To prove that Jesus is a proper Man to be the Savior of mankind by relating His genealogy, Luke traces back to Adam, the first generation of mankind.
The phrase “son of God” used with respect to Adam in Luke 3:38 does not mean that Adam was born of God and possessed the life of God, just as “the son of Joseph” does not mean that Jesus was born of Joseph, but that it was supposed that He was the son of Joseph (v. 23). Adam was created by God (Gen. 5:1-2), and God was his origin. Based upon this, it may be said that he was the son of God, even as the heathen poets considered all mankind to be the offspring of God (Acts 17:28). They were only created by God, not regenerated of Him. This is absolutely and intrinsically different from the believers in Christ being the sons of God. They have been born, regenerated, of God and possess God’s life and nature (John 1:12-13; 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:4).
From Jesus (Luke 3:23) back to God are seventy-seven generations of the history of God’s creation, man’s fall, God’s promise, and man’s salvation: of God man was created (v. 38; Gen. 1:26-27; 2:7); in Adam man became fallen (v. 38; Gen. 3); through Abraham man received God’s promise (v. 34; Gen. 12:1-3); and in Jesus who is Christ man is saved (v. 23; 2:10-11).
We need to be impressed with the fact that the genealogy of the Lord Jesus in Matthew begins with Abraham and comes down to Christ, whereas the genealogy in Luke traces backward from Jesus to God. In Luke’s genealogy four names are especially striking: God, Adam, Abraham, and Jesus. We were created by God, we became fallen in Adam, we received God’s promise in Abraham, and we were saved in Jesus who is Christ. Therefore, we were created, we became fallen, we received the promise, and we have been saved. We can praise the Lord for God, Abraham, and Jesus. After we were created by God and became fallen in Adam, we received the promise of God’s salvation in Abraham. Then in Jesus, who is Christ, we have been saved. This is a summary of the genealogy of our Man-Savior.
Our Man-Savior did not come to save us merely in an objective way. Rather, He came to save us by joining Himself to us. In Him we have God joining Himself with man. This genealogy begins with a man and ends with God. How wonderful! Because the Lord’s genealogy begins with man and ends with God, passing through Abraham and Adam, it is truly unique.
We may say that the Lord’s genealogy and status are also ours. We were created by God, we became fallen in Adam, we received the promise in Abraham, and we have been saved in Jesus, who is Christ. The Lord was in God, in Adam, and in Abraham. We also were in God, Adam, and Abraham, and now we are in Jesus, our Man-Savior.
In 4:1-13 we have the test of the Man-Savior. Luke 4:1 says, “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by the Devil.” Matthew 4:1 tells us that the Lord Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. After being baptized in water and anointed with the Spirit of God, Jesus as a Man moved according to the leading of the Spirit. First of all, the Spirit led the anointed Man-Savior to be tempted by the Devil. This temptation was a test to prove that He was qualified to be the Man-Savior.
The Greek word translated “Devil” is diabolos, meaning accuser, slanderer (Rev. 12:9-10). The Devil, who is Satan, accuses us before God and slanders us before men.
In Matthew 6:13 the Lord Jesus taught the disciples to pray, “Do not bring us into trial.” The Lord, however, was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness in order that He might be tempted by the Devil. The Lord Jesus was strong, and He could withstand temptation. We, on the contrary, are not able to withstand temptation at all. We should not be proud, thinking that because we have the essential Spirit and the economical Spirit we are now able to withstand temptation. Such a thought indicates that we do not know ourselves.
The Lord Jesus is the only One who can stand the temptation of God’s enemy. When He was on earth, He was perfect and strong. Therefore, the Holy Spirit, who is God reaching man, led this perfect Man into temptation in order to defeat God’s enemy. Through the testing of the Man-Savior, God was able to show His enemy, Satan, the Devil, that there is a Man who can withstand temptation.
The Holy Spirit will never lead us to be tempted by the Devil, because we are not able to withstand Satan’s temptation. Even though we have been regenerated and to some extent sanctified and transformed, we nevertheless are not able to withstand the temptation of the evil one. Therefore we need to pray, “O Father, do not lead me into temptation.” No matter how strong we may feel, we actually are weak and cannot stand Satan’s temptation. The only One in this universe with the humanity that can withstand the temptation of God’s enemy is the Lord Jesus, our Man-Savior.
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.
