Please explain to me how our Lord Jesus was tempted by Satan on three occasions whilst in the desert for forty days. How and in what form was this communicated?
Well, my dear friend, if I understand your question correctly, you appear to be asking both how it is that the Son of God could be tempted (or tested); and, perhaps you are asking also about the actual form these temptations may have taken on-whether in purely mental images or whether the Lord was physically taken up to the places described in the accounts of this event. As to the latter question, I cannot really tell you more than what the Scriptures show us in Luke 4:1-13 and in Matthew 4:1-11 where the entire event is described in detail. As a side note, the account which we find in Mark 1:12-13 is a very short rendering of this event where we read only, “And immediately the spirit driveth Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto Him.” It should be noted here that the Lord Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, so this event was an act of obedience to the Father’s will, as the Lord Jesus never acted on His own, but only ever did that which was His Father’s will (John 5:30).
Now, I do believe in a literal interpretation of Scripture, so I have no doubt whatever regarding the veracity of this account details. Having said that, we have only what the Scriptures tell us about the way in which these temptations were communicated to our Lord. but in whatever form these temptations may have taken, they were very real indeed, and the devil planned them specifically to tempt the Lord Jesus in the way that humans are and always have been most susceptible- the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). The first man Adam was ruined in the devil’s temptations to disobey God’s Word as we read in Genesis 3:6. Now, the devil’s lies worked well on the first Adam, and with all the children of Adam to this latest hour, so perhaps the devil reasoned that the second Adam, the Lord Jesus, might be tripped up as well, being that He came into this world as a true man. Perhaps the devil reasoned that if he could trick the Lord into disobedience, then perhaps the whole purpose of Christ coming to save His people from their sins would be thwarted. But I believe that God allowed these temptations not to see if the Lord Jesus could sin, but rather to demonstrate that He could not sin, and this truth is so very important to believers. Praise God, the Lord Jesus was not only true man, but also true God (John 1:1-6 and 10-14; see also Matthew 1:23), and as such, He could not sin, even in the face of the devil’s clever lies. Dr. W.T.P. Wolston said that the Lord Jesus “met Satan in the wilderness and defeated him morally. Then on the cross, and in His death, He utterly destroyed his power.” Jesus, in this scene, was truly a man, but He was a perfect man, and the only man on earth who truly did only His Father’s will and who truly well pleased the Father. And it was because He was the only perfect, obedient man that He could bear our sins on the cross so that we might be saved (1 John 4:9-10). Additionally, He has become our faithful High Priest as we read in Hebrews 2:17-18: “Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.” And again, we read in Hebrews 4:15: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Thus, being perfect man, the Lord Jesus is able to understand us, and once we are saved, He can encourage and strengthen us as we go through the perils and trials of this wilderness scene.
So, in the account in Luke 4:1, 2 we read: “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days He did eat nothing: and when they were ended, He afterward hungered.” The Lord Jesus was very hungry, just as any man would be after such a long fast, so the devil tried to tempt the Lord to take matters into His own hand, perhaps reasoning that if He truly was the Son of God, He might be induced to miraculously turn a stone into bread to meet His own needs (Matthew 4:3). The very flesh of the Lord Jesus must have cried out for bread, just as yours or mine would, but He did not come into the world to minister to His own needs, but rather to those of a lost mankind. Thus, He quoted Moses in Deuteronomy 8:3, beginning with the words “it is written (Matthew 4:4)”. The Lord Jesus would look only to God to solve His hunger, by being obedient to the Father’s will, and totally dependent upon the power of God rather than on Himself as the Son of God. Thus, our Lord Jesus demonstrated His perfect obedience to His Father’s will by answering each and every challenge to disobedience using God’s Word, and thus, Satan’s nefarious plans were thwarted, .
And now, my dear friend, doesn’t this account of our Lord Jesus’ perfect responses to the wiles of the devil stand as a beautiful example for Christians today in fending off the attacks of our adversary? You’ll note in Ephesians 6:10-18 that we Christians who are in this fallen world are exposed to spiritual warfare, and the defenses to such attacks are all found in the Word of God. Because our Lord Jesus defeated Satan at Calvary’s cross on our behalf, we, through faith in His finished work, are born again; and moreover, by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the reading of God’s Word, we are able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand (Ephesians 6:13). (SF) (576.3)