Have you ever had to face your biggest test at exactly the moment you felt your weakest? Maybe it was an exam when you hadn't slept, or a pressure situation when you were already exhausted. How did you handle it?
At His baptism, Jesus identified with our need, was anointed with the Spirit and publicly declared the Son of God. Then, at His physically weakest point, He defeated every temptation the enemy had through the power of the Word and a sinless life. Because He won, we can walk in that same victory.
John's baptism was for repentance, so the disciples were confused. Why would Jesus, who had no sin to repent of, ask to be baptised? He had five reasons, each of them significant for us.
First, He identified with the human condition. Jesus had to be made like us in every way to become our faithful High Priest (- Heb 2:17). He stepped into our need to represent us fully.
Second, He endorsed John's ministry. John was calling Israel out of spiritual dullness and back to God. By submitting to baptism, Jesus gave authority and credibility to that call (- Matt 3:3-6).
Third, He was foreshadowing His death, burial and resurrection. Going down into the water and rising back up was a living picture of what was coming. When we are baptised in water, we are declaring that we have died with Him and been raised to walk in newness of life (- Rom 6:3-4).
Fourth, the Father confirmed His identity. After thirty years of obscurity, with no public ministry and no announcement, God spoke from heaven: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (- Matt 3:17). Jesus was presented to the world.
Fifth, He fulfilled the rites of the priesthood. In the Old Testament, priests were washed with water and then anointed with oil before they could minister (- Ex 29:4, 7). At His baptism, Jesus was washed in the water and then the Spirit descended upon Him and remained. He was not just anointed temporarily like the priests of old; the anointing was permanent. He is now our High Priest (- Heb 3:1) and we, through faith, have been brought into that same royal priesthood (- 1 Pet 2:9).
Immediately after His baptism, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where He fasted for forty days (- Matt 4:1-2). At His physically weakest point, the devil came with three attacks. These temptations have not changed. They are the same three strategies that have been used since the Garden (- 1 John 2:16): the lust of the flesh, the pride of life and the lust of the eyes.
Temptation 1: The lust of the flesh. Satan said, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread" (- Matt 4:3). He attacked Jesus' identity and targeted His hunger. When Esau was famished, he sold his entire birthright for a single meal (- Gen 25:32). Jesus refused to take the same shortcut. He answered with the Word: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (- Matt 4:4). His true food was doing the will of the Father (- John 4:32-34). The choice that Adam and Eve failed to make, Jesus made.
Temptation 2: The pride of life. Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and quoted Scripture, urging Him to throw Himself down so the angels would catch Him (- Matt 4:5-6). Notice: the devil can quote the Bible. That does not make a promise yours to claim. Faith comes by hearing God quicken a Word to your heart, not by plucking verses out of context. Jesus answered with what He had heard: "You shall not tempt the Lord your God" (- Matt 4:7). Pride goes before destruction (- Prov 16:18). Israel fell on this same test; Jesus did not.
Temptation 3: The lust of the eyes. The devil offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for His worship (- Matt 4:8-9). This was a shortcut. Jesus could have taken what He came for without the cross. He refused. He answered again with the Word: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve" (- Matt 4:10). Satan left and angels came to minister to Him (- Matt 4:11).
Here is what most people miss. After the wilderness, Luke tells us that "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee" (- Luke 4:14). He had already received the Holy Spirit at His baptism. But it was the victory over temptation through righteousness that released Him to walk in full spiritual power. Sin will always quench the Spirit's work in a life. Jesus demonstrated what happens when the flesh is brought under the Word: you walk in authority.
We have been delivered from the power of darkness (- Col 1:13). We have a High Priest who was tempted in every way we are, yet without sin (- Heb 4:15). His righteousness is now ours, and that changes everything.
Jesus faced the enemy at His weakest and won by the Word of God. That same victory belongs to me because I am in Him.
This week, when a temptation hits, I will not fight it with willpower alone. I will find what God has said about it and speak the Word out loud, just as Jesus did.