IS JESUS CHRIST GOD: Jesus Christ is God’s begotten Son. That simply means that he isn’t God and that God is his father. Even Satan, who knows God very well, never called Jesus God. If Jesus is God, Satan could have known easily.
Matthew 4:1-3
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
And when the tempter came to him, he said, IF THOU BE THE SON OF GOD, command that these stones be made bread.
Throughout the temptation of Jesus by the devil, the devil referred to him as the Son of God, and nothing else (Matt. 4:3,6). If Jesus was/is God, Satan, as a Spirit could have known (although Satan doesn’t know everything, he definitely knows God. He was with God before the creation of man). If Jesus is ‘very God, very man’ as some teach today, Satan could have known and couldn’t have even tempted him. Satan tempted Jesus because he knew Jesus was a man in every way, and not God in anyway.
James 1:13
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
The above scripture says GOD CANNOT BE TEMPTED WITH EVIL. Jesus the messiah was tempted by Satan. This is clear proof that Jesus isn’t God and Satan knew this. Satan knew he was only human. This was Satan’s audacity to try to lure Jesus into sin.
Men can be tempted, not God. Satan believed that as a man, Jesus might be beguiled by humongous offers. He however failed because this particular man knew/knows God, his father.
Every honest man, after scrutinizing the temptation of Jesus in Matthew chapter 4, would see clearly that Jesus isn’t God.
Matthew 4:4
But he answered and said, It is written, MAN shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Jesus called himself a man. Many other scriptures do too. As a man, God was his God and his father.
Mathew 4:7
Jesus said unto him (Satan), It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Jesus gave Satan this reply after Satan tempted him to try God by throwing himself down from a high point. Satan quoted Psalm 91:11-12, promising Jesus help/deliverance from God if he throws himself down. Jesus then replied, “thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
Simply put, Jesus was telling Satan – “don’t even think i will put God to a test. I won’t try to because God can’t be tempted.” This aligns with James 1:13. Attempting to tempt God suggests that you believe there’s something human about God. Scripturally, God isn’t a man. He’s not flesh and blood.
Also, from Matthew 4:7, Jesus saying that he must not tempt the Lord his God (he applied the scripture to himself since he was the one being tempted) clearly indicates that God is a Lord (master) to him. It’s a clear revelation of the supremacy of God our father as the one and only God.
Let’s examine more verses from Matthew 4.
Matthew 4:8-9
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Satan can’t tell God to bow down and worship him. He can’t say that to a ‘man who’s God.’ He can’t dare to have such temerity. Even the thought of doing so ‘by mistake’ is enough to make him quiver. Satan knew he was talking to a man. Satan is a Spirit. He’s one who was once with God. He knows God too well not to recognise him, at least spiritually.
Just like in the case of Job, Satan knew the voice of God when he heard it. He never said “please identify yourself. Who’s talking to me about Job?” No. He didn’t retort in this manner because he knows when he’s communicating with God and when it’s someone else.
Satan knew Jesus was a man; God’s Son on a mission. He therefore came with temptations as a means of luring Jesus off the track. So, here was Satan asking Jesus to bow down to him in order to receive earth’s kingdoms and wealth. Jesus replied:
Matthew 4:10
Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Jesus quoted the scriptures again as usual to overcome Satan’s temptations. Here, he refused to bow down to Satan and says that God alone must be worshipped and served, another indication that his allegiance belongs to someone superior.
Finally on the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4, we must know that Satan wasn’t literally carrying Jesus to different locations (Jesus wasn’t naive to follow him around that way). The movement from one location to another with Satan was figurative (of course, Satan can’t appear to you as Satan physically to tempt you. That would make it clear it’s Satan your enemy. What then makes temptations big deals?).
Matthew 4:1-10 happened in the mind of Jesus. Satan whispered tempting words from without and the mind of Jesus heard them, weighed them and replied accordingly. Satan doesn’t appear to people physically to lure them into sin. If he does so, people will shrug off temptations easily.
Temptations are mind games. Games in the minds of men.
God cannot be tempted.
Study hard on this while you anticipate our next part.
Light shines.
© SonsHub Media | Written By Fredrick Agaga
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Agaga Fredrick Abangji is a writer, reporter, content writer, believer in Jesus Christ, and a creator of religious literature. A student of Bingham university – Nasarawa state, studying mass communication.