Before examining these weapons let us consider His preparation for the battle. This will help us to gain understanding as to what we have to do so that the tempter finds us poised against his attacks, for this is half the victory.
First let us
avoid a misunderstanding of imitation that substitutes the letter for the
spirit. In order to be conformed to the
example of Jesus preparing for victory in the wilderness, we will not go into
the wilderness to flee from temptation, and in order to conform to the example
of Jesus fasting for forty days, we will not impose an annual forty-day
fast. This does not arm oneself against
temptation it just merely exposes oneself to it. We must remember a principle that an imitator
of Christ should never lose sight of; to imitate is not to copy.
Spiritual Preparation
Jesus was “filled
with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:15)
after he “had been baptized and was praying” (Luke 3:21). There is the
secret of his strength. Therefore, let
us “pray
without ceasing” (1
Thessalonians 5:17) in order to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), because to be “full
of the Spirit” is also to be full of “wisdom . . . faith … and power”
(Acts 6:3, 5, 8).
Jesus was
proclaimed by God to be “his beloved Son with whom he was well
pleased” (Luke 3:22). This designation not only marks him for Satan’s
attacks but strengthens him against them by allowing him to address himself to
God as a Father who always hears him (John
11:41-42). We, too, need “the
Spirit” to bear witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God” (Romans 8:16). This exposes us more to the enemy’s assaults,
but it also makes us better able to resist him.
“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world” (1 John 5:4).
Jesus is “led
by the Spirit” to face temptation; he doesn’t enter of his own
will. This is the source of his
confidence. Where God guides, God will
guard. Let us not seek danger. It cost Peter dearly to defy the warnings and
force his way through (John 18:15-16),
entering into the very temptation to which he was foreseen to yield. Let us do our best to be spared from
temptation, but if we cannot be spared, then let us fight in like manner as
Christ.
Aided by Physical
Preparation
Jesus fasts
before and during the temptation. This fast,
which the devil uses against Jesus, also strengthens him against the
devil. The point is that Jesus fasts
while praying and in order to pray. His fast
is explained to us by that of Moses, who on two occasions “lay prostrate before the Lord
forty days and forty nights.” He
“neither
ate bread nor drank water” (Deuteronomy
9:9, 18).
Fasting is
either abused or neglected. Jesus and
his apostle’s use show us a way to battle temptation – a way that is sometimes
necessary. “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but by prayer and fasting”
(Mark 9:29). This deprivation of food is linked to a more
general fast that consists of mastering the flesh and its instincts, and that
is always appropriate. “But I discipline my body and keep it under
control” (1 Corinthians 9:27). “Make no provision for the flesh, to gratify
its desires” (Romans 13:14, see
also Luke 21:34). Satan’s point of
attack is the flesh, so when the flesh is held in check, he has nothing to lay
hold of and loses his power.
The Sword of the
Spirit
With Jesus now prepared let us follow him as
he faces the enemy, and let us familiarize ourselves with the weapon that
assures him victory.
Yes weapon? Singular
and not plural. Jesus does not need an
arsenal of varied weapons. He has one
weapon that is sufficient for every incursion.
This weapon is known as “the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of
God” (Ephesians 6:17). Three times tempted and three times he repels
the temptation with a simple quotation from the Scripture, devoid of any
commentary or exposition. “It is
written” draws our Sword from is scabbard in retaliation. “It is written” is our resistance to
Satan’s attacks until he withdraws.
The Weapon Satan Dreads
God’s Word
is the weapon that Satan dreads most because it is a weapon before which he has
always been forced to yield. Paul calls it
“the
Sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians
6:17). Similarly, Hebrews 4:12
says, “The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword,
piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and
discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” With the Sword of the Spirit in our hand, our
cause will be that of the Holy Spirit himself, and we will prevail against our
adversary as God’s Spirit prevails against the spirit of darkness. Adam succumbed because he let his sword fall;
Jesus triumphed because nothing could pry it from his hand.
Jesus could
have gone against his enemy with a new sword brought down from heaven but he chooses
to arm himself only with our sword. His
choosing of this has been discussed in prior weeks but as way of reminder he
does so to serve as an example for us.
We learn what the sword can do in our hands by what it does in his
hands. Therefore let us, oppose every
attack of the adversary with a simple “it is written”, and we will render
all his efforts vain.
The Power of
“It is Written”
Satan seeks
to conform us to this world’s pattern (Romans
12:2). He is most clever at this
work. He slides up next to us and points
out that it is unloving to oneself to work at keeping yourself “unstained
by the world” (James 1:27). He will suggest that you are better able to
win men to the Gospel by participating in their entertainments and amusements,
thereby showing them that you do not advocate a monastic life. He will also lure us by telling us that too
much caution is unbecoming of one who is
training himself in Christian virtue, and that overcoming without risk one
triumphs without glory. Do not defend
yourself with your own reason or you will be easily persuaded, because your
natural heart is in far too much agreement with his arguments. Arm yourself with the Sword and respond by
saying; “It is written, “do not conform to this world” (Romans 12:2). This word Scripture will put everything into
place as it unmasks his malice and brings about defeat.
Satan wants
to remove from our spirit the idea that the Christian faith is the only way to
salvation. He will use images that
depict throngs of people, some of whom have been slaughter by some dictatorial
regimes, or others to whom we are much more acquainted with to fuel this
conflict. He says to us, “Do you really believe that all these people
are on their way to hell if they do not turn to Christ? Surely you are not so cold, calloused, and
conceited to accept such a doctrine.
Most people in this world do not believe in Jesus, or at the very least
they do not believe the way you do. Is
it true that your little path is the only one in the world that leads to
eternal life?” These ideas cannot be
resisted with human wisdom and if they are its listener will be left with
wavering and uncertain heart. However,
if they will but take the Sword in their hand and reply without hesitation, “it is
written I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me” (John 14:6)
then the spell is shattered, “the snare is broken, and you have escaped”
from the hand of the treacherous fowler (Psalm
124:7)
How does
Satan attack a pastor like me? He
counsels me not to appear so resolute about issues such as heresy, the narrow
road to heaven, or the wide road to hell. He contends that to placate to all
would gain the pastor his parishioner’s good graces and would thus allow him to
lead them more surely to faith and to make a more fruitful use of the gifts
that heaven has granted him. This counsel has failed many preachers as they
have endeavored to fight this temptation in their wisdom. He is ever making “evil good and good evil”
or putting “darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20). Such temptation is defeated as “it is
written, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you
received, let him be accursed” (Galatians
1:9).
May our Lord
grant us an understanding of what his Word can accomplish! May we see the terror it inspires in our adversary! If we could only follow him behind the scenes
to hear him confess to his accomplices that he is lost unless he can make this
irresistible weapon fall from our hands!
If we but understood all this we might follow in the footsteps of
Eleazar as he held on firmly even though his “hand was weary . . . he clung to
the sword” (2 Samuel 23:10).
For us to do likewise would make us invincible!
The source
of that power
When we have
the Word of God in our hands we hold the same power that Jesus had in his. Jesus use of Scripture speaks loudly and
emphatically in support of its inspiration.
Jesus who
was one with the Father (John 1:18) could
have easily drawn from his own inner resources instead prefers to borrow what
he needs from the book he finds in our hands and to find his strength where
Joshua, Samuel, and David found theirs.
Jesus
Christ, the king of heaven and earth, calls on Moses his servant to help him in
this hour! The one “who comes from heaven”
and “bears
witness to what he has seen and heard” strengthens himself against the
temptations of hell using the word of him who “speaks in an earthly way”
(John 3:31-32, see also Hebrew 12:25)
How can we
explain this astonishing mystery, this prodigious reversal unless the word of
Moses was for Jesus; “not the word of men but the Word of God”
(1 Thessalonians 2:13). How can we
explain it unless he was fully persuaded that the holy “men spoke from God as they were
carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21)!
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