If you’ve grown up in church, you’re likely familiar with the episode in the Bible where Satan tempts Jesus, found in Matthew 4 and also in Luke 4.
In each account, Satan tempts Jesus three times when he’s fasting in the wilderness, and each time Jesus is tempted, he resists by quoting Scripture.
Satan tempts Jesus, and Jesus quotes Scripture.
Satan tempts Jesus a second time, and Jesus quotes Scripture.
Satan tempts Jesus a third time, and Jesus quotes Scripture once more.
And so, the takeaway of this passage seems rather clear, “Whenever you are tempted, quote Scripture! That’s how you resist temptation!” This is the message you’ve likely heard in sermons given on this text.
Now, it’s vitally important to know the Bible, and especially to have it locked and loaded when temptation comes. But—is that the main message? Is Scripture memory truly the silver bullet when temptation comes?
If that is the message, then unfortunately, we will run into some additional obstacles on the rocky road of temptation already. If we take a closer look, this passage doesn’t primarily suggest that Scripture memory is the solution to temptation—because the way Satan tempts us doesn’t lead us to believe that Scripture memory is the silver bullet against temptation. To be sure, this passage certainly isn’t suggesting less Scripture memory, but it is suggesting something more.
When Satan tempted Jesus, we discover something crucial: Scripture isn’t something that only we Christians have; it’s something Satan has as well. In fact, when Satan tempted Jesus, he did so by using Scripture. Of course, since Jesus knew Satan’s schemes and Scripture’s truths, he wasn’t deceived or compelled by Satan’s underhanded use of the Bible.
However, the daunting thought arises—maybe Jesus knows Scripture better than Satan—but what about us? Do you know more Scripture or Scripture better than Satan does? I know I don’t. The truth is, Satan knows more Scripture than you and I do—and ever will. This is because Satan has been around for centuries and has had much more time to learn it, to despise it, and to even tempt people with it.
Ultimately, if temptation can be chalked up to a shootout with Satan about knowing and firing God’s Word, we will not win. I doubt any of us will come to a point where we know more quantities of Scripture than Satan. So then, where’s the hope?
This passage gives us one big hint; and ironically, it’s found in the way that Satan tempts us. The question we should be asking is, “What’s Satan’s silver bullet against us?”
Grammar Nazi
Let’s take a closer look at how Satan tempted Jesus, because it’ll be a window into seeing how Satan tempts us as well.
The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” (v. 3)
“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” (v. 6)
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” (v. 9)
There’s a pattern in each of Satan’s temptations. Do you see it? Before Satan tempts Jesus to do something sinful, he first casts doubt upon who Jesus is.
In the first two temptations (v. 3, 6), Satan begins by first questioning Jesus’ identity, “If you are the Son of God...” And in the third temptation (v. 9)—while it doesn’t include the exact “If you are the Son of God” phraseology—Satan’s message is essentially the same, ‘If you are the Son of God, shouldn’t all the kingdoms of the world belong to you anyways?’
In these temptations, we can see very clearly how the enemy tempts us. Every temptation starts the same way: Satan puts question marks where God has put periods.
Satan is a grammar Nazi in the truest sense.
In our culture, one is called a ‘Grammar Nazi’ for being overly sensitive about using correct punctuation, no matter the situation. Such as, using a comma in a text message or using a semi-colon correctly in an email. To most people, such punctuation doesn’t matter in those contexts; but to ‘Grammar Nazis,’ it’s a prime pet peeve. Satan, however, is a ‘Grammar Nazi’ in the sense that he will nitpick God’s correct punctuation and subtly replace it with incorrect punctuation—making you read an entire sentence with a different tone or through a different lens. Satan will put question marks where God has put periods; he’ll put periods where God has put commas; and he’ll put commas where God has put exclamation marks.
Even to the very Son of God, Satan began his temptations with the same approach of doubt, “If you are the Son of God…” What do you mean, Satan? ‘If’ Jesus is the Son of God? Really? No, Jesus is and he knows that, too. But Satan will deploy the same deceptive strategy against us.
Are you really God’s child? Does God really have your back? Is God really for you? Can you really trust God with this area of your life? Is God really who he says he is? And are you really who God says you are?
In fact, Satan’s very first temptation was no different with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Let’s take a quick look at Genesis 3:1-3 as well:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’? 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Where was the power in the serpent’s temptation? Did it have anything to do with the fruit? No, of course not. The lure of the temptation was found in what Satan said the fruit represented—that their relationship with God and identity in God was missing something. That God was holding out on them and couldn’t be trusted. It was a lie that they weren’t really God’s children, just God’s creations; that they weren’t really God’s family whom he dearly loved, just God’s workforce whom he holds no real investment.
Can you really trust God with this? Is he really a good father? Are you really his child? Does he really have your best interest at heart?
Adam and Eve were fully accepted and loved by God. That was their greatest strength. So if Satan could get them to ingest a lie about their identity first, then surely they would bite into the lie about their freedom.
Satan’s Silver Bullet
And what was true at the beginning of human history is also true for us today in the twenty-first century. Temptation is not merely a subtle lure towards lust, greed, or pride. It’s a fundamental temptation to doubt and disbelieve your identity—who God says you are in him and who he is for you. If Satan can get you to doubt your identity in Christ first, then a temptation to lust, greed, or pride is a much easier feat.
Satan knows the Bible. And since he knows that Scripture speaks a new, powerful identity over us, he will try to question and distort that basic, powerful truth more than anything—just like he did to Jesus.
This is Satan’s silver bullet against us. Satan attacks who you are before tempting you with what to do.
But this tactic only proves what our greatest strength is in the face of temptation… our identity in Christ.
Our silver bullet.
Our Silver Bullet
See, there is one thing that we believers possess that Satan doesn’t have. Satan has the Bible, just like us. But what Satan doesn’t have is the message of the Bible—the love of God declared over us in the gospel and a new identity that unites us to God himself.
This means our strongest weapon in temptation is not merely memorizing Scripture—as important as that is—but dwelling in our identity in Christ, which Scripture makes clear to our minds and reinforces in our hearts.
Scripture emphasizes something more than just itself. The emphasis of Scripture is not primarily ‘Scripture’ for the Christian. If so, then the end game of Christianity would be making us into scribes. Rather, the emphasis of Scripture is being redeemed by the Father, united to the Son, and filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the end game of Christianity—making us his children.
This end game of Scripture primarily concerns your identity in Christ, not your capacity of Scripture memory.
Because Satan knows Scripture, he knows that, too. And it’s precisely why he begins every temptation with an attack to disbelieve that identity. It was exactly how Satan tempted Adam and Eve in the beginning; it was exactly how Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness; and it’s no different with how he tempts us in our lives today.
The Power To Overcome
When we are tempted, then, how can we overcome? Is it found in reciting Bible verses from memory? Memorizing Scripture certainly is not incorrect, but it is incomplete. The power to overcome temptation is not found in Matthew 4 during the temptation, but at the end of Matthew 3, right before the temptation. Let’s look at the verses immediately before Jesus goes into the wilderness:
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:16-17).
So, is Scripture memory the silver bullet when temptation hits? Is that all you need? Here’s the better question: When temptation comes, is Scripture memory all Jesus had?
No, it’s not.
As this passage makes clear, you need much more than Scripture memory. You need a declaration of love, acceptance, and approval given by God the Father. Without that identity, Scripture memory will end up meaning as much to you as it does to Satan.
Before God sent Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted, he first equipped Jesus with the power to overcome the temptation: a fatherly, victorious declaration of love and acceptance.
And so, Jesus found power to overcome temptation not by mustering up ‘spiritual strength’ within him, but by resting in God’s word declared over him.
After fasting for 40 days in a wilderness, Jesus simply couldn’t rely on mustering up enough strength from within to fight temptation. In the wilderness, he was likely at his physically weakest point. The fact that Jesus had been fasting in a wilderness for 40 days should make the message abundantly clear—the power to fight temptation does not come from strength within; it comes from a Word above.
The Son of Man’s power did not come from his strength, which could often be weak and conditional and changing. It came from the Word of the Father, which is eternally strong, unconditionally true, and immutably unchanging. Jesus didn’t defeat temptation necessarily because his Scripture memory was better than Satan’s (even though it was). It was ultimately because he rested in his Father’s gospel declared over his life. Even though Jesus responded with memorized Scripture in the heat of temptation, what did those passages ultimate point to? His identity as a Son, and his trust in the Father.
And so it is with us as well: The power to overcome temptation does not start by mustering up spiritual strength within us. It comes from dwelling deeply in the identity that God has announced over us. If you are a Christian, you are united to Christ by faith, and God’s declaration over Jesus also becomes his declaration over you: “This is my child, whom I love; with whom I am well pleased!” This is your source of power.
So many of us strive to overcome temptation by trying to be good Christian and by behaving. But the power to overcoming temptation is by believing. We often depend on our strength to resist temptation, but the real power is to believe God’s word about our identity—who he says we are as his children, and who he says he is as our Father.
And perhaps most importantly, God’s declaration of acceptance to you comes before your performance, not after it. This happens before temptation comes, after temptation comes, and whether you have sinned or not. This is the good news of the gospel—your identity in him, not your activity for him. It’s this kindness that fundamentally empowers you to resist temptation all along. As Romans 2:4 says, “For it is God’s kindness that leads you to repentance,” i.e., turning away from sin.
Our silver bullet is God’s heart for us and our identity in him. And Satan’s silver bullet is simply to keep us from our silver bullet.
A Power For All
Christian, do you feel weak against temptation?
Are you a new believer and don’t know much of the Bible?
Are you an old believer who’s just never memorized Scripture before?
If our victory over temptation is a function of our memory of Scripture, then we might feel hopeless… or at least behind the 8 ball. Memorizing Scripture would seem like a mountain to climb before you could ever fight temptation well. It’d be spiritually debilitating. In fact, you’d be pulled by the undercurrent before the wave of temptation even hit.
But there’s good news.
As Jesus shows us, the ability to fight temptations and to resist the enemy doesn’t come from the many mountains we’ve climbed up in learning Scripture. It comes from the many miles that God has climbed down from heaven in the person and work of Jesus and giving us a new identity in him—which isn’t dependent upon how much or how little Scripture we had memorized.
See, if our ability to resist the enemy ultimately comes from how much Scripture we know, then it would lead us to pride or despair. And how much Scripture memory would ever be ‘enough’? We’d never fully know anyways. And the last thing we’d want to do is to make Scripture-memory (of all things) into a works-based relationship with God. Rather, our power rests in first recognizing our identity. This is beautiful and fitting because…
A young believer can do this…
…and so can an old believer.
A believer who knows little of the Bible can do this…
…and so can a believer who knows much of the Bible.
If Scripture memory was all we needed to defeat the enemy, then you would run into two moral dead ends: 1) those who resist temptation would inevitably boast in themselves and look down on others who fail; 2) those who give in to sin would inevitably despair in themselves and look enviously towards others who don’t.
But if resting in our identity in Christ is ultimately what we need to resist the enemy, then the reverse happens: 1) those who resist temptation realize it’s because God is their father who’s saved them from sin, which leads to humility; 2) those who give in to temptation realize God is still their father and that they have ultimate victory in him, which leads to confidence.
Resting in your identity in Christ—who you are in God’s eyes and who God has promised to be for you—is the power to overcome temptation.
It’s simple, so simple that a 12 year old can understand it and believe it.
It’s practical, so practical that a new believer can implement it right when they are saved, even if they don’t have one verse memorized.
And it’s powerful, so powerful that a seasoned believer still depends upon it, even after 80 years of learning Scripture and following Jesus.
Temptation first attacks your identity. So when temptation comes, attack it first with your identity.
