Temptation

I'm really enjoying David Platt's commentary on Matthew. The chapter on Matthew 4, the temptation of Jesus, was full of really helpful observations and applications. I found the following really helpful, how Platt shows that when we are tempted to sin it isn't just about me being tempted, but it's a bigger reality of the devil trying to destroy God's kingdom:

Temptation for the Christian is not simply about us and our own little kingdoms; it's about an all-out attack of the Devil and all his demons on the kingdom of Christ and every single person who associates with Christ. In attacking Christians, demons are attacking Christ. So trusting in Christ for salvation doesn't end the believer's battle against temptation. If anything, it takes the battle up a notch. The kingdom of darkness that sought to destroy the Messiah is absolutely committed to devouring the Messiah's followers. Therefore, when we talk about temptation, we're not simply talking about some psychological battle; we're talking about an intense spiritual war against cosmic powers of darkness who are dead set on destroying the kingdom of Christ and the children of God.

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Jesus' sonship [is] the key to understanding His temptations. Notice how the first two temptations begin with Satan saying, "If You are the Son of God" (Matt 4:3, 6), a clear reference back to Matthew 3:17, where God said of Jesus, "This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him!" At the core, temptation to sin is an assault on sonship. Just as the Devil was trying to attack the relationship between the Father and the Son in the wilderness temptations, so the temptations you and I face today are really attacks on what it means to relate to God as Father. The Israelites' sin in the wilderness began when they started saying in effect, "Are we really the sons of God? We don't have bread or water! Is He really our Father?" That's exactly how Satan attacked Jesus in Matthew 4, and it's where he'll attack you today, Christian. He did it in the garden of Eden, tempting Adam and Eve to see God not as their Father, but as their rival. Every sin that we commit is tantamount to a rejection of God as our Father, as the One who knows what is best for us and is committed to providing it for us.

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Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven where today He fights alongside us and for us through His Spirit. To use Paul's words, "We are counted as sheep to be slaughtered," yet "we are more than victorious through Him who loved us" (Rom 8:36-37).

God has given us His Spirit, the same Spirit who led Jesus not only into the wilderness, but also through the wilderness unscathed. This same Spirit is alive in you! You cannot triumph over temptation, but Christ can. And Christ is in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27). We must consider the danger we are in as a part of this cosmic and very personal spiritual war. But we also need to see how empowered we are to resist the Devil, and when we do resist him, he will flee from us (Jas 4:7). There is a way of escape, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:13, and it is Christ.