The Pinnacle of the Temple

By tempting Jesus to jump off the temple, Satan was inviting Him to win followers by parading the miraculous power of God. Today, Sinclair Ferguson explains why Christ really came: to save sinners by suffering in their place.

All this week on Things Unseen, we’ve been thinking about the temptations of Jesus, and I pointed out something that you probably noticed. The three temptations are described in detail by Matthew and Luke, but they record them in different orders. In Matthew, the order is, “Turn stones into bread,” then, “Throw Yourself down from the temple,” and then thirdly, “I will give You the kingdoms of this world if You’ll fall down and worship me.” But in Luke, the order is, “Stones into bread,” “Fall down and worship,” and then, “Throw Yourself down from the temple.” And to some Bible readers, that seems very puzzling, but there’s almost certainly a straightforward explanation. What the two Gospel writers are doing is recording the three temptations in terms of what they’re wanting to communicate to us about the Lord Jesus.

So today, let’s take Luke’s order. Luke’s climax is with the temptation to Jesus to throw Himself down from the temple. “Show you trust God’s promise to send angels to save you,” says Satan: “That’s what He promises, isn’t it? He will command His angels to guard you. That’s part of Scripture, and they will bear You up lest You strike Your foot against a stone.”

Interesting, isn’t it, that in this temptation, the devil actually quotes from Scripture, from Psalm 91:11–12. In the earlier temptations, it was Jesus who was quoting from Scripture. Now it’s as if the devil is trying to throw the Bible back in Jesus’ face. He quotes these promises that were given to believers in general, and he challenges Jesus: “If, or since, You’re the Son of God, prove that these promises hold good by giving a spectacular demonstration that they work. Go on, Jesus, test God to see if His promises are true, and then people will flock to You.”

Incidentally, although we are thinking about Jesus’ temptations this week, not about the ways in which we are tested, it is worth remembering that the devil uses, or more accurately, misuses the Bible. I read an interesting example of that some time ago. A famous British media person who is gay was demeaning the Archbishop of Canterbury—and the church’s view of gender and sex—and basically calling the archbishop a bigot because, as she said, “Jesus didn’t say anything about sex and gender.” I’ve heard that before. It’s actually a way of saying: “You conservative Christians, you don’t even know what your own Jesus taught. He was so loving to people.”

And of course, she was quite wrong. You remember how Jesus pointed people back to creation and to the first marriage, and He said, “As it was in the beginning, so it should be now, and so it ever should be.” So, He made quite clear His views on the relationships between men and women.

But anyway, back to Jesus’ temptations. How did Jesus respond? Well, for one thing, we see Him demonstrating that He knows and uses Scripture better than the devil does. He answers this false use of Scripture with true and authentic biblical teaching, and so He responds in the words of Deuteronomy 6:16: “You shall not even use the Bible to put the Lord your God to the test.” And with these words, he unmasks Satan. Jesus has come to fulfill the purposes of God, not to tell God He needs to prove His Word to Him. You see, God’s purpose was that the Lord Jesus would be crucified for our sins, and as Jesus Himself would later make clear, His disciples would then take up the cross and follow Him.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that Jesus is being tempted here to gather disciples by another way altogether—by a spectacular action. The devil knows that people love spectacular events and are impressed by them. But you see, Jesus knows it’s unbelief that says, “I’d believe in Jesus if He did something spectacular.” Jesus didn’t come to win converts by parading spectacular powers; He came to save sinners by suffering and dying on the cross for them, and only then rising victorious over sin and death, and yes, hell and Satan too. And that’s why He resisted the temptation to leap from the temple. He certainly would’ve created a stir that way, but He couldn’t save sinners from the wrath of God that way. And that’s what He actually came to do. My, I’m so glad He refused to be diverted, and I hope you are too.