(Luke) 12 - Intro to the Temptation — Ed Miller

Welcome again, let me just, by way of quick review, because we're pretty deep into it now for a practical review, once again, for those that don't know, we do, as you see, we have a cassette tape recorder and we record the session, so if you're not here or if you've missed any or if you're going to be away and would like them sent to you, just see Lillian over there and she'll make sure you get the cassette tape.

And there's no chart for those, we just pray that you'll follow along in the study and see the Lord. We're looking at the wonderful Gospel of Luke, and Luke presents our Lord Jesus as the Son of all mankind, as the Savior of everybody, and we're using Luke 19 .10 as our key verse.

Jesus as the Savior of the Lost

For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. If you'll glance please at the outline that we've handed out, some of you might have had that from a long time ago, are there any more left, if anybody doesn't have one?

We're not going to glance long at it, but I just want you to glance at it. Notice the first section, the first section goes from chapter 1, verse 1 through chapter 4, 13. And so we're at the end of the first section.

We're going to look at chapter 4, verses 1 to 13, the advent and the preparation of the Son of all mankind. After this section, Luke will begin to tell us about the ministry of our Lord Jesus. And so in our study, we've come to the end of this, Jesus has come and God has prepared him to do the wonderful work of redemption.

He was born of a virgin, flesh of our flesh, Son of all mankind. He was born in Bethlehem. He just stooped in his humiliation. He came to everybody, and Bethlehem illustrates the lowest of the low. The name of Bethlehem, the word itself, means house of bread.

And the bread of life came to the house of bread, and the first time anyone saw him, he was laid in a manger, which is a supper-ditch for animals. And so the bread of life came to the house of bread and presented himself for everyone in the manger.

He was circumcised in the temple when he was eight days old, identifying again. Circumcision was a Bible picture of the separation from the flesh. And here he was separated, numbered with the transgressors.

Last week we discussed his amazing baptism, where he was anointed by the Spirit of God for the work he was to do. And once again, he didn't deserve to stand in the Jordan River. He had no sins to confess.

John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, and yet he was numbered with the transgressors. He wanted to stand there in those waters. And when the dove came, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, remember how Luke uses the word dove.

Luke uses the word dove as the sacrifice for the poor, those who couldn't afford a lamb, received, were able to offer a dove. And our Lord Jesus, the Son of all mankind, stands in the waters of death, which are flowing toward the Dead Sea, numbered with the transgressors, bows his head in submission.

It's his first Gethsemane. And then the Holy Spirit baptizes him with that symbol of the sacrifice for the poor, the sacrifice for everybody. And he just then prepared for his great ministry. After this time, he refers to the cross as his baptism.

And over and over again he said, I have a baptism to be baptized with. I'm straightened until it comes to pass. And he looked at the cross as his baptism. Everything about the baptism of the Lord Jesus spelled death.

It was a baptism of sacrifice. He was identifying with all mankind. Now this morning, Luke chapter 4 is what we're going to call the final preparation of our Lord Jesus. He came and he had to be prepared.

The Wilderness Temptation as Christ’s Final Preparation

And now his final preparation before his ministry is this amazing temptation in the wilderness. Before he was ready to serve, he had to be proved. He had to be tested. And so he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

I'm going to ask you to follow along, please, and we're going to read the first 13 verses of chapter 4. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil.

And he ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, he became hungry. And the devil said to him, if you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. And Jesus answered him and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone.

And he led him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, I'll give you all this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomsoever I wish.

Therefore, if you worship before me, it shall be yours. Jesus answered and said to him, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. And he led him to Jerusalem, and he had him stand on a pinnacle of the temple.

And he said to him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, he will give his angels charge concerning you to guard you. And on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone.

And Jesus answered and said to him, it is written, you shall not test, tempt the Lord your God. And when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for an opportune time. Now, before we begin to look at these marvelous verses, let me summarize in a simple statement what I believe is the heart, the content of these wonderful verses.

I believe these verses present our Lord Jesus, the Son of all mankind, as the representative man, the representative man. I hope by the time we're finished this morning, you'll know what I mean by that.

We're going to have a lot to say about this temptation of our Lord, and temptation in general, and Satan, and how we're tempted, and victory over temptation, and so on. But we're going to miss it all if we don't see the Lord Jesus here as God's victorious man.

He's man as God intended men to be, the representative man. Now to get this before your hearts, we need to do a little donkey work, and if you'll be patient with me, what I'd like to do this morning is sort of introduce this whole section on the temptation of our Lord Jesus.

In other words, we're not going to jump right in and say, all right, first he was tempted to turn the stone to bread, and so on. I want to fly all around it this morning. I want to set it up for you. I want you to feel it.

I want you to enter in to what our Lord Jesus experienced. Of all the scriptures, we're not to read any of them la, la, la. It's so easy to do, just sort of just go over it and la, la, la. But in a special way, when we come to such holy ground as this, our Lord Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, we need to trust the Lord together that we don't approach these 13 verses la, la, la.

We need to really understand what was happening and how God was using this as a final preparation before the great ministry of our Lord Jesus. And so we're going to sort of introduce it this morning. I want to make some general observations about the temptation in the wilderness as a whole.

And then we're going to move gradually toward the heart of God. In other words, we'll start with some of the facts and just try to get a sense of what was happening, and then we'll move toward the spiritual side and what God intended by this great revelation of our Lord Jesus.

The Gospel Records and the Order of the Temptations

The first observation is this. The order in which he was tempted is not important. You say, well, how do you know it's not important? He was tempted first with the bread, and then he was tempted with all the kingdoms, and then he was tempted to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple.

How do you know the order is not important? I know it because God has given us three records of this temptation. Matthew gives us a complete record in chapter 4 and verses 1 through 12, and then Luke gives us a complete record, and Mark gives us an incomplete record, only two verses.

In Mark chapter 1, verses 12 and 13. And the reason that's important is because Matthew's order is different than Luke's order. In other words, Matthew doesn't give 1, 2, 3 like Luke gives it. Matthew changes Luke's second one into Matthew's third one, and so on.

And so there's a change. And what I learned from that is that the order is not important. Because God didn't give us, we don't know the order. Matthew gives it one way, Luke gives it another way. We know there were three temptations, but we don't know the order.

So if we were to try to find a progression from temptation 1 and then move to temptation 2 and 3, I think it would be a futile attempt, because God mixes it up. We don't know what order these happen. A second observation is from chapter 4, verse 2.

It says, "...for forty days being tempted by the devil.". Mark chapter 1, verse 13, says, "...he was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by the devil.". Now, when you first read Luke 4, you get the idea that Jesus endured three temptations.

He was tempted with turning the stone to bread. He was tempted with the whole world that was offered to Him. He was tempted to throw Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. But according to the record, He was tempted for forty days, day and night, not just three temptations.

For the entire forty days, He was under an offensive assault by the enemy. And these three temptations are the culmination of the forty days. And these three temptations become representative temptations, but they're not all that our Lord Jesus endured.

In fact, if you look at verse 13, it says, "...when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.". In other words, it wasn't even over after the forty days. Satan continually plagued our Lord Jesus through His three and a half years of ministry, and especially as He got toward the cross and Gethsemane and so on.

Jesus said to His disciples, "...the hour of darkness is come, the prince of this world is come, and he has nothing in me.". And so there was a tremendous attack all the way through. So don't just think that there's three temptations.

These three temptations are representative temptations and a culmination of forty days of this severe attack. Some people relate these three temptations to Genesis 3 -6. That's when Adam and Eve were tempted in the Garden, in the Garden of Eden right at the beginning.

And Genesis 3 -6 sort of has three things. It says, "...when the woman saw that the tree was good for food," number one. "...when she saw it was a delight to the eyes, and when she saw it was desirous to make one wise, she took of the tree and ate.".

And some say, well, see, there's three things. It was good for food. He was tempted to turn the rocks into bread. Desirous to the eyes, Satan showed him all the kingdoms of the earth. Desirous to make one wise.

If he were to throw himself from the temple, there would have been a great applause and so on. And so some say that's why there's these three. It sort of represents all the temptations in the world. Some would relate it to 1 John 2 -16.

1 John 2 -16 says, "...all that's in the world," then he names three things, "...all that's in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but from God.".

It's not from the Father, but of the world, not from God. Okay. That's on tape, too. 1 John 2 -16, "...the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, the boastful pride of life.". And some would say that those three are like the three temptations.

And then another place, we read about the world, the flesh, and the devil. And some say, well, that's exactly what Jesus went through in those three temptations. What I'm trying to say is, when you read about this, we'll look at the three, and we'll see their representative aspects, and how all-inclusive and comprehensive they are.

But don't think that that's all that he went through. These 40 days were a continual attack day and night. The third observation is this, and not only is the order not important, not only were there more than three temptations, but according to chapter 4, verse 2, it says, "...he ate nothing during those 40 days.".

In other words, this was an extended fast. Some people think it was a partial fast. That is, that he ate a little bit, but in the general, in the main thrust, he was fasting. Some make it so complete that they say, he not only did not eat food, but he didn't drink any water for the entire 40 days.

Now, I don't think the Bible is 100 clear. We know he ate nothing. I think I can take that to be he ate nothing. I think that was a complete fact, that he ate nothing. We're told that you've got to drink some kind of water unless by a miracle of God you're sustained.

I have no doubt God could have sustained him during that time. I don't know if he did or not, but I incline to the idea, since he's representative man and since he's representing us, I have an idea that he was not sustained miraculously or it wouldn't be a real representation of our own situation.

The Mystery of Christ’s Wilderness Experience

So probably he had a total fast from food and maybe he had some water. My fourth observation is this. This section, we read, like I said, I don't want to read it la, la, la, but this section is filled with mystery.

I didn't say fantasy. I said mystery. There's so much here that we don't understand. That's why I call it holy ground. When I come to a chapter like this or John 17, the high priestly prayer of the Lord or the Garden of Gethsemane, I hardly know how to study it.

It is so holy and I just feel so unworthy even to open the book. But when we come to this section, when we see our Lord in the wilderness here, there is so much mystery here. Let me give a couple of illustrations of some of the mysterious things.

First of all, verse 2, it says that he was tempted by the devil and that's all we know. In other words, what form did the devil take? We read in Genesis that when he tempted our first parents, he took the form of a serpent.

What form did he take here in the wilderness? Was it in the form of a serpent? Was it spiritual or some physical form? Was he an angel of light here? How did he appear? Mystery. God doesn't tell us. And then look at verse 5.

It says that he led him up to a mountain. In verse 9, he led him up to Jerusalem. And listen to how Matthew says it. Matthew says in Matthew 4 or 5, the devil took him to the holy city. The devil took him to a very high mountain.

I don't know if you ever thought about that. Jesus goes out, we picture a desert. He went out into the wilderness to be tempted. And then we read the devil took him. How did he do that? Did he actually pick up his body?

Was he raptured from place to place? Did he leave the wilderness and then go into the holy city? Did he actually take him physically into this place? Or was this all like in a vision? Was this like in a dream?

Mystery. We don't know. All we know is the devil took him. It says that. The devil took him and put him on the temple. The devil took him and put him on a mountain. And I think it's an amazing thing. I don't doubt that.

It could be literal. It probably was literal. In some way, our Lord Jesus submitted to that evil one, taking his precious body and moving it from place to place. Again, we just sort of read this. This is an amazing chapter.

We want to study it, but I want you to get a sense of what is going on here. And then consider verse 5. It says, He led him up, or took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

Did you ever think about that? All the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. How did he do that? Matthew adds this detail in verse 8. It says, The devil took him to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and then Matthew adds, and all their glory.

All the kingdoms of the world, all their glory, in a moment of time. I don't have a clue how to present that to you. You know, I read that and I just say, some amazing things are going on in this chapter.

And I don't know how to put it all together. I've stood on Mount Washington. Have you been there? And looked over that marvel. You could see several states. And as I looked, it was a clear day when I was up there.

And I was able to see the mountain range. It's so beautiful to see all of these states. But I didn't see all of Vermont in all of its glory from that vantage point. That was sort of a bird's eye view.

And I sure didn't do it in a moment of time. I mean, it took time to look all around. And it was awesome to see all of that. But somehow, in a moment of time, this thing is laden with mystery. First of all, when you read the record, there's no mountain in that area that would answer to this.

What mountain would be high enough for him to stand and see all the kingdoms of the world? So we don't even know what mountain it was. And then secondly, how did it pass before his eyes? I sort of picture like a movie or something.

A vision, a video going by. We say in a life and death situation, my whole life passed before me. Did you ever hear that? Have you ever experienced it? Anybody? I have a friend who's a mountain climber.

He climbs. He's been all over every place, climbing mountains. And two years ago, he fell off of a cliff, 60 feet down in pitch dark. And he told me afterwards, he survived, he told me, he said, it's true.

My whole life passed before me. He said it was amazing. I didn't even think about falling. He said, my childhood, everything came. He said, my old teachers, my friends, it all passed before me. And that's an amazing thing.

I don't know. I always thought that was just a figure of speech. But according to him, and I believe his testimony, he said that that really happened. Picture the Lord Jesus and somehow, Satan is able to take all the glories of the world.

I picture one prospect after another of the most fascinating things this world could offer. Enjoyment and possession, all paraded before him. And quite honestly, I think everything went before him. All that would make your heart pound and your blood pulsate and your eyes pop out.

Wine, women, song, pleasure, gold, silver, everything passed before him. Gallery of arts and education and literature, worldly crowns and armies and people and places and banquet halls. I think everything went before him somehow, in a moment of time.

And then Satan said, I can give you all of that. It was an amazing temptation. But how did it happen? All I can say is there's tremendous mystery when you study this chapter. Tremendous mystery. What is his form?

How was the Lord Jesus carried? Did he leave the wilderness? What mountain was it? How did all these glories pass before his eyes in a moment of time? And then look at verse 6, please. And the devil said to him, I'll give you all this domain and its glory.

It's been handed over to me and I'll give it to whomever I wish. What does that mean? Was it his? Was that a legitimate offering? Does he have the right to hand it out and all of that kind of thing? I'm not qualified to give you an answer to that.

I don't know. I know in delegated authority he's the God of this world and has tremendous power and all that kind of thing. But there is some mystery here. And whatever else we discuss, I hope God will burn indelibly into your heart the awe of these 13 verses.

Don't just come to these verses. All right, let's look at the first temptation. Okay, now let's look at the second temptation. This is an amazing thing. It's the final preparation of our Lord Jesus before he begins his great ministry of redemption.

And God is doing something here and it is tremendous. I hope we can touch a little on that. My fifth general impression is this. It's sort of obvious, but in chapter 4, verse 1, it says, Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, whatever that means. Clearly, our Lord Jesus was in two environments in this chapter. He was in the Spirit and he was in the wilderness. And I think from the record, the environment of being in the Lord was more real to him than this environment of being in the wilderness.

When I first read this, I thought, Jesus was in the wilderness in the fellowship of the holy angel. I got that from Mark. Mark's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 13. Listen as I quote it. He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by the devil and the angels were ministering unto him.

Not a precious verb. Being tempted and the angels were ministering unto him. So I thought he was having sort of a good time on one side, fellowshiping with the angels, at the same time, under attack. But Matthew sets me straight.

That's not how it was. Matthew, chapter 4, verse 11, it says, The devil left him and behold, the angels came and began to minister unto him. The angels didn't come until it was all over. So he was not fellowshiping 40 days with the angels.

They didn't come until after the whole thing was over. And then they ministered unto him. So I thought, well, he's alone then. He's all by himself with Satan. That can't be pleasant. Just being there with Satan.

But we read this. Mark, chapter 1, verse 13. Listen. He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by the devil, and Mark adds, and he was with the wild beasts. Boy, there's something we don't think about.

He was in the wilderness 40 days with the wild beasts. What wild beasts? I don't know. Hyenas? Boars? Jackals? Buzzards? Reptiles? Insects? Scorpions? I don't know. All I know is the Bible says during that time, and that has to mean something.

That it added to this awful experience that he was going through with the devil in the barren wilderness with the wild beasts. We can't read this final preparation of our Lord in a cursory manner. We've got to spend time and meditate on these things.

It's been pointed out that our Lord Jesus seems to be in the garden. Jesus was in the wilderness. Adam had a full belly. Jesus was hungry. Adam was with the tame animals before the fall of the animals were tame.

Jesus is with the wild animals. There's clearly a contrast between being tempted in a luxurious garden with a full belly and tame animals and failing. And being in a howling wilderness of barren desert with the devil and an empty stomach and wild animals and being victorious.

God’s Purpose in Testing Christ

It's a glorious thing to see this tremendous contrast. As we get closer to what was really going on here let me home in a little on God's purpose. God's design for all of this. It is sort of a chapter of wonder just to realize there's so much that can't be answered about what was going on.

But there are certain things that we do know. And so we need to stress what we do know and lay hold of what is 100 certain. Chapter 4 verse 1. Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit into the wilderness.

Now listen to the way Mark says it. Mark chapter 1 verse 12. Immediately the Spirit impelled him to go into the wilderness. I looked up that word in the original language in the Greek. Impelled him. This is an amazing thing.

The last time we see our Lord Jesus He's at the baptism and the Spirit of God comes in the form of a dog and heaven opens and God says this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And then it says the next thing that happened and the Spirit impelled him forced him pushed him drove him the Spirit of God grabbed hold of him and pushed him right into the wilderness.

This is amazing. First, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And he grabs him and he takes him out into the desert. We know this was from the Lord. God's the one that brought him in there.

The Spirit of God brought him in there. Now why was it important that he go there? Let me suggest at least these three things that God is accomplishing by this temptation in the wilderness. The temptation in the wilderness of our Lord Jesus revealed for us the impeccability of our Lord Jesus.

The word impeccable means sinless faultless the perfection of the Lord. There are those who would argue was it possible for Jesus to fail in the wilderness? If he couldn't sin then how could he be true man?

Because certainly we can sin. And would it be a real temptation if he couldn't sin? The whole thing would seem unreal. In order to lay hold of this you need to know how God uses the word tempt in the Bible.

We sort of have one idea when we say temptation. But God uses it two different ways. Listen to Genesis 22 -1. It says God tempted Abraham. Remember when he was going to offer his son Isaac? God tempted him.

And then we read in James 1 -13 let no one say when he's tempted I'm tempted of God for indeed God indeed tempts no man. Neither is he enticed neither can he be tempted to evil. So what does it mean? God tempted Abraham.

God can't tempt people. The word tempt in one sense means to entice but in the other sense it means to try. It means to prove. It means to test. To make certain. It means to certify something. The Lord was not tempted in the sense that he was enticed to evil and had some kind of a proclivity in his heart inclining him to sin.

He identified with us in everything but sin. He didn't have what we call that old sin nature. I have a fountain within me like the Jordan River it seems to overflow its banks at all times. And I have that fountain within me.

Jesus did not have that fountain within him. He not only withheld the breaking of the water but he didn't have the fountain. He was so pure he not only didn't sin he couldn't sin. That's how pure he was.

You say then how could it be a real temptation? Gold is tempted. Gold is tested. Put into a furnace. Why is gold put into a furnace? Pure gold doesn't have impurity. It's put into the furnace to prove that it's pure gold.

And so the fire, you can't say well the fire is not real. The fire didn't really, it's not hot for the gold because the gold is pure. The fire proves the gold is pure. And Jesus through this temptation it would prove who he was and how pure he was.

You say well if he couldn't sin then he couldn't suffer. That temptation meant nothing. The opposite's true. The opposite's true. The purer somebody is the more they suffer under the evil suggestion. Let me give an illustration of it.

Let's say you're out in the wilderness and there's a rough old herdsman out there. And there's a slimy snake. And this old herdsman takes his calloused hand, he picks up the snake and he throws it aside.

There's also a young maiden out there with delicate skin and sensitive. And she recoils at the snake. And she doesn't want to touch it. To her, if she were to touch that snake, her hands are not calloused like the old herdsman's hands are calloused.

And she's more sensitive to that. Now let's say for example an impure man made an impure suggestion to an impure woman. Would it bother her? Say if she was impure it wouldn't bother her. Let's say an impure man made an impure suggestion to a pure woman.

Would it bother her? Oh my, she'd be wounded by that. She'd be hurt by that. And the purer a person is, the more they'd be shocked. The more they'd be offended by the impure suggestion. Now picture our Lord Jesus.

How pure was He. And all He suffered under these evil suggestions of Satan. To bow down and worship Him. How that wounded the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ. He certainly was proved. That temptation showed who He was.

We read in the Old Testament that the desert sun tempted the children of Israel. What does it mean a desert sun tempted the children of Israel? It tested them. Say when you read about the there's eleven great murmuring, grumblings in Numbers, in the book of Numbers.

And they grumbled and grumbled and grumbled and grumbled. Do you think the desert sun made them grumble? No, see the grumbling was already in there. The desert sun brought it out. The desert sun didn't create a generation of idolaters.

The desert sun revealed a generation of idolaters. They were already idolaters in their heart. They were already grumblers and murmurers in their heart. They were already irritable and full of murder in their heart.

And that sun beating on them everyday it came out and we could see what they were really like. When God brings test into our life He brings out what's in there. We need that stuff brought to the surface sometime so that we can deal with it.

What happened here in the garden was this furnace was hot. And it proved how perfect our Lord Jesus was. How impeccable He was. So that's the first thing that this thing did. It showed us how pure Jesus was.

Christ as the Representative Man and Substitute

The second thing it did and oh may God give us light on this. We're going to spend quite a bit of time emphasizing this. When I started off I sort of summarized these 13 verses by saying Jesus was the representative man.

It's not an accident that this experience is contrasted with Adam and Eve in the garden. It's not an accident because the Bible calls Jesus Adam. It's one of His titles. He is the second man. We just sort of read this la la la you know what God is doing here?

He's starting over. This is Adam. This is the second man. This is the last Adam. There's only two men that ever lived as God intended man to live. One was Adam before he fell and that whole race went down with him.

Now there's another race. God is creating a new race and the head of that race the federal head is Jesus and he is now being tested as Adam was tested. That's why this whole thing about being born again that's what that means.

Got to get out of this family and get into this family. There's a whole new race and Adam is the head of this race and I've got to now join up with this new race and he's the representative man. For years I've missed this temptation because I studied it as if Jesus were my example.

He is not my example in this chapter. He's my substitute in this chapter. He was not tempted this way first so I could be tempted this way second. He was tempted this way so I wouldn't have to be. He's my substitute.

He did it for me. I'm not to imitate him. I'm to appropriate him. It's not the same thing. It's an entirely different direction. See I used to study this and say alright now I'll study this and see how Jesus was tempted then I'll know how I'm tempted.

And I've got to learn the wiles of the devil and how he gets us. And I say alright so Satan got Jesus right after a high spiritual experience. Satan will get me after a high spiritual experience. Satan got Jesus when he was physically down.

He'll get me when I'm physically down. He attacked Jesus body, soul, and spirit. He'll attack me body, soul, and spirit. He tempted Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple. He'll tempt me in church in the pinnacle of the temple.

He tempted Jesus just before his public ministry. He tries to get me just before a public ministry and all that kind of thing. And then I would look at Jesus and say well he's my example. When he was baptized he prayed so if I'm going to survive I need to pray.

When he was tempted chapter 4 verse 4, chapter 4 verse 8, chapter 4 verse 12 he quoted scripture. So if I'm tempted I'll need to learn how to quote scripture. And all of that kind of thing. He was led by the Spirit.

I've got to be led by the Spirit. Maybe that's true, maybe that's not but it completely misses the point. Jesus is representative man here. He is being tempted as our substitute. We have no problem when we look at Jesus on the cross.