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Throughout the course of my life, I have cherished the rich repository of hymns from which the church has sung God’s praises. My earliest childhood memories include times of singing hymns at home with my family and in church. These “mini sermons for the soul to sing” gave theological shape to my young mind. In my twenties, the Lord used the words of several hymns to guide me back from the far country and into the Father’s arms (Luke 15:17–24). One such hymn was “Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners!” It continues to hold a special place in my heart. I have long wished, however, that I could revise one line in this hymn. In the second verse, J. Wilbur Chapman wrote:
Jesus! what a strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in him;
tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
he, my strength, my vict’ry wins.
If I could, I would change the word “sometimes” in the third line to the word “never”—so that the line would read, “tempted, tried, and never failing.” I would not do this to advance some form of spiritual perfectionism, nor to downplay our need to fight against temptation (1 Cor. 10:13; Eph. 6:10–20; 1 John 2:16), and certainly not to minimize the vexing reality of indwelling sin in the lives of believers (Rom. 7:13–25). Rather, I would do so to keep the focus on Christ’s victory in the lives of believers and His victory when tempted by the evil one in the wilderness.
Christ’s victory in the wilderness forms an important part of His messianic ministry. Scripture teaches that Jesus is the last Adam and true Israel of God who overcame when tempted by the evil one so that He might defeat the kingdom of darkness and deliver His people from spiritual bondage. As the obedient Son, Jesus merits the covenant blessings for His people by obeying where Adam and Israel disobeyed. Because He was tempted in every respect as we are, “yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15), Christ serves as the sympathetic and merciful High Priest who helps His people when they are tempted.
the last adam
Luke brings Jesus’ genealogy to a close with a focus on the sonship of Adam (Luke 3:38). Placing Christ’s genealogy between the record of His baptism (3:21–22) and His temptation in the wilderness (4:1–13), Luke highlights the fact that Christ is the last Adam (Rom. 5:12–21; 1 Cor. 15:21–22, 45–49). At His baptism, God the Father announced Jesus’ messianic identity, saying, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). In the wilderness, the evil one tempted Christ on that divine announcement (Luke 4:3, 9). Accordingly, the temptations of Christ were uniquely messianic temptations.
The wilderness testing was probationary for the last Adam. If Adam had obeyed when tempted in the garden, he would have secured life for himself and his offspring. The last Adam overcame by obeying when tempted, that He might be the author of eternal salvation for those who believe (Heb. 5:9). Christ came as the last Adam to overcome the evil one and to reverse the results of the first Adam’s disobedience (Rom. 5:12–21).
The conflict between Christ, as the last Adam, and Satan in the wilderness was a partial fulfillment of the protoevangelium—the first gospel promise (Gen. 3:15). The Lord promised our first parents that He would send the seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent. It was fitting that Jesus—at the outset of His public ministry—should come face-to-face in combat with the serpent of old (Rev. 12:9). Christ’s victory in the wilderness was a prelude to this ultimate victory over Satan on the cross (Col. 2:15). By His obedient life and atoning death, the last Adam delivers His own from the oppressive rule of Satan (Acts 26:16–18; Col. 1:13).
the true israel of god
In addition to revealing Christ to be the last Adam, Scripture teaches that Jesus is the true Israel of God—the covenant-keeping Son. In Exodus 4:22, the Lord referred to Israel as “my firstborn son.” In Hosea, He said, “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Hos. 11:1). Matthew directly links Hosea 11:1 to Christ’s experience of fleeing down into Egypt and coming back up to the promised land (Matt. 2:15). Christ is the greater Moses (Ex. 34:28)—the representative of true Israel—who leads His people in the greater exodus from their bondage to Satan, sin, and death (Luke 9:31).
Jesus began His ministry in the wilderness so as to fulfill God’s covenant promises and secure the everlasting inheritance. Accordingly, Jesus underwent a period of testing like that of old covenant Israel. Christ passed the test in the wilderness by obeying the word that the Lord had given Israel in the wilderness (Deut. 6:13, 16; 8:3). As the true Israel, He then began the spiritual conquest of the promised land. G.K. Beale observes, “Jesus’s victory over temptation appears to have prepared him to conquer the one who was the ultimate satanic prince of the Canaanites and of all wicked nations and to conquer the land in a way that Israel had not been able to do.” This was God’s intended goal for Israel in the wilderness (Deut. 6:18–19). In the place where Israel had failed, Christ—the true Israel—was victorious.
Jesus was ultimately exiled from the presence of God, as Adam had been from Eden and Israel from the promised land. Though He was without sin, Christ was made a sin and a curse for His people on the cross (2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:10). By His obedience and suffering, Jesus gained a righteous standing as the last Adam and true Israel—the representative covenant-keeper—securing the covenant blessings for all who believe in Him (2 Cor. 1:20). He is therefore the source of spiritual strength for His people when they are tempted.
our sympathetic high priest
As the last Adam and true Israel, Christ consecrated Himself through obedience and suffering to be qualified to serve as the High Priest of His people. Jesus became the Priest of the heavenly sanctuary—as Adam had been in the garden and the Levites in the tabernacle. Jesus was “in every respect . . . tempted, even as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15) so that He could be a sympathetic High Priest who gives us mercy and help in time of need (v. 16). As our Great High Priest, Christ sympathizes with His people in their temptations because He was tempted. The Puritan Samuel Clarkson explained:
He knows all our infirmities. . . . He knows them all, none of them escape his notice. . . . He knows what weight, trouble, or affliction there is in any of our infirmities, for he has felt it all; he perfectly remembers what he suffered by it, and so he knows feelingly . . . what we suffer by any of them.
The last Adam and true Israel of God was tempted so that He might redeem us from Satan, sin, and death. He obeyed to secure the covenant blessings for those who believe in Him. As the Great High Priest of the church, Jesus can supply us with the grace and mercy that we need because He was “tempted, tried, and never failing.”