Weekly Devotional 28th of March 2025
by Bruce Billington
Easter Devotional 1: Jesus Becomes Human
Lent is the season of the church year that we set aside to remember the love of God poured out through Christ Jesus on the cross, His defeat of death, sin, and Satan through His death and resurrection, and the gift of eternal life to all who are in Christ.
In the first of four pre-Easter devotionals, we will follow Jesus’ journey to the cross.
Matthew 4:1-11
Before you continue, please read the passage above.
The journey of Christ began after His infilling with the Holy Spirit. Immediately afterwards, Jesus went into the desert to fast and pray before starting His work for God. He remained there for forty days and nights. During this time, He faced the temptation of the devil.
Here, Jesus clearly demonstrates that during times of temptation, we must seek God as our refuge and dwelling place. By doing so, we acknowledge that we cannot overcome temptation through our own strength. There are principalities and powers at work that not only exploit our strengths but also take advantage of our weaknesses.
The Greek word for temptation is “peirazo,“ which means not only to tempt with sin but also to test or try the endurance of one’s character. An important point to note about the temptations the devil presented to Christ is that their main focus was to distract Jesus or break His relationship with God. However, Jesus’ rugged determination to follow God was only reinforced here. The beauty of His relationship with the Father was preserved because He had no interest in anything the devil had to offer.
We also see that the secret of Jesus’ victory was not his rote memorisation of Scripture. The devil likely knows more Scripture than any of us do. While it’s wonderful to immerse ourselves in Scripture, its power comes from interpreting and applying it correctly, stemming from a living relationship with the Most High God. The Scriptures that Jesus chose and used on each occasion illustrate this. The devil also quoted Scripture, but this proved ineffective. It only works when we use it sincerely from a relationship with God.
Point: When we make the Lord our refuge and arm ourselves with His word and the power of the Holy Spirit, Satan has no option but to flee from us (James 4:7).
In addition to quoting Scripture, Jesus directly addressed the devil personally. This is one of the few times He engaged in dialogue with demonic powers – normally, He forbade them to speak. But here, He addresses Satan distinctly and succinctly, commanding him to leave.
As we observe Jesus embracing these temptations, an astonishing revelation unfolds: Jesus became a human being. He underwent the waters of baptism, despite being without sin, and now He confronted the devil’s work, not as God- this would render it a mere sham – but as a human being, with no greater power available to Him than we have to us.
The same victory over sin and the wiles of the devil have been won for us, enabling us to treat Satan and his demonic cohorts in precisely the same manner as Jesus did and experience identical results.
There is one more important point before we finish. Jesus was led into the wilderness immediately after being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is only when the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit comes upon us that we become a true threat to the sinful ways of the devil. From that moment on, we have entered the battle against the kingdom of darkness and can expect attacks.
However, we should neither be surprised by this nor fear it. Like Christ, we are fully prepared for victory. We should put on the armour of God, take hold of the sword, and go out into the world, refusing to tolerate the ways of the devil. We have the great example of Christ and the promise quoted above from James 4:7.
Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
We should note that submitting to God must come first.
God bless you.
Bruce Billington