The world beguiles, and the
devil tempts, but it is the flesh that wants and wants and wants. When Jesus
said “he (i.e., the devil) has nothing in Me”, He was saying the devil and the
devil’s world system has nothing He wants or desires. After Jesus’ forty-day
temptation in the wilderness, at a time when He was weak and vulnerable, satan
tempted Him through three broad categories of human wants: 1) He endured
physical temptation – the Lust of the Flesh for physical appetites. 2) He
endured material temptation – the Lust of the Eyes for material wealth and
prosperity. 3) And, He endured emotional temptation – the Pride of Life for
power, position, and prominence. Notice that Eve struggled with these same
three wants, failing miserably to control her desires and casting all of
mankind into the malignancy of the fall. Notice her words relative to the
forbidden fruit: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (i.e., Lust of the Flesh), that it was
pleasant to the eyes (i.e., Lust of the Eyes), and
a tree desirable to make one wise (i.e., Pride of Life), she took of its fruit and ate.”
Human wants must be evaluated
and understood within a world view that honors the supremacy of Jesus and His
teachings over all else. In light of this, Jesus’ desire for bread was
perfectly normal, just not at satan’s price. Satan’s offer of the kingdoms of
the world fell on deaf ears finding no associated desire in our Savior’s heart. Jesus had already taught that the desire for
riches and pleasures and the things of this life would choke out… suffocate,
His words in hearts captivated by these wrong and foolish desires (i.e., The
Sower Parable). And Christ repeatedly warned how difficult, if not impossible,
it is for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God. Satan’s desire for a
demonstration of the power and privilege of Sonship by jumping off a pinnacle
was really a temptation to sin against God: Our Servant Master’s humble heart
was free from any prideful need to prove His position of prominence and power
in the Godhead.
All human “wants” will fall into
one of these three categories, thus the scriptures state that Jesus, in His
three-pronged temptation, was tempted in all ways the same as we are -- through
the same areas of human weakness and vulnerability -- and yet without sin. It
is the human “wants” that make the world’s produce alluring and desirable,
thereby giving power to the devil’s temptations... the battle is won or lost
with our “wants.” The enemy is the “wants” we allow to permeate our heart,
causing us to crave the things of the world and making us susceptible to
satan’s temptations. The real enemy is Self… our carnal nature -- what the
Apostle Paul called our Old Man -- the fleshly nature that never stops wanting.
We were born a “Wanter” with a nature set on things below… the loves of this
life. Through our rebirth into God’s Kingdom we are, for the first time, freed from
enslavement to Self’s desires – freed to choose. This is the freedom to choose
submission to the Lordship of Christ over Self-rule. The freedom to put Self to
death daily – “I am crucified with Christ” – that the implanted Christlife
might burst forth within. When Christ comes alive within, His nature will permeate
our mind setting it on things above. We will overcome satan’s temptations when
our “wanter” is aligned with God’s heart and we can say with Jesus “he (i.e.,
the devil) has nothing in Me.”
“HE (i.e., the devil) HAS NOTHING IN ME”
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