Christians are continually being sanctified and made holy in a fallen world and therefore cannot avoid temptations to sin. They are, however, able to overcome these temptations through the Word of God.
In the third temptation of Jesus, Satan tempts Jesus to presume upon God by way of a public stunt. He attempts to convince Jesus to not fulfill the will of God and instead follow Satan’s will. Having failed in the first two tries to have Jesus disavow God, Satan leads Jesus to the highest point of the temple in Jerusalem. As they stand overlooking the city, Satan tells Jesus to jump down from the temple, reasoning that God will not let His Son die but send angels to His catch him from his fall. Of course, Jesus, being fully man, would die upon impact from such a fall. Satan’s desire is for Jesus to die from the fall, thereby dying without defeating death and redeeming mankind. If Jesus follows Satan’s will instead of God’s will, Jesus would undo the promises of God in the Scriptures of a redeemer, making God a liar. This action would also force God to choose between letting Christ die and intervening with a divine miracle for Jesus’ salvation.
Satan even tries to use the Word of God in this third effort to tempt Jesus by saying “for it is written” to misquote Scripture out of context. As he quotes Scripture, Satan purposely omits parts of Scripture to try to confuse Jesus. However, Jesus does not fall for Satan’s scheme nor does he not test God. Instead, He responds to Satan by saying, “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST,” accurately quoting Scriptures to counter Satan’s distortion of the Scriptures.
As we look to Christ in this third temptation, we are shown that we must know God’s Word thoroughly so that we handle the Word of God properly through diligent study (2 Tim 2:15). Otherwise, even the choicest Christian will be in danger of falling away. Studying the Word simply requires passion and diligence on our part, because Christians are supernaturally equipped with the Holy Spirit to help them study and understand the Word of God properly.
How are Christians to overcome the temptation to trust God presumptuously? They should check their motives to make sure they are doing all for the glory of God. They must also live by faith. Christian faith is a living faith because they serve a living God. Faith is a supernatural gift of God for every believer.
God allows Jesus to be tempted by Satan a third time in this passage. This particular temptation displays Jesus’ readiness to preach and teach in His ministry. Jesus is convinced that the Word of God is true and powerful. He overcomes temptation by using the Word of God, and because of this, we know that we can be confident in and sanctified by the Word of God, which will never fail us.
BIBLE COMMUNITY CHURCH 
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