I like to call attention to the fact that the most fundamental passage in the entire revelation of God is Deuteronomy 6:4. Unfortunately, in our ordinary versions we do not have a literal translation of this most important verse. Rendered accurately, scientifically, and correctly the passage reads this way; "Hear, 0 Israel, Jehovah [the Eternal One] our Gods is Jehovah a unity." Both the plurality and the unity of the Godhead are set forth in this one statement. In the plural number, which is set forth by the plural noun, Gods, is reflected the doctrine of the Trinity. This verse, however, calls attention only to the fact that there is a plurality of divine personalities subsisting in the one divine essence, or nature. The number of persons must be determined by other passages that relate to the same subject. A number of hints and statements are found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, together with many statements in the New Testament, which show that there are only three divine persons constituting the Godhead. In certain connections the word, Jehovah, refers to the Holy Trinity; in others it refers to God the Father; in still other passages it is seen by the facts of the context that it refers to God the Son; and in still other connections, the same divine name refers to the Holy Spirit. One must look at the facts of each context to determine its special significance in a given case.

According to prediction the second person of the Holy Trinity--called the Son-- is mentioned in the second place in the baptismal formula (Matt. 28:18,19). Isaiah, in 9:6, foretold the incarnation of this second person of the Trinity, God the Son. In Isaiah 7:14 we are told that He enters the world by miraculous conception and virgin birth. When we come to the New Testament we see in John's Gospel that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ...And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth" (John 1:1-14). The two verses given in this quotation undoubtedly echo the incarnation of the Son of God, His veiling Himself and tabernacling here among us in the flesh. In II Corinthians 8:9 Paul speaks of Christ's incarnation, of His becoming poor, though He was rich: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich." One of the classic passages on the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity is Philippians 2:5-8; "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; 8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross."

The fullest statement of the twofold nature of the Son of God is to be found in Hebrews, chapters 1 and 2. [For a detailed analysis and study of these two chapters, with Dr. Cooper's translation of them, see his volume, MAN: His Creation, Fall, Redemption and Glorification, 1st ed., 1948]

An examination of all the passages which deal with the incarnation shows that our Lord, by entering the human realm, limited Himself far more than possibly any of us are willing to concede. In His upward look to God His vision was unobstructed, and His comprehension of God and His relationship to Him were perfect and complete. On the other hand, all the evidence seems to point in the direction that, as He looked toward the earth and man, figuratively speaking, all light was turned off and He had to receive through His five senses every impression of the world exterior to Himself. In Luke 2:40-52 we are told that the Lord grew, not only in stature, but In wisdom. Along with this came knowledge. There was an advance, from childhood, onward to the end of life, in knowledge and wisdom. Since He did not have sin in the flesh, the five avenues--seeing, smelling, touching, tasting, hearing--were perfect channels through which impressions from the exterior world reached His own soul. He lived truly the life of faith, being, as is stated in Hebrews 12:2, "the author and perfecter of faith." Being free from bias and prejudice--either for or against anything--He could see clearly the message of the Word of God. His faith rested upon the infallibly inspired revelation. For Him everything that was found in the Word was final. He truly, of all the individuals who have trodden this earth, was the one who lived completely and absolutely the life of faith.

A person must also understand thoroughly who Satan is. The more anyone knows about his origin, history, and present position, the better can he resist him. This is information which Satan does not want people to have. As a matter of fact, he would like for men not to believe in his existence and personality. When people become "wise above that which is written" and deny that there is such a being as Satan, he is most highly pleased. When people do not know about him, he can take advantage of them and accomplish his purposes very successfully. On the other hand, when the people of God know of his existence, his history, and his present tactics and resist him, strong in their faith (I Peter 5:8,9), Satan will flee from them, being thwarted in his purposes.

He who is now known as Satan, or the devil, was the first creature whom God in His omnipotence and omniscience brought into existence. He was the very highest order of being whom Omnipotence could create. He is known as the anointed cherub, or the cherub that covereth, in Ezekiel 28:11-19. As the ages of the ages rolled by, he became conceited, and unrighteousness entered his heart. He therefore thought that he could "match swords with God" and attempted to do so. When he did, he fell and was deposed. Of course he was stripped of some of his authority and power. Inasmuch, however, as he did not leave his own principality, but remained in his proper habitation, he still was permitted to function in, a limited capacity. Since it was through him that death came, he has been retained as the minister of death and disease. (See Hebrews 2:14. The marginal note on this verse speaks of Satan as the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.)

Though Satan has been deposed from his high position, he still has access to the throne of God. This fact is shown in Job, chapters 1 and 2. At the same time, he has his special interests in connection with this world and goes throughout the earth, seeking whom he may devour. He is represented under the symbolism of a terrible, wild monster in Job, chapter 40, and as leviathan in chapter 41. In these chapters he is said to be the beginning of God's ways and "king over all the sons of pride," those who were lifted up with pride, and who originally revolted against God.

Satan has a kingdom, in which there is an innumerable host of evil, wicked spirits, that rebelled against God, and that was led by him into revolt against the Almighty. His kingdom is a well-organized affair. He is called the prince of the powers of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. He is conniving and underhanded in the extreme. He transforms himself into an angel of light in order that he might deceive people (II Cor. 11:14). With venom and hatred he "opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped" (II Thess. 2:4). He desires the worship and the service of mankind. He is ever on the alert to accomplish the downfall of men.

It was this malign spirit, Satan, that came to the Lord Jesus to tempt Him to rebel against the will of God.

No sooner had the Lord Jesus Christ taken His definite stand to do the will of God, for which He came into the world, than Satan became very active against Him. God had acknowledged before all the celestial beings that Jesus was His Son, in whom He was well pleased. This He did at the baptism. Also at the baptism the Holy Spirit, as we have already seen, came upon Jesus in the form of a dove. Thus He was filled with the Spirit in a new influx of power. Luke tells us that He, being full of the Holy Spirit, "returned from the Jordan and was led in the Spirit in the wilderness." Mark tells us that Jesus was driven forth into the wilderness by the Spirit. Even our Lord did not run into temptation. His holy nature drew back from any contact with Satan and sin. But, since He came into the world to deal with the sin question, naturally the Spirit, since He was walking the life of faith, led Him to the great encounter with Satan. Of course, He was not afraid of Satan, but naturally would draw back from the very contact with sin.

We are told that our Lord fasted forty days and forty nights. During this time He was also "tempted of the devil," as Luke tells us in 4:2. While He was in the wilderness during these forty days, He was also with the wild beasts. During this time Jesus did not eat anything. Some people have been known to fast for as much as forty days. It seems that, when Jesus completed His period of fasting and being tempted, He especially became hungry. The pangs of hunger seemed to seize upon Him in a new way. When He was thus in this weakened condition, Satan came to Him and continued his tempting Jesus. It seems that Satan kept his major temptation until the last. There are three of them. Matthew gives one order for the temptations, whereas Luke gives a different one. Both mention Satan's insistence upon Christ's turning the stone into bread as the first one. Matthew lists as the second one Satan's taking Jesus to the Temple and insisting that He leap to the abyss below, whereas Luke gives as the second one Satan's taking Christ into an exceeding high mountain and showing Him all the kingdoms of the world and offering these to Him upon the condition that He would fall down and worship him, Satan. Thus Matthew and Luke simply interchange the positions of the second and third temptations.

When the devil came to Jesus, he said, "If thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it become bread." Satan did not imply that he doubted that Jesus was the Son of God in a special and unique sense. God had, at the baptism forty days prior to this time, declared Jesus as His Son. Satan acknowledges this fact and states that admission in the form of the conditional clause, which he uses in the original Greek. One could translate the sentence just as accurately by saying, "Since you are the Son of God..." The reply of our Lord to the devil was this: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone" (Luke 4:4). Jesus took His stand upon the Scriptures, believing everything that God had said and taking each utterance and promise at its face value. The scripture to which Jesus referred is found in Deuteronomy 8:3. An examination of the context of the original passage shows that this language was spoken to Israel. God brought him out of Egypt and led him through the wilderness in order to teach him the one lesson that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Man is a spiritual being. His higher nature demands that upon which it can grow and thrive. It is conceded that the physical part of man's anatomy must be fed and nourished by physical, material food. For a person to look after his temporal affairs but to neglect his spiritual welfare is to fail utterly in this life. God gives commands concerning the things which come into the lives of His people. He knows what experiences each one needs in order to develop his spiritual nature. He, therefore, brings various things into the life of each of His children. Every born-again person who has spiritual discernment recognizes the truthfulness of this position. Personally, I can look back over my life, can recognize the checkered course of the past, and can see, by faith, the unobserved hand of God guiding and directing, even in those experiences that, at the time, seemed bitter. Now, in the light of experience, progress, and development, it becomes evident to me that each bitter experience was designed for my good. Thus each was ordered of the Lord for the enrichment of my life, spiritually. This is the meaning of the statement, "Man shall not live by bread alone," in its original context.

Jesus had left glory and had taken on our nature--not our sinful nature, but simply the human nature, apart from sin. "Who ...though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation" (Heb. 5:7-9). He was made perfect. Not that He lacked anything, or was imperfect, but He reached the glory state through the things which He suffered. The thought that Jesus was made perfect through suffering might be illustrated as follows: Back in the days prior to the extensive use of electricity, coal-oil lamps were used. In the use of these lamps carbon would collect on tile chimneys. We used to call it soot, which was pure carbon in the ordinary, natural state. Great quantities of carbon, throughout the past great geological ages of the history of the world, were subjected to extreme heat and terrific pressure. Molecules of carbon were forced, under such intense heat, together. When this happened, the carbon was brought into the diamond stage. The diamond is pure carbon, thus treated. There is, therefore, chemically no difference between the soot on the old lamp chimney and the diamond. In this connection I think of the soot as illustrating the human, fleshly nature of our Lord. By the intense heat and terrific pressure of temptation, opposition, to which He was subjected, His body was brought into the diamond stage, being made perfect through suffering: "For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (Heb. 2:10). Everything that He endured contributed to bringing Him into the diamond stage. Everything to which the born-again person is subjected will contribute to his being brought into the diamond stage, thus preparing him for residence in glory with God throughout the eternal ages.

Thus Satan was rebuffed when he endeavored to get Christ to perform a miracle in His own behalf and not to trust God to supply His every need. Though our Lord never used His divine power to relieve any need of His own, He, in contrast to this fact, used His divine power to provide for the needs and necessities of others.