Mission of God to Save Sinners — Jesus’ Overcoming Temptations
February 22, 2026
CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH, Norfolk, VA
Text: Matthew 4:1-11, Genesis 3:1–21, Romans 5:12–19
In the name of Jesus, Amen!
As we are traveling from place to place in the United States to visit congregations, I have been preaching in a series of sermons about the Mission of God, because Christian Mission is God’s Mission to save sinners. Mission of God comes from the loving heart of God, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”. Last Sunday, through the 3-dimensional image of Jesus’ Transfiguration, we see a glimpse of salvation history and the overall picture of How God carries out His mission by His Son and through His people. Today, we’ll talk about why Jesus’ overcoming the temptations is an important part of mission of God to save sinners. Sometimes people ask me why God allowed Adam to sin in the first place. They say, “Why does God have to make things so complicated and make trouble for Himself and for humanity. I mean, why did He allow people to sin and then to die. And then He had to take pains and sent His own begotten Son to suffer and die for our sins in order to save us?”
To answer this question, again, we need to see the big picture. For someone who reads the Bible for the first time, after reading the first couple of pages of Genesis if he jumps directly to the very end of the book of Revelation, or if you are not bias and read the Bible like you would read for any other book, you would conclude that God created human beings in order to be with Him forever. That is God created men to live. Though Adam and Eve were created good for everything God created was very good, however, the quality of Adam’s life is weak and vulnerable. You see. Something can be very good but vulnerable. A piece of art can be very beautiful and good but may be easily ruined. A little baby is sweet, precious and good but may be easily harmed. Adam’s life before the fall was good. He had good relationship with God, but he was vulnerable. He had a life that could be tempted and fail. That’s exactly what happened in our OT reading, Genesis 3. Our very first ancestors were tempted by the ancient serpent and failed miserably. So, did people of Israel again and again. And so do we all the people of the world including you and me. People struggle with temptations and fail again and again. The vulnerability of the old life that comes from Adam fails to resist temptations, therefore, sins and dies. Today’s epistle reading, Romans 5 says, “just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” The old life was created good, but vulnerable.
A thing can be good in and by itself, or looks good on surface, but if we do it in a way that is against the will and Word of God it becomes sin. We see this play out in our life. Food is good for the body as we even pray to God to “give us daily bread.” But it may become a temptation, even a sin if we are gluttonous and greedy to have more, more of a good stuff, even to try to get them in an unreasonable or unjust way. Trusting God in time of danger is not only good but commendable. However, if (for example) you have a bet with someone, saying “I can jump from a high building and won’t get hurt because I trust God to protect me from any harm,” that’s spiritual pride and would be a totally different story. The reason that it’s hard for people to tell the difference between having a good thing and being tempted to sin is because human beings after the fall they forsake God. They are without fear of God, don’t have the Word of God in their heart that show what is good and what is bad, and don’t trust in God as who He is, therefore are easily tempted to sin. When you flip through the rest of the Bible, you can see this happened again and again in people, especially in God’s people of Israel. They turned the good desire to have food and water into grumbling against God and Moses. They turned the seemingly innocent marriage with foreign women into idol worshipping family and culture. The old life in Adam is easily tempted to sin. And the wage of sin is death. God knew this and He had a plan, a mission to act.
As an important part of Mission of God to Save Sinners, Jesus’ overcoming temptations gives humanity a new, strong and incorruptible life in Christ Jesus. The very first thing that Jesus did after He was baptized by John the Baptist to fulfill all righteousness was to experience temptations from the devil and He won. This was Jesus’ first task before He started to do His ministry in Palestine, teaching, healing and driving out demons. By overcoming the temptations Jesus won the battle with the devil on our behalf, and showed the heavenly hosts and now shows us that a stronger one has come, and a stronger life in Christ Jesus can be victorious over temptation. (1) After 40 days and 40 nights of fasting, although Jesus had legit and reasonable need to have food, He refuted the temptation to use His power as the Son of God to turn stones into loaves of bread, saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (2) Jesus refuted the Tempter’s misquoting the Bible and resisted the temptation of spiritual pride. (3) Jesus didn’t bow to the temptation of having “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory,” but refuted the devil, saying, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” By resisting Satan’s temptations, Jesus finished the first task of Mission of God to save sinners, and showed to heaven and earth that a new life came to be.
By taking upon Himself human nature, Jesus experienced what we go through in life as a flesh and blood human being. He had all the human feelings, and was “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” He was hungry and thirsty. He was tired and He cried. By bearing sins of the whole world and the weakness of men, Jesus experienced temptations and the effect of sin on our behalf. And in our place, He suffered the wrath of God against sin and died so that sinners like you and me can be forgiven. Jesus not only is our supreme example of how to overcome temptations, but most importantly is our savior who bore our sins, but eliminated them on the cross by dying and resurrecting from the dead. Since Jesus went through temptations in the wilderness and suffered and died on the cross, Jesus won the victory over sin, death and the devil, and became the first fruit of this new and strong life. Therefore, God allowed Adam to sin in order that He could give human beings a new life in Christ that that is strong, incorruptible and able to overcome every temptation.
Thanks be to God! Jesus continues His mission to save sinners by forgiving our sins and helping us to overcome temptations. In Baptism, Jesus not only forgives our sins, but also creates faith and gives us a new life in Him by the water of regeneration. His Word and Sacraments nourish this new life received through faith in Him alone, as Jesus promises us, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” As we abide in Christ and He lives in us, and as we walk with Him in prayer, meditate His Word, and face trials and temptations in life, Jesus helps us overcome the temptations and saves us in time of trouble as our friend and our savior. The Epistle of the Hebrews says in 4:14-16, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!
