The picture above from tumblr.com is a fitting reminder of the temptation we face to copy the actions of Jesus in the Gospels. Luke 4:1-13 records the devil tempting Jesus to sin. First, notice the link between Luke 3:38 (“the son of God”) and Luke 4:3, 9. Luke is showing us how the Son of God handled temptation, not primarily how we should handle it. Luke shows us a Savior who defeated Satan in Luke 4 and would ultimately defeat him at the end of the Story on the cross. It is because we have such a Savior that we have any hope of defeating temptation, too. We don’t defeat temptation because we can quote appropriate verses from Deuteronomy (just think how helpless a brand new Christian is until they build up enough Scripture memory to tackle a variety of temptations!). No, first, we defeat temptation when we trust our Savior to do what we cannot do. Then, we can copy Jesus by living out the Scripture we know to be truer than temptations’ lies.