NOTES for Luk 4:12
There are many people in the world who assert, with varying degrees of sincerity, that they would certainly believe in God if God proved to them that He really exists. It is implied that the proof must be utterly obvious and convincing. In essence, in such a case people usually speak of a demonstration, not simply of proof. It would seem that it would cost God nothing to convince anyone of His existence if only He decided to demonstrate Himself, His power, His miracles.
But for some reason He does not do this. The devil, on the contrary, incites Jesus to demonstrate what God refuses to demonstrate. A sort of peculiar levitation. Hovering over an abyss. So that all who see will be convinced: before them is not an ordinary person, but Someone possessing supernatural power. And of course they would follow Him. Why would the devil need this? Does he need the people to follow the Messiah?
Sometimes, apparently, he would not object. Sometimes this even turns out to be useful to him. But only in one case: if the Messiah stops being Himself and becomes what people would like to see Him as. People of precisely the sort who would follow God, but only after a convincing demonstration, and would follow as they are, without changing inwardly at all. Then this would be the devil's victory. God does not refuse demonstrations accidentally. He is not going to attract anyone to Himself by force or by miracles.
Even God's power is an external factor for the human heart. The only internal factor for a person is God's love, because it always comes from within, from the depth of the heart. And it cannot be proved. It cannot be demonstrated externally as power or miracles can be demonstrated. But one can follow God only when one follows His love. This is essential; in God's love is His depth, and so the fullness of His person opens to us. Power and miracles are of course also from Him, but they are not the center of His person, only its periphery.
He wants to make us part of His life essentially, not only externally. And the Messiah came into the world precisely for this. He came to bring the Kingdom into the world. A Kingdom in which dwelling presupposes relationships of that very love which is the revelation of God's depth. But the devil advises Him to abandon the depth and, instead of the depth, show people the surface, the outer shell, the periphery instead of the center. Then he, the devil, will win his victory. For he can somehow adapt even to God's power and to God's miracles. What truly frightens him is only one thing: God's love.