When Jesus was standing on top of the temple, Satan tempted Him to throw Himself off of the temple to test whether or not God would keep His word to make sure that Jesus would not even dash His foot against a stone. It would seem that the whole goal of Satan with this temptation was to get Christ to doubt our Heavenly Father's capacity or inclination to go to any lengths to save His Only Begotten Son and chosen Messiah, even so far as to save Jesus if He deliberately placed Himself in harm’s way. In a way, Satan was carrying on the same debate with Jesus that they had had in the Premortal Existence. It was foreordination, with its accompanying free will, agency, and personal responsibility, versus predestination, which usurped any personal agency and denied any sense of responsibility. In a way, Satan was saying that if God already proclaimed that He would protect Jesus from harm, then it didn't matter if Christ tried to be good or bad because God would not allow Him to be hurt, even if harm was the natural and inevitable consequence of His actions. But behind all of this, there is an even subtler temptation. Leaving aside the arguments for or against tempting God by deliberately placing Himself in harm's way to prove a point, besides trying to get Jesus either killed or disqualified from fulfilling His mission by rebelling against His Father Satan was also trying to get Jesus to abandon the temple. Christ was able to stand firm against the temptations He faced in part because He was the Son of God but also because He was in the temple. “Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen.” (D&C 87:8). Christ was not guaranteed to withstand every temptation that He faced, just as He was not guaranteed to be protected if He had thrown Himself off the roof of the temple. But He gave himself every advantage when facing off against His enemy. He fasted and prayed, He quoted scriptures that He had memorized, and He went to the temple so that He could stand in a holy place and be not moved. The temptations we face can be incredibly sophisticated. As hard as we try, we may not see all of the angles of attack, and if we can't even see where the attacks are coming from, then odds are we haven't defended ourselves equally well at all points. But when we stand in a holy place, like the temple or even in our own homes, then we can hold our ground and be not moved. As we look to the Savior and study and ponder the ways that He was tempted in ways just like we are but He did not give in, then we will find new ways to withstand the temptations we face.
