The first temptation: Satan approached Jesus and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread." (Matt. 4:3) Here, Satan is tempting Jesus on the presumption that he is God. After all, only God can change stones into bread. Yet, if Jesus were to acquiesce to the temptation by converting stones into bread in order to eat them, worst case scenario, he would be breaking his fast with the possibility of sinning against God.
With the second temptation, Satan approached Jesus as if he were a mere holy man. For if a man could summon angels to his side he would undoubtedly be holy but he would not be God. After all, the Almighty would need no such assistance. With the second temptation the tempter said, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you and 'with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'" (Matt. 4:6) But in the absence of such angelic assistance, the cost of succumbing to Satan’s proposal is one of physical death. A pattern begins to emerge: As the devil downgrades the status Jesus from God to a holy man, the consequences of consenting to the second temptation- in contrast to the first temptation -becomes more perilous.
With the first temptation, Satan approaches Jesus as if he were God (this one, he got right). The second temptation our Lord is presumed to be a holy man, but only a man. And with the third temptation, Satan assumes the worst: “Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, ‘All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.’” (Matt. 4:9) In assuming the worst, Satan’s approached Jesus as if he were a sinner; because only a sinner would worship the Devil. However, the cost of consenting to such a temptation, in the absence of repentance, would forfeit the salvation of one’s soul. And to be sure, there is no greater loss than to be forever banished from God’s presence.
Notice that the more sinful Satan believes you to be, the more gullible you are in his mind; gullible because consenting to his proposal would only spell disaster for the sinner. Indeed, sin darkens the mind. As Jesus said, whoever sins is a slave to sin. Hence, the darkness of sin leads to slavery. No one knows this better than the Satan himself.
Twentieth Century Parallels:
Interestingly, these three temptations and the design behind them, have a twentieth century parallels. With each temptation, Jesus countered with the words of God; specifically from the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy, as you might know, is a series of speeches given by Moses to the Hebrews at the end of their forty year journey in the desert. This took place just before they went into the Promised Land. Moses reviewed all that happened, both good and bad, and what would happen if they would obey or disobey God. The choice was clear. He said, “I have today set before you life and prosperity, death and doom.” (Deuteronomy 30:15) Fidelity to God’s law would merit the former; infidelity would bring about the latter.