Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
The true Lord, who alone is God, is proclaimed within the Law and made known in the Gospel by way of Christ his Son; him alone we must worship, and from him alone expect all good things, not from Satan. Since the Lord thus manifestly showed that the true and one God, who had been declared by the Law — for the God whom the Law had proclaimed, him Christ showed to be the Father, whom alone the disciples of Christ ought to serve — and since, by the very sayings that are in the Law, he brought our adversary to nothing, while the Law bids us praise the Demiurge as God and to serve him alone: it is no longer fitting to go searching for some other father, either alongside this one or ranked over him, since God is one, and he justifies both the circumcised and the uncircumcised alike by faith. For if there had been some other, more perfect father above this one, he would never have destroyed Satan by means of this God's own words and precepts. For ignorance cannot be dissolved by another ignorance, just as a defect cannot be removed by another defect. If, then, the Law comes from ignorance and defect, how could the sayings contained in it dissolve diabolical ignorance and conquer the strong one? For the strong man cannot be conquered by one who is weaker or even equal to him, but only by one who is more powerful. And more powerful than all is the Word of God, who in the Law indeed proclaims aloud: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God"; and, "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole soul"; and, "him you shall worship, and him alone shall you serve." And in the Gospel, by these very same sayings, destroying the apostasy, he conquered the strong one by the voice of the Father, and confessed the precept of the Law to be his own sayings, saying: "You shall not tempt the Lord your God." For it was not by some alien saying, but by the very saying of his own Father, that he destroyed the adversary and conquered the strong one.
But he taught us that we are set free through this very precept: those who hunger are to endure the food that is given by God, while those who stand in the loftiness of the whole gift of grace, or who trust in works of righteousness, or who are adorned with pre-eminence of ministry, are by no means to be puffed up or to tempt God, but to be lowly-minded in everything and to hold ready the word, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God" — just as the Apostle also taught, saying, "not minding high things, but condescending to the lowly," and not to be taken captive by riches, nor by glory, nor by present show, but to know that one must worship the Lord your God and serve him alone, and not believe him who falsely promised what were not his own to give, saying, "All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." By his very own admission, then, bowing before him and carrying out his bidding amounts to a plunge downward, away from God's splendor. And what agreeable or worthy thing could a fallen being possibly share in? What else remains for such a one to hope for or look forward to, besides death? For death stands nearest to whoever has already fallen. Nor, further, will he ever make good on what he pledged. How, indeed, could a fallen creature bestow such gifts? Moreover, granted that it is over mankind that he claims lordship, it is in reality God — against the will of our heavenly Father, apart from whom no sparrow drops to the earth — whose sovereignty holds; so that his boast, "All these have been handed to me, and I give them to whomever I choose," was uttered out of sheer swollen conceit. For the created order does not lie beneath his authority, since he is himself nothing more than one among the created things. Nor is it he who apportions the rule of men to men; on the contrary, every arrangement touching mankind proceeds according to the ordinance laid down by God the Father. Yet the Lord tells us that the adversary is untruthful by nature and has never once taken his stand in what is true. Given, then, that he is untruthful and does not stand in what is true, it is obvious that he spoke falsely in claiming, "All these have been handed to me, and I give them to whomever I choose" — he was uttering a falsehood.