Join us each Sunday Morning as we walk through the gospel according to Luke.

A taste of this great book.

And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.  Luke 4:1-2

One of the brightest promises in the realm of Christian psychology appears in Hebrews 4:15, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”  While other religions communicate teachings exclusively through prophets, demigods, and gurus, Christianity promises that the transcendent God became man.  Thus, Christians receive assurance that God truly understands our struggles and temptations.  Jesus walked like we walk, hungered like we hunger, and felt as we feel.  While the omniscience of God intellectually satisfies us that God knows how we feel, the humanity of Jesus assures us psychologically that He felt how we feel.

For the glory of the promise of the character of our High Priest, this doctrine runs into struggles when you attempt to reconcile the divine nature of Christ with temptation.  How can Jesus understand what it is to be tempted when His divine nature prevented Him from sinning?  Were not His temptations mere illusion?  How can He know what it is to face lust, gossip, pride, hatred, or lying?  We may intellectually understand that as a consequence of omniscience he knows what it is like, but that fails to speak to our affections.  Did the divine nature insulate Jesus from the brute force of temptation that we suffer?  Did He feel temptation like we feel it?

The first temptation of Jesus occurred after forty days of fasting.  Jesus possessed a human nature.  His humanity required food.  After forty days of famine, Jesus was at the extreme end of His strength.  Then Satan came to tempt Him.  The story leaves us with a picture of the worst temptation ever, a temptation that no other man ever had nor ever will face.

In this extremity, Jesus faced the true alternatives of obedience and disobedience.  His human nature knew it must obey God but it also felt the full force of the temptation.  That extreme hunger made the prospect of bread nearly irresistible. (“And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.” Luke 4:3)  In that hunger, the suffering of his humanity made the prospect of the cross abusive.  How could He face the cross when forty days without food were so devastating to His human nature?  Why not bypass the pain for the dominion which was His by right? (“And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.” Luke 4:6)  The isolation and exclusion from that humanity which He had created made a visible display of power enticing.  Why not prove Himself to be God before the people who would reject Him? (“And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence.” Luke 4:9)

Do not imagine that His divine nature insulated Jesus from experiencing the full force of his temptation.  The human nature yearned for bread; the divine nature desired obedience.  The human nature longed to bypass suffering; the divine nature understood its necessity.  The human nature desired acceptance; the divine nature planned rejection.  We endure a similar experience.  Our old nature yearns for evil, our new nature desires obedience.  Jesus understands exactly what temptation feels like.

Rather than ask if Jesus can understand our temptation, we ought wonder that we could ever understand what He faced.  In comparison, the temptation we experience seems poor and weak compared with the onslaught He faced.  This extremity was necessary.  It reveals Jesus to be that great high priest who understands how we feel.  It gives Him the special qualifications needed to intercede on our behalf to the Father.  He knows what we endure.  He knows our struggles with obedience.  What great comfort it is that Jesus understands our weakness!

That does not end the blessing of this doctrine.  Jesus suffered this extreme temptation in order that He might fulfill all righteousness.  He was the second Adam to create a second humanity for whom He could impute that perfect righteousness.  We cannot obey.  We cannot achieve our own righteousness.  Jesus did it for us.  He must obey to the uttermost, because we cannot obey in the least.

When we receive Jesus by faith, we become part of that new humanity.  Then obedience does not require our own effort.  Obedience flows from the understanding of our new nature.  We can answer our temptations by reminding ourselves of that new nature.  We cannot behave as if we were still part of the old humanity.  We are no longer liars, haters, coveters, gossipers, or narcissists.  The change in our nature changes our behavior.  Obedience is no longer a matter of duty.  It has become a matter of being.  The command is not “do this.”  It is “be who you are.”

Jesus faced the superlatively worst temptation ever.  He understands what it feels like.  He did it to make you righteous, so that you can face temptation armed with a new nature.  Do not approach obedience thinking you can do this.  Be who you are in Christ.