Tempted in All Points

If any ask how He could be tempted in all points like as we are, if He did not possess a sinful nature, I would remind you that our first parents were sinless when temptation first came to them. They were tested on three points, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. These are the only three ways in which man can be tested. Temptation either comes in the form of fleshly suggestion, the temptation of the body; or, it comes along esthetical lines, the temptation of the soul; or, it appeals to the mind, the temptation of the spirit. When Eve looked upon the tree, she saw that its fruit was good for food — the lust of the flesh; that it was pleasant to the eyes — the lust of the eye; that it was desired to make one wise — the pride of fife. She capitulated on every point. Adam shared in her sin, and thus the race became fallen. To Christ in the wilderness among the wild beasts, Satan said, “Make these stones bread.” It was the appeal to the lust of the flesh. He showed our Lord all the kingdoms of earth and the glory of them — the lust of the eye. He suggested His leaping from the pinnacle of the temple to be sustained by angel hands and thus be accredited to the people — the pride of life. But each temptation failed, even as an arrow is turned back by a steel plate. He was without sin. He suffered being tempted. The very presentation of temptation to Him was in itself so obnoxious that it caused Him the keenest suffering. It is the very opposite generally with us. Peter tells us that “He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.” Sin in our eyes is alluring. It is presented to us as something attractive and delightful. Our corrupt natures respond to the temptation from without, and we have to suffer in the flesh in order to resist. But it was never so with Him. He suffered when sin in any form was presented to Him.
Let me illustrate this. Suppose that a young man of high principles is associated with his own father in the management of a bank. He loves and honors his father, and nothing means more to him than his father’s success, and the recognition of his integrity by his business associates. But suppose someone in the bank should make the suggestion to this son that, if they would act together, they might rob the bank of thousands of, dollars, and cover up their wrong-doing temporarily, and be far out of the country before the evil deed could be discovered. Can you imagine the indignation of this young man, and the mental suffering that he would endure, to think that any one would think him capable of doing anything so vile, so low, when he was his father’s trusted son? He would be humiliated and ashamed to think that anyone would dare to present such a temptation to him. So in a far higher sense, the temptations of our Lord Jesus Christ meant the keenest suffering, for He was absolutely free from all inward tendency to sin.
But we may go farther: “He knew no sin” in the sense that it was unthinkable that He ever could sin, for He was God manifest in the flesh. He did not change His glorious personality when He became man. God the Son from all eternity, became in grace the Son of Man, when He was born of a virgin mother, without human father. He was ever the eternal God. Now just as truly as God ex-carnate cannot sin, so He who was God incarnate was absolutely above anything of the kind. If any ask, “How then could His temptation be real, if there was no possibility that He would fall?” the answer is clear and simple — the temptation was not permitted in order to find out if He would fall, but to prove that He would not. It was thus demonstrated that He was an acceptable sin offering.
In the Old Testament we read again and again of the sin offering, “It is most holy.” How carefully God manifested this in regard to His Son. The temptation proved it, and then on the very day of His crucifixion distinct testimony was given four times to the same wondrous fact. The wife of Pilate besought her husband, “Have thou nothing to do with the blood of this just one.” Pilate himself washed his hands, and said, “I find no fault in him at all.” The penitent thief hanging by His side on the cross declared, “This man hath done nothing amiss.” When He at last yielded up His spirit to the Father, the Roman centurion exclaimed, “Certainly this was a righteous man.” “He knew no sin.”
“He was made sin.” In both the original languages in which the two Testaments were written, the same words were used for sin and sin offering; so we may understand this expression to mean, “He was made the sin offering.” We read in Isaiah 53, “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” How tremendously solemn! He upon whom the law had no claim whatsoever poured out His soul unto death in the sinner’s stead.