039. Chapter 18 - Some Problems Concerning The Temptation

Chapter 18 - Some Problems Concerning The Temptation (1) How Was it Possible for the Holy Spirit to Lead Christ Into Temptation?

“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man; but each man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed” (James 1:13, James 1:14). Is that which is denied God in the Epistle of James attributed to the Holy Spirit in the Gospels? It is well to remember that the Holy Spirit did not tempt Jesus. The devil did that. So while it is true “He himself tempteth no man, yet He permits us to be tempted by Satan. In this case the Spirit took time by the forelock and began the battle by selecting the time and place where it should be fought. It was inevitable that the devil would assail Jesus immediately after His baptism as He was beginning His campaign to overthrow Satan’s kingdom. The early days of His public ministry would have been the terrific battleground, but by the choice of the Spirit, Jesus faced the devil in his lair. Jesus did not seek to be tempted. This is the very sort of temptation He met and conquered. But led by the Spirit, the decisive struggle is fought to a victorious conclusion before the public ministry begins. These problems are now clearly and finally settled. He does not waver or change His program. He goes straight forward to their execution. Can anyone read the words: “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” and not see a new significance in the instructions of Jesus to pray: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one”? Testing and trying form an inescapable part of our lives. But should we not pray for the guidance of the Spirit when the dark hours come? Should we not commit ourselves to His guidance before they come? Should we not pray constantly that God shall so lead us that no temptation too strong for us shall assail us? And that we may be delivered from that bondage to the evil one which results from continual moral failure?

(2) Why Was it Necessary for Christ to be Tempted?

Man was not made a machine, but given the divine gift of a will and made the arbiter of his own fate. With this came the choice between good and evil. He fell. But by the stormy path of temptation the nobility of those who overcome is achieved. Jesus did not need to face temptation in order to develop character. His character was already perfect and sinless. The very fact that He came to share our earthly experience would seem to compel the facing of temptation. At any rate, Hebrews makes it plain that He came unto that fullness which was necessary in His Messianic work by the path of temptation and suffering: “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15, Hebrews 4:16). “Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:17, Hebrews 2:18).

(3) How Could Jesus Be Tempted, if He Was the Son of God?

God is perfect. “God cannot be tempted with evil.” How then could Jesus, if He shared God’s perfection, experience temptation? This is a part of the mystery of the incarnation. He was tempted because He is the Son of man. He conquered every temptation because He is the Son of God. It is not a sin to be tempted. But it is sin to fail to resist the temptation. The experience of temptation is part of the earthly burden He assumed when “He humbled Himself to be born of a virgin.”

“Each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.” It comes from within. “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). “The things which proceed Out of the man are those that defile him” (Mark 7:15). This is the rule for mankind. But Jesus was unique. There was no sin — no hidden lust in the heart of Jesus. Just here we see something of the significance of the virgin birth. If Jesus had had a human father and mother, how could He have escaped the contamination of sin? Does a stream rise above its source? But He was the Son of God. He was begotten by the Holy Spirit. He took upon Himself the form of a man, but He did not succumb to the sins of the flesh. The temptation which came to Him came from without. His soul was absolutely pure; hence He thrust the temptations away. Did Jesus then feel the full power of temptation? Did He really share our experience if the temptations came from without and if He had no background of moral failure in His life? He did not share our experience completely for He was sinless. “Tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). His experience was unique, but it does not follow that He did not feel the full power of temptation, or that He cannot completely sympathize with us in our trials. “Sympathy with the sinner in his trial does not depend on the experience of sin, but on the experience of the strength of the temptation to sin, which only the sinless can know in its full intensity. He who falls, yields before the last strain” (Westcott on Hebrews 2:18). “The force of temptation depends, not upon the sin involved in what is proposed, but upon the advantage connected with it. And a righteous man, whose will never falters for a moment, may feel the attractiveness of the advantage more keenly than the weak man who succumbs; for the latter probably gave way before he recognized the whole of the attractiveness; or his nature may be less capable of such recognition. In this way the sinlessness of Jesus augments His capacity for sympathy: for in every way He felt the full force of temptation” (Plummer on Luke 4:1-13).

(4) Were the Temptations of Jesus Confined to this Experience in the Wilderness? The particular emphasis which the Gospel writers place upon this experience of Jesus in the wilderness and the absence of any further records of personal encounters between Jesus and the devil have given to this account the title of “the temptation” and might lead to the inference that here and here only was Jesus tempted. But the significant statement of Luke points to the continuance of these struggles. “And when the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him for a season” (Luke 4:13). The preposition in the Greek means “until” as in the marginal reading of the American Standard Version. Plummer suggests the rendering “until a more convenient season.” This plainly indicates the continuance of temptation throughout His ministry.

After the feeding of the 5,000 the multitude (John 6:15) “were about to come and take him by force, to make him king.” This is the same sort of temptation which lurked in the approaches of the devil on the pinnacle of the temple and on the mountain top: the temptation to become a worldly Messiah. It is significant that after this wildly enthusiastic attempt of the crowd Jesus withdrew and spent the most of the night in prayer. It is not suggested that Satan approached Him in person, but the same temptation is put forward through the multitude. At Caesarea Philippi, Peter, filled with amazement and grief at the prediction of the approaching death of Jesus, began to rebuke Him saying, “Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall never be unto thee.” This was a repetition of the temptation on the mountain — to find some way to save the world without dying on the cross. It drew from Jesus the stinging rebuke, “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God but of men.” This clear-cut reference to the last temptation (“Get thee behind me, Satan”) makes it evident that the temptations continued and that this particular one was so full of power as to call forth this sharp rebuke from Christ. The continual suggestions that Judas was in league with the devil and the statements of Jesus just before His betrayal indicate that He felt the presence and sinister power of Satan and his seductions. “The prince of this world cometh: and he hath nothing in me” (John 14:30). “This is your hour and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). Just before the scene in the garden He said, “Ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations” (Luke 22:28). He twice counseled the disciples to “Pray that ye enter not into temptation,” and upbraided them thus: “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” The author of Hebrews, in pointing out that our great High Priest has been tempted and suffered like as we, makes a most beautiful reference to this scene in the garden (Hebrews 5:7, Hebrews 5:8). This, together with the nature of Jesus’ prayers and His anguish of soul, makes evident another assault of Satan. In His moments of agony on the cross Jesus heard the scornful invitations of the Scribes and Pharisees which combined the allurements of all three of these temptations in the wilderness: “If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:39-44). “The evil one seems to have accumulated attacks at the beginning and the end. In the wilderness he employed the attractiveness of painless glory and success; in the garden he tried the dread of suffering and failure. All human temptation takes place through the instrumentality of pleasure or pain” (Plummer on Luke 4:13). But through it all He could say, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).