Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Did The Fact That The Lord Jesus Was Tempted Imply That He Could Sin?

No. The Lord Jesus had no sinful nature to give way to temptation. He was both impeccable and holy inwardly and outwardly.

Heb 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

The expression at the end "without sin" is literally sin apart in the original Greek. That is, He had no sinful nature to respond to the temptations from without. Some would object that if He was not susceptible to commit sin, what was the point of the temptation? It would not be a real temptation, so they say.

First, it would help to view that temptation could also mean testing. The Lord Jesus was tested not to show that He was not pure gold, but, on contrary, to demonstrate that He truly was pure gold. His temptation was a demonstration that He could not sin and therefore qualified to be man's Savior.

Second, an impregnable fortress could be attacked. A seven-fleet warship could be besieged by row boats. Some people could be that stupid. Sin makes people and Satan that stupid even to attempt such an offensive. The attack is real. The castle feels it. The warship senses it. But it cannot topple or sink it.