“What Makes Jesus’ Temptation Innocent?
One common objection to the argument thus far is that this account of things confuses temptation with sinful desire. The objection goes something like this: “The Bible teaches that it is not a sin to be tempted", but you make even the temptation to lust a sin. Are you not saying that all temptation is sin? Wasn’t Jesus tempted like us yet without sin (Heb. 4:15)? How can you say that temptation equals sin?”
The short answer to these questions is that we do not believe that all temptation equals sin. Plainly, Jesus was tempted, but he never sinned (Matt. 4:1–11; Heb. 4:15). So unless we want to imply that Jesus was a sinner, we must affirm that not all temptation equals sin. But in saying this, we must be careful to define what we mean by temptation and precisely what our temptation has in common with the temptation that Jesus experienced. Too often we are guilty of projecting our own sinful experiences back onto Jesus. But this is precisely backward. We should not make our sinful experience of temptation the measure of Jesus’ sinless experience of temptation. On the contrary, Jesus’ sinless experience of temptation should be the measure of ours. There are both similarities and differences between Jesus’ experience of temptation and ours.
Yes, Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, but his experience of temptation was”“not identical to ours. This is the necessary corollary of Christ’s sinless perfection—which theologians sometimes call Christ’s impeccability—and it is anticipated in Hebrews 4:15: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (nasb). There are at least two important observations to make about this text for our purposes.
First, the term for temptation (peirazō) in this text is likely a specific reference to the redemptive sufferings of Christ. In general, the verb peirazō”“means to put someone to the test.20 But the only other time Hebrews uses the term in connection with Jesus is in 2:18, which is a specific reference to his sufferings: “For since He Himself was tempted [peirastheis] in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted [peirazomenois]” (nasb). Many commentators, therefore, interpret the use of the term in 4:15 in light of its use in 2:18 and conclude that both are a reference to his suffering up to and including the cross.21 Thus, for Jesus to be tempted in every way as we are does not mean”“that he himself faced each and every individual trial that each and every human has ever faced. Such an interpretation would of course be absurd. It means that he experienced the ultimate trial and temptation “according to likeness”22—a possible allusion to the fact that Jesus suffered as a human. That means that Jesus experienced his sufferings while being subject to all the frailties and weaknesses of embodied life. That is why the New English Bible renders it as “One who, because of his likeness to us, has been tested every way, only without sin. “Second, the key thing to note about Jesus’ suffering and temptation is that it was “without sin.” There was no aspect of Jesus’ temptation that ever involved sin on his part. He had no desires that predisposed him to sin. His response to external pressures never resulted in an evil thought or attraction. And, of course, he never engaged in any sinful response to the suffering that he faced. From top to bottom, he was perfect, innocent, wholesome, and good in the face of every temptation. That means that Jesus’ experience of temptation was never internalized into any disposition toward evil. Ever. Jesus’ attractions—whatever they were—were never directed toward something that his Father had prohibited. Jesus’ impeccability means not merely that he never sinned but that it was not possible for him to sin. Thus we agree with Augustine, “God forbid that we should ever say that He is able to sin!”
This is not our experience of temptation. We experience a level of internalization that Jesus’ impeccability never allowed. Yes, he faced the same sorts of external pressures to sin. No, those pressures never had a landing pad in his heart. In the face of withering satanic attacks, he only always desired his Father’s will (Matt. 26:39; John 5:19). The words “without sin” indicate that, while Jesus faced temptations as we do, his experience of those temptations was quite different from ours in that his was always sinless.
Jesus’ impeccability in this regard has provoked some people to wonder whether his experience of temptation can ever be as intense as that of the sinners that he came to save. Can he really have known our weaknesses when he himself was not capable of sinning? This question points us to a glorious irony of Jesus’ sinless nature. It did not lessen his experience of temptation but only intensified it. Leon Morris has said it this way:
The man who yields to a particular temptation has not yet felt its full power. He has given in while the temptation has yet something in reserve. Only the man who does not yield to a temptation who, as regards that particular temptation, is sinless, knows the full extent of that temptation."
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