Mark 1:12-13 Why was Jesus driven into the wilderness by the Spirit

I think the more important question is:

Why do people act surprised that the Spirit would send
us into the wilderness to be tempted?

Jesus was to be tested. He is 100% God. But He is also
100% human.

These temptations were to his human flesh side. The temptations
were the same as when Eve was tempted.....
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life
(see 1 john 2:16)

And that is how Satan comes after us.... physically (Jesus was hungry, so was Eve), lust of the eyes ( satan showed Him all the Kingdoms, Eve saw that the forbidden fruit was pleasing to the eye), and the pride of life....aka "you don't need God....God didn't say that!" Jesus could have put on a show by floating down from the top of the temple for all to see..... He was given the offer of NOT going to the cross and impressing people....which was not God's Will. God's will was for Jesus to come and to die.

Eve was told that she would be like God if she ate the forbidden fruit and that she wouldn't die..... which was a lie and also it was disobedience to God's word.

I'm trying to explain that Eve's temptation in the garden and Jesus' temptation in the wilderness were times of testing and Satan used the same strategies. However Eve failed.....but Jesus succeeded as a man.

 

I don't think it was the least bit difficult for Jesus, though. I don't mean that in a bad way, I'm actually very happy about it. I just don't think we're on level ground with Jesus when it comes to how we react to temptation. I don't think Eve was, either.

 

To resist temptation as our substitute.

 

I have always thought of it in a different way. While no I don't think Jesus was ever close to giving in to sin, I do think he had the ability to sin and had to fight off the temptations. I feel that is the entire point, the He came down in human form and went through what we go through, feel what we feel. He just succeeded where we fail. But I do believe it was a difficult ordeal for Him to go through, because He chose to go through it as we do on a human level. That is how He helps us now deal with temptation ourselves.

"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." Heb. 4:15 (emphasis mine)

 

Christ did not have a sin nature, so was not like us in that way. Nor did Eve have a sin nature before the moment of sin.....just as npetreley has said.

 

Spirit

The Spirit within Jesus is God, but the flesh was just like yours and mine,the flesh had the sin nature, but His inner being did not.

 

Huh? So you're saying Jesus had a sin nature?

 

Jesus did not have a sin nature, but he was fully human and had to deal with the demands of the flesh. Hunger, for one.

Think about it. If we survived 40 days in the desert without food, what would we be ready to give for just one sip of water, much less a loaf of bread. Have no doubt, Satan's offer of food was a real temptation for Jesus flesh. Otherwise, Satan was wasting his time.

 

What I am saying is Jesus had the same flesh as we had and the flesh has a sinful nature, but Jesus defeated it and through Him we also defeat it.

 

That's some weird wiggy mojo.

 

To quote our hero Senator Kerry, He had a sin nature before He didn't have it.

 

I never said Christ had a sin nature, He does not. What I disagreed with was idea that it wasn't the " least bit difficult for Jesus". And what I said was that believe it was a difficult ordeal to go through, and that, He had the ability to sin and had to fight off the temptations.

I am posting some writing on this topic, that I believe is interesting, that some of you might enjoy reading.


"To obtain, if we can, a clearer understanding of this subject, two points must be kept in view. Christ's was real, though unfallen Human Nature; and Christ's Human was in inseparable union with His Divine Nature. We are not attempting to explain these mysteries, nor at present to vindicate them; we are only arguing from the standpoint of the Gospels and Apostolic teaching, which proceeds on these premisses-and proceeding on them, we are trying to understand the Temptation of Christ. Now it is clear, that human nature. that of Adam before his fall, was created both sinless and peccable. If Christ's Human Nature was not like ours, but, morally, like that of Adam before his fall, then must it be likewise have been both sinless and in itself peccable. We say, in itself-for there is a great difference between the statement that human nature, as Adman and Christ had it, was capable of sinning, and this other, that Christ was peccable. From the latter the Christian mind instinctively recoils, even as it is metaphysically impossible to imagine the Son of God peccable. Jesus voluntarily took upon Himself human nature with all its infirmities and weaknesses-but without taint of the Fall: without sin. It was human nature, in itself capable of sinning, but not having sinned. If He was absolutely sinless, He must have been unfallen. The position of the first Adam was that of being capable of not sinning, not that of being incapable of sinning. The Second Adam also had a nature capable of not sinning, but not incapable of sinning. This explains the possibility of "temptation" or assault upon Him, just as Adam could be tempted before there was in him any inward consensus to it. The first Adam would have been "perfected"-or passed from the capability of not sinning to the incapability of sinning-by obedience. That "obedience"-or absolute submission to the Will of God-was the grand outstanding characteristic of Christ's work; but it was so, because God was His Father, therefore He must be about His business, which was to do the Will of His Father. With a peccable Human Nature He was impeccable; not because He obeyed, but being impeccable He so obeyed, because His Human was inseparably connected with His Divine nature. To keep this Union of the two Nature out of view would be Nestorianism. To sum up:The Second Adam, morally unfallen, though voluntarily subject to all the conditions of our Nature, was, with a peccable Human Nature, absolutely impeccable as being also the Son of God-a peccable Nature. yet an impeccable person: the God-Man. "tempted in regard to all (things) in like manner (as we), without (excepting) sin."
-------- Alfred Edersheim

 

Sinful nature

The sinfull nature which is in all flesh does not mean that we have to sin. This body can be beat into submission.

Matthew 26:41
" Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."


Mark 14:38
" Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."


Romans 6:19
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.


Romans 8:3
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who (do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Jesus never sinned so defeated the sinful nature of the flesh and through Him we can defeat it

1 Corinthians 15:45
So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL " The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Jesus body became a spiritual body and remains the same as He left. We will be reminded of what Christ did for us for eternity. You will be able to see the scares that we put there for our sins.

 

The weakness of the flesh and "sin nature" are very different. You're confusing them.

 

Flesh

The flesh is weakness and also where the sinful nature resides.

Romans 7:18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[Or my flesh] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

Romans 8:3
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

Jesus had the same flesh as we had being tempted, but Jesus defeated it and through Him we also can do the same.

Romans 6:19
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

Hebrews 4:15
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

 

I think the question was ...

...why DRIVEN into the wilderness after He was baptized.

Here is what I'm thinking ---- that the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness just like the children of Israel were sent into the wilderness. Jesus was going the way of His brethren who, having passed through the Red Sea baptized unto Moses, entered into wilderness testing, too (tempted in every way as they were?).

Except 40 days rather than 40 years. And this period preceded Him offering "His promised kingdom" vs. the children of Israel being offered the promised kingdom of Canaan.

skypair