How could Christ be tempted of the devil?

thenami said:
Christ couldn't be tempted by the devil. He wasn't just a man like we are. We can never be a perfect being like Christ, but only Christ like.
Our theological thoughts and beliefs are defined by our scriptural understanding, rooted in our own humanity.
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"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." Matt. 4;1
"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." Heb. 4:15
 
thenami said:
Ops... I know that's what I typed, but I meant it as in he couldn't give in to temptation. My bad... the devil tried but failed. Sometimes I just need to slow down and read what I write. Thanks for the correction!

Just goes to show we screw up as humans, but Christ never did! Amen~
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Yea, I'm guilty of that myself from time to time.
 
thenami said:
Ops... I know that's what I typed, but I meant it as in he couldn't give in to temptation. My bad... the devil tried but failed. Sometimes I just need to slow down and read what I write. Thanks for the correction!

Just goes to show we screw up as humans, but Christ never did! Amen~
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Agreed. HE was temped just as us because HE is just like us, HUMAN. But because HE is God, HE does not have a sin nature that would give in to that temptation in order to sin.
 
oldhermit said:
In Philippians 2:6, the apostle Paul begins with the acknowledgement that Jesus is God and provides us with a revealed analysis of his redemptive function. Paul does not begin his discussion of Jesus from the vantage point of the incarnation but from that of eternity. What Paul stresses in the first part of this chapter is the example of humility that Jesus gave us in his willingness to divest himself of this form for a time on our behalf. This of course does not suggest that he ceased be God. He does not strip himself of deity. I am quite sure that we will never fully understand all that is involved in Jesus’ emptying himself of divine form and equality. All we can rely on is the language of the text. The word translated emptied means to lay aside. How do we explain how, even in the flesh, he is still God yet remains so without retaining anything that defines divine nature? Perhaps ‘to lay aside’ offers the best explanation. He laid it aside as one would a garment, then in Hebrews chapter one we will see him take it up again.

In order for Jesus to fulfill his redemptive mission, he must first assume a fleshly posture. We can find at least four reasons for this in scripture. 1) Divine essence cannot die. As man he will die. 2) The requirements of the Law of Moses required a sacrifice of flesh and blood. Divine essence is not made of flesh and blood. 3) His heritage must come from a specific fleshly linage. As God, he has no linage. 4) The demands of the Law were imposed upon man and it required that man fulfill them. The Law required not only that man fulfill its demands, but that only a man of the seed of Abraham to whom the Law was given. Thus, a Gentile could never have satisfied the demands of the Law, Romans 1:1-5.

Fulfilling the function of a sacrifice required that he assume the form of a sacrifice. In this metamorphosis, he poured out of himself every expression of deity. Divine essence is now submitted to limitations. As God, these characteristics of essence are, by their very nature, without boundaries or limitations, but as man, he will be subject to all of the same sets of determined relations that limit all men. Divine character is now submitted to vulnerability. As God, he cannot be tempted, but as man, he yields his divine character to the onslaught of Satan. He becomes the second Adam. He exposes his own moral integrity to the same temptations that are common to all men, Hebrews 2:18, 4:15, and 5:2. Yet, unlike Adam, he maintains his integrity all the way to the cross, Hebrews 4:15 and 2:9. He succeeds where Adam failed. He simply never sinned, but he could have.
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Very true..
 
Hobie said:
Matthew 4:1
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

I came across the view that Christians do not believe that Christ could have sinned and failed in his mission on earth. Well then how could he be 'tempted' in the desert?
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Notice that Satan used the universal elements of temptation: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. These are the same temptational elements
he used in Eden. The devil was convinced that the human part of Christ would succomb to the standard operating procedures he had developed in the beginning.
What the devil didn't understand was the true nature of Jesus, so he underestimated him. Jesus was not actually tempted, but to be our high priest, had to experience them so as to understand us better.
 
Hobie said:
Matthew 4:1
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

I came across the view that Christians do not believe that Christ could have sinned and failed in his mission on earth. Well then how could he be 'tempted' in the desert?
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You have to marvel at so many people dabbling in what might have been in the context of alternative realities.

Personally, I find it hard enough to muse very deeply upon what is. Those other realities have no impact upon what is.

The real issue at hand that should concern us today is the way things actually did happen, and how they relate to us today. How do we grapple with what actually did happen, and the impacts upon our lives right now and beyond.

Isn't it wonderful that the Lord triumphed over temptation and evil? Isn't it fantastic that He obediently went to the cross to take the penalty upon Himself for our sin? This story line, as we know it today, regardless of what might have been, has set before us a task for spreading the Gospel that seems to have slowed down considerable here in the West, which is not surprising when we see the increasing resistance to any tolerance for the Gospel message in a culture dead-set upon self-destruction!

It's therefore even harder to punch through the noise and morass of evil influences throughout in order to find those whose hearts have been prepared to be discipled through to maturity in the faith.

May the Lord open my eyes to see more of those who are ready and willing, and that He open the doors of access for us to reach those precious souls.

MM
 
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