In order to fully realize the value of salvation, it is necessary to understand what it cost. In consequence of limited ideas of the sufferings of Christ, many place a low estimate upon the great work of the atonement. The glorious plan of man’s salvation was brought about through the infinite love of God the Father. In this divine plan is seen the most marvelous manifestation of the love of God to the fallen race. Such love as is manifested in the gift of God’s beloved Son amazed the holy angels. ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ ” Testimonies, Vol. 2, 200
The glory of God is His character, and His character can be summed up in one word—love. “Christ points us to the key of all His suffering and humiliation—the love of God.” The Review and Herald, July 17, 1900
God is love, and the fullness of His love was embodied and demonstrated in the human nature of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. “The obedience of Christ to His Father was the same obedience that is required of man. Man cannot overcome Satan’s temptations except as divine power works through humanity. The Lord Jesus came to our world, not to reveal what God in His own divine person could do, but what He could do through humanity.” The Signs of the Times, April 10, 1893
When people say they cannot overcome sin, they speak the truth. Humanity cannot conquer temptation without divine assistance.
“To attribute to His nature a power that it is not possible for man to have in his conflicts with Satan, is to destroy the completeness of His humanity.” Ibid.
“God has called His people to glory and virtue, and these will be manifest in the lives of all who are truly connected with Him. Having become partakers of the heavenly gift, they are to go on unto perfection, being ‘kept by the power of God through faith.’ 1 Peter 1:5. It is the glory of God to give His virtue to His children. He desires to see men and women reaching the highest standard; and when by faith they lay hold of the power of Christ, when they plead His unfailing promises, and claim them as their own, when with an importunity that will not be denied they seek for the power of the Holy Spirit, they will be made complete in Him.” The Acts of the Apostles, 530
The incorruptible, undefiled inheritance that Jesus has provided for us is the moral power of His pure divine love, imparted to us by the Holy Spirit through faith that works by love. “The faith that works by love is an active agent, and purifies the soul, separating from the character everything that is out of harmony with the standard of righteousness.” The Signs of the Times, April 2, 1896
“Today it is still His purpose to sanctify and cleanse His church ‘with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.’ No greater gift than the character that He revealed, can Christ ask His Father to bestow upon those who believe on Him.” Ibid., September 3, 1902
Christ asked His Father to bestow on us the character that He Himself revealed when He was here—the greatest gift He could give to humanity. “What largeness there is in His request! What fullness of grace every follower of Christ has the privilege of receiving!” Ibid. “God is love, and love is life” (Christ’s Object Lessons, 258) but “genuine faith is life” (The Desire of Ages, 347). Genuine faith manifests the power of pure divine love.
To further understand how Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin, we must revisit the temptations He faced. As the Son of God, it was impossible to tempt Him, so He took on humanity so that He could be tempted. However, His temptations were far stronger than anything we will face, and were pressed upon Him when He was at His weakest. “It was in the time of greatest weakness that Christ was assailed by the fiercest temptations.” The Review and Herald, May 14, 1908
“The Son of God placed Himself in the sinner’s stead, and passed over the ground where Adam fell, and endured the temptation in the wilderness which was a hundred-fold stronger than was or ever will be brought to bear upon the human race.” Manuscript Releases, Vol. 6, 334
Christ’s temptations were far stronger than anything we will ever experience, but could He be tempted with every species of crime, violence, and corruption that sinful man is tempted with?
In previous studies, we have shown that humanity’s weakness is inseparably united with its wants and desires, and that the power of the temptation is determined by the strength of the desire—the stronger the desire, the stronger the temptation. Therefore, to be tempted with every species of crime, violence, and corruption that is common to man, Jesus would have had to desire evil.
“Until the requirements of the holy law were applied as the rule of life, fallen man could not understand his own guilt, nor realize his condemned, lost condition. Jesus made application of the law directly to the soul, and laid under its jurisdiction the will and desires and works of man. Wrongdoing and all thoughts and feelings condemned by the law are to be overcome.” Ibid., Vol. 9, 235, 236
A desire for evil is a desire for sin, and an evil desire is not in harmony with the law of God. Jesus was full of God’s love and therefore, evil or sinful desire was not part of His character. “Full of goodness, compassion, and love, He hated only one thing—sin, ‘the transgression of the law.’ ” The Signs of the Times, April 14, 1898
God cannot be tempted with evil because He hates sin, and it was this hatred that made it absolutely impossible for Jesus—God manifest in the flesh—to be tempted with every species of crime, violence, and corruption, all the wickedness that grows out of the three great leading temptations—appetite, presumption, and pride.
“He [Jesus] is a brother in our infirmities, but not in possessing like passions. As the sinless One, His nature recoiled from evil. He endured struggles and torture of soul in a world of sin.” Testimonies, Vol. 2, 202
To be tempted in all points like as we are does not mean that Jesus possessed the same evil passions that fallen humanity possesses, nor the selfishness that is the very foundation of our human nature. His human nature recoiled from evil. Even we do not desire something we hate, and as our Brother, neither did Jesus.
“Our Lord was tempted as man is tempted. He was capable of yielding to temptations, as are human beings. His finite nature was pure and spotless, but the divine nature that led Him to say to Philip, ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father’ also, was not humanized; neither was humanity deified by the blending or union of the two natures; each retained its essential character and properties.” Manuscript Releases, Vol. 16, 182
What was it that made Jesus capable of being tempted?
In Christ, the finite nature of man and the divine nature of God were united, blended in one Person. In this union, they both retained their essential character and properties. The finite nature of Christ, His human nature, was pure and spotless because it was united to His divine nature. It is essential that our character be pure and spotless if it is to be united with the divine nature; for it cannot unite with divine nature if it is defiled with sin.
“But here [the fact that Christ was capable of yielding to temptation] we must not become in our ideas common and earthly, and in our perverted ideas we must not think that the liability of Christ to yield to Satan’s temptations degraded His humanity and He possessed the same sinful, corrupt propensities as man.” Ibid.
Ellen White calls the idea that Christ’s human nature possessed our sinful, corrupt propensities to sin a perverted idea.
How was Satan able to tempt Christ?
“The divine nature, combined with the human, made Him capable of yielding to Satan’s temptations. Here the test to Christ was far greater than that of Adam and Eve, for Christ took our nature, fallen but not corrupted, and would not be corrupted unless He received the words of Satan in the place of the words of God. To suppose He was not capable of yielding to temptation places Him where He cannot be a perfect example for man, and the force and the power of this part of Christ’s humiliation, which is the most eventful, is no instruction or help to human beings.” Ibid., 182, 183
After 4,000 years of sin had devastated man, Jesus took our ruined physical nature, but He did not take our corrupted flesh—our carnal heart or nature. We learned in previous studies that heart, nature, and flesh are all used synonymously when speaking of man’s spiritual nature. Our sinful nature makes it impossible for us to obey the law of God and is contrary to, and out of harmony with, His character (Romans 8). However, the Bible tells us that Jesus’ character reflected the express image of God, that He was the physical embodiment of God’s law, and that He pleased God. It is this same miraculous union of divinity and humanity that God desires to accomplish in us.
To deny that Jesus could yield to temptation would rob Him of His greatest glory. Satan sought to strip Christ of His purity, holiness, and most importantly, His allegiance to God. Allegiance is a matter of the mind. We worship God in our heart and mind, or we worship Satan (See Fundamentals of Christian Education, 426). The battle, my friend, is for the mind.
“We are all under one or the other of two great captains. One, the Creator of man and of the world, is the greatest of all. All owe Him the allegiance of their whole being, the devotion of their entire affection. If the mind is given to His control, and if God has the molding and developing of the powers of the mind, new moral power will be received daily from the Source of all wisdom and all strength. Moral blessings and divine beauties will reward the efforts of everyone whose mind is heaven-bent.” Our High Calling, 80
Paul says that Jesus was tempted like we are. This doesn’t mean that Jesus possessed the same evil passions that fallen humanity possesses. So what did Paul mean?
Paromoios is the Greek word for “like,” which means “after the manner of, in the same manner as, in the same way.” So how did Satan tempt Christ? “The [same] way in which Satan tempted Christ, he is today tempting every soul.” The Review and Herald, May 3, 1906
Deception
To clearly see Satan’s purpose when he brought temptation to Christ and now brings it to us, we need to go back to the beginning. How did Satan tempt Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden? First, he tempted Eve
to distrust God’s love,
- to doubt His wisdom, and
- to transgress His law.
And then, through her, he was able to overthrow Adam (Patriarchs and Prophets, 57).
“When Satan and his rebel host were defeated and cast out of heaven, they did not give up the struggle against right. Satan’s work has been the same since the days of Adam to the present, and he has pursued it with great success, tempting men to distrust God’s love and to doubt his wisdom. And in the great closing work of the rebellion the powers of evil will unite in a desperate struggle to work out their deceptive plans to lead souls to ruin.” The Review and Herald, September 30, 1909. “Satan must deceive in order to lead away.” Ibid., September 14, 1897
“I say to all: Be on your guard; for as an angel of light Satan is walking in every assembly of Christian workers, and in every church, trying to win the members to his side.” Testimonies, Vol. 8, 294
“Satan has ever been ambitious to counterfeit the work of Christ and establish his own power and claims. He does not generally do this openly and boldly. He is artful and knows that the most effectual way for him to accomplish his work is to come to poor, fallen man in the form of an angel of light.” Ibid., Vol. 1, 293
I do not believe that Satan is dressed all in red, with horns, cloven hooves, and a pointy beard carrying a pitchfork; a common depiction of him for millennia. But if he were to come to you as Mrs. White describes him (The Story of Redemption, 46), I don’t think he would fool anyone. Sinful as we may be, without deception Satan would not be able to entrap us if we were to see his true countenance and hear his vile lies against the love and wisdom of God. Sadly, however, Satan seeks to hold man under his deceptive reasoning (The Review and Herald, May 3, 1906), and the unwary soul is led to doubt and distrust God. The result then is that man can be—will be—led into sin. Yes, friends, distrust of God’s love and doubting His wisdom always precedes transgression of His law.
Satan used this same method when he tempted Christ in the wilderness after He had fasted for 40 days. “There came to the Saviour, as if in answer to His prayers, one [Satan] in the guise of an angel from heaven. He claimed to have a commission from God to declare that Christ’s fast was at an end. As God had sent an angel to stay the hand of Abraham from offering Isaac, so, satisfied with Christ’s willingness to enter the bloodstained path, the Father had sent an angel to deliver Him; this was the message brought to Jesus. … Would God treat His own Son thus? Would He leave Him in the desert with wild beasts, without food, without companions, without comfort? He insinuates that God never meant His Son to be in such a state as this.” The Desire of Ages, 118
Satan was trying to tempt Jesus to doubt God’s leading. Forty days of fasting had left Jesus weak, exhausted, and hungry on the verge of death. Jesus had a natural appetite for food that was begging to be gratified. He had been praying for help from heaven, and this angel of light, this supposed messenger from heaven, points to nearby stones and says to Jesus, “If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Ibid., 118
This angel’s first words betray his character, “If Thou be the Son of God.” No heavenly being would insinuate distrust in God’s wisdom. Had Jesus done as Satan suggested, it would have been an expression of doubt. The tempter planned to overthrow Christ using the same means that he had been using so successfully with the human race from the beginning. While Satan tempted in the same manner that he used on Adam and Eve, the circumstances surrounding Christ were far less favorable. Adam didn’t eat the forbidden fruit of the tree because he was hungry.
“How artfully had Satan approached Eve in Eden! ‘Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’ Genesis 3:1. Thus far the tempter’s words were truth; but in his manner of speaking them there was a disguised contempt for the word of God. There was a covert negative, a doubt of the divine truthfulness. Satan sought to instill into the mind of Eve the thought that God would not do as He had said; that the withholding of such beautiful fruit was a contradiction of His love and compassion for man.” Ibid. This deceptive reasoning may include words of truth, but the manner in which the truth is spoken reveals a disguised contempt for God’s word.
“In an insulting, taunting manner, Satan referred to the present weakness and the unfavorable appearance of Christ in contrast with his own strength and glory. He taunted Christ that He was a poor representative of the angels, much more of their exalted Commander, the acknowledged King in the royal courts. His present appearance indicated that He was forsaken of God and man. He said if Christ was indeed the Son of God, the monarch of heaven, He had power equal with God, and He could give him evidence by working a miracle, and changing the stone just at His feet into bread, and relieve His hunger. Satan promised that, if Christ would do this, he would at once yield his claims of superiority, and that the contest between himself and Christ should there be forever ended.” The Review and Herald, August 18, 1874
Jesus could have exercised His divine power and made the stones into bread as Satan suggested. That wouldn’t be a temptation for us because we do not possess the power to command a stone to become a loaf of bread. However, Jesus had the power. But had He used His divinity to in any way help Himself, the plan of salvation would have been broken. That was Jesus’ temptation. For each temptation Satan brought to Him, Jesus had to resist divinely helping Himself in any way that would not be available to man. Imagine the power of a temptation to prove that you were the Son of God!
Imagine being so hungry and the devil coming to you and telling you to simply turn this stone into bread and relieve your hunger. We would probably respond with a guffaw. Why? Because we have no power to change anything into anything. It would be no temptation for us at all. Yes, the power of the temptations that we face are beyond imagination sometimes, but God has promised us everything we need to resist the temptations of Satan and to turn away from him. The point is, when we are tempted, we need help from above to overcome. Jesus, as the Son of God, didn’t need help. But as the Son of Man, our Example, He could do nothing to resist temptation and live a pure and holy life here that would not be available to us.
This is My Son
“When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ ” Matthew 3:16, 17
What was Christ’s assurance that He was indeed the beloved Son of God? God’s word was Christ’s assurance of His divine mission. “He had come to live as a man among men, and it was the word that declared His connection with heaven. It was Satan’s purpose to cause Him to doubt that word. If Christ’s confidence in God could be shaken, Satan knew that the victory in the whole controversy would be his. He could overcome Jesus.” The Desire of Ages, 119
The devil was determined to make Christ disbelieve the words from heaven. If he could shake Christ’s confidence in His Father, he could win. “He hoped that under the force of despondency [hopelessness] and extreme hunger, Christ would lose faith in His Father, and work a miracle in His own behalf. Had He done this, the plan of salvation would have been broken.” Ibid.
Satan’s hope was that while Jesus was suffering extreme hunger in His body and bearing the weight of the sins of the whole world, he could cause Him to lose courage and faith in His Father and work a miracle for Himself. Jesus could have performed this miracle, but instead, He relied upon the power given to Him by the Father to resist the devil’s suggestion. Inspiration says that this same moral power to resist the devil is available to you and me, just as it was to Him. We must study it, believe it, pray for it, and receive it.
“The enticements which Christ resisted were those that we find it so difficult to withstand. They were urged upon Him in as much greater degree as His character is superior to ours. With the terrible weight of the sins of the world upon Him, Christ withstood the test upon appetite, upon the love of the world, and upon that love of display which leads to presumption. These were the temptations that overcame Adam and Eve, and that so readily overcome us.” Ibid., 116, 117
“As one of us He was to give an example of obedience. For this He took upon Himself our nature, and passed through our experiences. ‘In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren.’ Hebrews 2:17. If we had to bear anything which Jesus did not endure, then upon this point Satan would represent the power of God as insufficient for us. Therefore Jesus was ‘in all points tempted like as we are.’ Hebrews 4:15. He endured every trial to which we are subject. And He exercised in His own behalf no power that is not freely offered to us. As man, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him from God.” Ibid., 24
What was this strength that the Father gave Him? “He says, ‘I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart.’ Psalm 40:8.” Ibid. The law, written in the heart, is the power of God in the human life. “The law of God is an expression of His very nature; it is an embodiment of the great principle of love, and hence is the foundation of His government in heaven and earth. If our hearts are renewed in the likeness of God, if the divine love is implanted in the soul, will not the law of God be carried out in the life? When the principle of love is implanted in the heart, when man is renewed after the image of Him that created him, the new-covenant promise is fulfilled, ‘I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.’ Hebrews 10:16. And if the law is written in the heart, will it not shape the life? Obedience—the service and allegiance of love—is the true sign of discipleship.” Steps to Christ, 60
Christ’s spiritual brothers and sisters are those whom He makes holy. He sanctifies them through His love and the word, and the kingdom of righteousness is established in the heart.
“Love is power. Intellectual and moral strength are involved in this principle, and cannot be separated from it. The power of wealth has a tendency to corrupt and destroy; the power of force is strong to do hurt; but the excellence and value of pure love consist in its efficiency to do good, and to do nothing else than good.” Gospel Workers (1892), 311, 112
“Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” 1 John 3:9
The strength given to Jesus from His Father was the covenant promise made in Eden that God would put enmity between the seed of the serpent and the Seed of the woman. That enmity is found in the law of righteousness, which is the expression of His very nature. God put enmity between Christ and Satan, but He will put that same enmity between His people and Satan. All who will take up their cross [the cross is all our natural propensities] and allow the law of self-sacrifice in love to be written in their hearts as it was in the heart of Jesus, will receive the promised power to resist the temptations of Satan. As Jesus was and is connected with and beloved by God, so may we be through the covenant-promised power.
In purity and holiness, connected with God and beloved by God, Jesus came to this world as a man to begin where the first Adam began, but not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity. Satan was not able to accomplish his diabolical scheme of instilling in the mind of Christ his own sentiments, thoughts, passions, and feelings.
“By nature man has no love for God. It is not natural for him to think of heavenly things. Satan has worked against God and His government, leading men to attribute to God the traits which belong to the power of evil.” The Review and Herald, March 12, 1901
Satan leads men to attribute to God the traits which belong to the power of evil. This temptation, prepared for the very elect, has deceived many in the Adventist church today. Those who teach that Christ possessed the same tendencies to sin that we inherit from Adam, and that He was tempted with every species of crime, violence, and corruption that sinful flesh is tempted with, are unwittingly denying His divinity by attributing to God in the humanity of His Son, the sentiments and character traits of Satan.
We need to pray that the Father will reveal to us the truth as it in Jesus which is the robe of Christ’s righteousness. God embodied His own attributes in His Son, His power, His wisdom, His goodness, His purity, His truthfulness, His spirituality, His benevolence, and He wants to embody in our minds the same attributes that He embodied in His Son.
Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at 316-788-5559.