If Jesus is God (Heb 1:8), how could he have been tempted (Heb 4:15, Jas 1:13)? 
He was tempted in the flesh as a man.

The Bible is not a contradictory book but it has in it apparent contradictions.  It seems to be a contradiction that Jesus is God, on the one hand, and yet that he could be tempted, on the other hand, when God cannot be tempted according to James 1:13.  Well, the only explanation is that he was tempted as a man and not as God.

You see Jesus was both God and man.  I Tim 3:16 says, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”  He was simultaneously God Almighty (Jn 1:1; 1 Jn 5:20, Heb 1:8) and a fleshly human being.  Admittedly this is a great mystery, one that is not hard to believe just real hard to comprehend.

As God, he could not be tempted (Jas 1:13), he would not have slept (2 Chr 6:20), he would not have thirsted or hungered or experienced weariness (Is 40:28) or any other limitation that we ordinarily experience as humans.  As a man, Jesus went through all of these things.  He hungered (Matt 4:2), he thirsted (Jn 4:7), he was weary (Jn 4:6), and he slept (Matt 8:24).

Furthermore, according to Phil 2:6-7, Jesus who was “in the form of God … was made in the likeness of men.”  Paul said that he was “found in fashion as a man.”  And it was as a man that he “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”  Certainly God could not have died; for he is everlasting (Is 40:28).

Thus, the temptation of Jesus was the temptation of “the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Tim 2:5).  He “suffered being tempted,” (Heb 2:18) with the same temptations that we go through.  He was tempted with the lust of the flesh (1 Jn 2:16; Matt 4:3), he was tempted with the lust of the eyes (1 Jn 2:16; Matt 4:8), and he was tempted with the pride of life (1 Jn 2:16; Matt 4:6).  He was literally “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin,” (Heb 4:15).

Hope this helps,
Pastor Welder

 

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