Please be in prayer for our service Sunday as we consider the temptations of Jesus. The immediate result of Jesus' reception of the Spirit (3:22) was that he was sent into the desert to face on his own the attacks of the devil.
Keep in mind, Luke has traced Jesus' lineage back to Adam (3:38). In other words, the wilderness temptations are depicted as a rerun of the Garden. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into this wilderness. In that sense, Jesus does not simply suffer temptation, he marches into temptation. He frontally attacks it. As one 16th century writer asserts: He appears in the wilderness as a divine champion; entering into enemy occupied territory under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
It is nothing short than a declaration of war; an attack on one who claims to be the ruler of the world. Rather than overcome Jesus, Satan is defeated and dismissed by his conqueror.
This is the first step in binding the Strong Man in order that Jesus may spoil him of his goods. It is a foreshadow of what Christ came to do.
This isn’t the devil coming to Jesus. It’s the King coming into the enemy occupied territory ready to do battle with the evil one (1 Jn 3:8). Its an act of advancement on the kingdom of darkness.
So, the temptations aren't simply a narrative showing us how to overcome temptation. That's a secondary application, to be sure. These temptations are "one of a kind." Our covenant representative, Jesus Christ, is coming to crush the serpent's head and deliver a people from the serpent's dominion.
One of the issues that arises in the discussion of Jesus' temptations is whether Jesus could have really sinned. I will not address that issue in the sermon but I would like to discuss it here a moment.
There are two views in regards to this question: (a) Impeccability of Christ, i.e. Jesus was not able to sin; (b) Peccability of Christ, i.e. in order for Jesus’ temptations to have been real, it must have been possible for Jesus to sin, even though he did not sin.
Its a tough issue, but here are the biblical givens:
(1) Christ never actually sinned.
(2) Jesus was tempted & they were real temptations (Luke 4:2; Heb 4:15).
(3) Scripture says that God cannot be tempted with evil (James 1:13).
Here we are encountering one of the great mysteries of the faith, Jesus’ two natures. However, it is important to assert that while he could have sinned, it was certain that he would not. There were genuine struggles and temptations, but the outcome was always certain.
I think writer Wayne Grudem offers some convincing insight to this discussion:
A. If Jesus’ human nature had existed by itself, independent of his divine nature, then it would have been a human nature just like that which God gave Adam & Eve. It would have been free from sin but nevertheless able to sin.
B. However, Jesus’ human nature never existed apart from union with his divine nature. From the moment of his conception, he existed as truly God and truly man as well. Both his human and divine natures existed united in one person.
C. Although there were some things that Jesus experienced in his human nature alone and were not experienced in his divine nature, nevertheless, an act of sin would have been a moral act that would have apparently involved the whole person of Christ. Hence, if he had sinned, it would have involved both his human and divine natures.
D. However if Jesus as a person sinned, involving both his human and divine natures in sin, then God himself would have sinned, and he would have ceased to be God. That is impossible because of the infinite holiness of God’s nature.
E. Hence, it seems that we must conclude that it was not possible for Jesus to have sinned. The union of his natures in one person prevented it.
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