It is also easy to see that Jesus is BETTER than everything else. Even better than butterscotch, coffee, or nocturnal horizontal fellowship.
I came to a phrase I had heard, but always brushed it off and limited to the one place we see Jesus suffering, on the Mount of Olives praying before his arrest and crucifixion.
Hebrews 2:18 says "For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."
Ok, not a big deal. Satan tried to tempt Jesus three ways covering the basic three sins all others are built on, right. That's how we limit this and make it out to be a simple matter for Jesus. He didn't really suffer all those times.
But if you keep reading you come to Hebrews chapter 4. (You get that, it comes after 2 somewhere)
Hebrews 4:15 says. “We do not have a high priest [Jesus] who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who was tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin.”
Jesus was tempted in EVERY WAY? You mean he was tempted to steal? He was tempted to kill someone? He was tempted to engage a woman in a "biblical way"? Hold on a second. That can't be right. If we follow this on out we have to say he was tempted to lie. He was tempted to gluttony. He was tempted to have relations with things no one should have relations with.
And then to say he SUFFERED in Temptation.
I looked at this over and over and thought this canʼt really mean Jesus actually suffered when he was tempted in all of these ways.
So I read a few commentaries and study notes. They all pointed to the same idea. Jesus suffered when he was tempted. The text is plain. That is what it says. "Jesus suffered when he was tempted." Jesus was "tempted in every way." This means is wasn't just at the crucifixion. All temptations. They didn't explain it any further than that. Probably because the Bible doesn't explain it any further than that.
So I put on my holy imagination generator cap and tried to wrap my brain around this idea.
1.Jesus is fully God.
2.Jesus is fully man.
3.Being a man means he would feel the same physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual experience as anyone else would.
4. Being fully God means he would feel the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual experience of everything to the absolute fullest degree. He would have the unbridled ability to experience anything at its highest pinnacle of exstacy without physical limitations or concern. This would be for both good and bad stuff.
We have to remember a few things about temptation. Temptations are natural and all around us, they present themselves to us and we decide whether to take the next step. We decide to engage or flee. We choose to examine it further or consider it. Temptations lead to sins only when we engage it. Some things are harder to resist.
Jesus knew the effect and experience he could have. Jesus knew it would be extreme to say the least. To chose not to experience something that amazing, for me and every other living human, would be a struggle. Jesus passed by it without sinning. If he had experienced those sin things, he would have sinned as well, thus not being perfect, and unable to die for our sin.
Jesus had this knowledge. He understands it when we struggle with temptation. He might have struggled more than we can. He understands the powerful pull of temptation.
What are temptations that we deal with today. Go ahead and name them off?
The good news does not end there with the fact Jesus was
tempted. The next verse in Hebrews 4 says,
“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in out time of need.”
He does not leave us alone in out temptations. He offers
us grace and mercy before the temptation. He helps keep us from
suffering in sin, when we let him.
That is a GOOD God.
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