"THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST"
(This is excerpted from "The Self-Emptying of Christ" paper written by Dr. Roy O. Beaman. Th.D. He was a long-time mentor at Mid American Baptist Theological Seminary and beloved professor of this blogger. To God be the GLORY!)
Adam had no leaning toward sin and yet chose sin freely; Jesus had no leaning toward sin but had the weaknesses incident to the fall. Jesus’ temptation was, therefore, more realistic than was Adam’s. In it all, however, Jesus was able not to sin. From the viewpoint of His deity, He was not able to sin; from the viewpoint of His humanity, He was able not to sin.
Yes, there is a paradox here; but not so keen a paradox as the union of two natures — divine and human — which is the heart of His incarnation, in one person. Why let the smaller paradox drive you to hesitancy about the miracle of Jesus Christ? If you must stumble at the supernatural, take the greatest miracle of all — God-Man, the union of God and man in one person.
If one would understand the temptation of Jesus, he must think of Adam in Eden. Jesus came as the Second Adam to undo the fell work of Adam in Eden. His humanity was on trial, not His deity.
The word “be” in “if thou be the Son of God” does not indicate doubt. More modern English follows the Greek if we render it, “If you are the Son of God.”
Satan tempted Jesus to use His deity to turn stones into bread to satisfy the needs of His human nature. If He had yielded, then He would have negated in large measure the self-emptying effects of His humiliation. If He had yielded, then He would not have been the perfect man, able to become our Savior.
The issue in Eden was — Can God trust man? Man was found undependable. He desired that which was forbidden, a thing which did not constitute a real need, and took into his own hands means for obtaining that wrongly-desired object. Jesus faced, on the contrary, a real need. He had eaten nothing for forty days. His desire was for something to sustain life, not a fancied fruit to tickle the pride of the flesh; yet He resolutely trusted His case into the hands of His Father for the supply of His need.
Thus He was not tempted to prove His deity but to use His deity to supply His needs contrary to the blueprint of the Father for Him. He emptied Himself of the constant exercise of His omnipotence and would not at all be persuaded to use it on this occasion.
The second effort of Satan takes for granted the victory of Jesus on the point of His perfect humanity. Adam had lost dominion over creation through his disobedience. Christ Jesus assumed the obligation to redeem the world back to God, both natural creation and the world of men. Satan proposed that Jesus worship Satan and thus obtain what He came to redeem. The test here concerned His devotion to His Messiahship. Would He take a proposed shortcut? Would He draw from the sufferings of privation and ultimate death on Calvary? He closed His eye to the glittering offer of the kingdoms of the world and kept His eye on the worship of God alone. Jesus did precisely what Adam in Eden failed to do.
Now that His humility stood the onslaught of Satan and His devotion to His self-chosen role of Messiahship could not be corrupted in any manner, Satan proposed sensationalism as the means of obtaining the acceptance of the people. Again, Satan tempted Christ Jesus to use His deity to impress the multitudes. If He would gradually float down to the expectant multitudes from the high pinnacle of the temple, then His success would be assured.
Christ Jesus had emptied Himself of the constant use of His prerogative of unlimited power and would not take the matter out of the hands of His Father. He would win the hearts of men by the slow process of teaching them, thus wooing and winning them to heart-faith in Him as the Messiah of God. He desired more than the hand-clapping of the populace; He desired to captivate the citadel of the heart.
Here were settled the quality of His humanity, His role as Messiah, and His method of becoming acknowledged as the God-Man. The later steps in His ministry follow consistently this devotion. His consciousness of Messiahship was clear at this stage, and He never swerved therefrom. He had emptied Himself to the point of becoming in the likeness of men and appearing in fashion as a man. He remained true to this initial act.
When one considers that Jesus emptied Himself to the point of being made in the likeness of sinful flesh or partook of the weaknesses incident to fallen man, then His sinless life appears more clearly as an achievement. He was not fenced around; He felt keenly the bite and the power of sin but never yielded to it for a moment. Sin found in Him no peg on which to hang its tinsel garments. His sinlessness, considered in its ultimate outcome, was achieved through struggle with temptation.
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