The only temptation of Christ
Hebrews 4:15 tells us that while He walked the Earth Jesus was tempted in every way that we face temptation, but was without sin. But James 1:14 further tells us that every man is tempted from his own lusts, his sin nature. But Jesus, being without sin, by definition had no sin nature. So that was the purpose for going out into the wilderness and facing Satan. Satan himself had to tempt Jesus, for there was no other way for Him to be tempted. But this appears to be an unusual occurrence: Satan is often called the tempter, but outside of Eve and David (1 Chr. 21:1), we don't see him tempt anyone in the OT. You could even argue that he had to get involved to entice Eve, who had no sin nature at the time, and David, a man after God's own heart (see 1 Ki. 15:5); why should he bother tempting the rest of us when we do such a good job of it on our own? (although see 1 Cor. 7:5) More often he is portrayed as an accuser, trying to undermine our standing with God that we have through Jesus' work, not by influencing our own behavior. Anyway, the puzzle pieces come together and offer a reasonable exposition for Jesus going through His wilderness experience.
posted by Crrrrrrraig | 9:21 AM
3 Comments:
So then is temptation, in your view, predominantly a product of our sinful natures as opposed to Satan?
I wouldn't want to say what Satan can or can't do, but again, James seems to lay the fault at our feet. It only makes sense that being born into depravity, our internal anti-God nature is going to lead us into disobedience. As well, Satan is a powerful being but still finite, so for him to tempt all the people of the world would require billions of demons traipsing around (which might be the case.) But our own propensity to temptation also keeps Satan from having to think about the unsaved at all; his attacks and accusations are directed at the elect. "Screwtape Letters" makes a fascinating point of this, the apprentice demon trying to ruin a man as he converts to Christianity.
Here's another thought on the matter: We know from Jn. 3:18 that mankind is born into damnation. It's then not really the function of Satan to try to get men damned but to keep them there. 2 Tim. 2:26 says, as Paul is talking about evangelizing humbly, that the lost "may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." So he has an active role, but it seems to be more trying to prevent the elect from being elect.
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