Sermon Q&A - The Temptation of the King (Matthew 4)

One question was submitted in response to my sermon from Matthew 4.1-12, and it's a great question:

Why is it important that Jesus' temptations are genuine?

I emphasized a few times during the message that I believe these three temptations from the Accuser were genuine temptations for Christ. In other words, I believe Jesus felt, on some level, the allure they held. I don't think he simply shrugged them off as if they meant nothing, and this question is rightfully drilling into that point a bit. Why is it important to understand them this way?

Well, this question (like most good questions!) immediately pulls on deeper theological threads, and in this case we get pretty quickly back to the mystery of the incarnation. God became fully human in Jesus. One ancient creed declares he was "fully God, fully man," and the theology of the incarnation resists being pushed too far to one side. He wasn't "God pretending to be human," nor was he "a great human who later was considered to be God." He was fully God AND fully human. And this is important because one of the great wonders of Jesus is that he fully took on humanity, a condition seemingly inescapably stricken with sinfulness, and yet he did not sin. If he just "pretended" to take on humanity, then it wouldn't really mean he successfully resisted our curse of sinfulness, and ultimately, it wouldn't mean the curse of sinfulness was broken by him. In light of this understanding of Christ's incarnation, I believe that when scripture straightforwardly says he was "tempted," then I believe he really was tempted! But the more-important truth is that he did not give in! He never sinned, and this, to my mind, makes the fact that the temptation was genuine even more powerful. Hebrews 4 famously puts it thus, 15 For we don’t have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.

I believe we see more evidence for this when, later in his ministry, Peter confronted Jesus by saying that, surely, he didn't really need to go to the cross, to which Jesus replies forcefully, "Get behind me, Satan!" Or, when Christ prayed in Gethsemane, "Father, if there is ANY other way..." Jesus, being fully human, really experienced the pain and temptation of these moments to forsake the Father's path for him. But, fully God, he never once gave into those temptations. He walked faithfully and perfectly sinlessly towards the cross, and out of the empty tomb on the other side of death. Praise the Lord!