Did Jesus ever want to sin?
The basic idea in the various forms of the Hebrew and Greek words behind our word tempt is to attempt
something. You can still see that notion in some NT texts that have no
religious significance; texts such as Acts 17:7 where Paul and his
companions tried to enter Bithynia and in 9:26 where Paul tried to join
himself with fellow-disciples and in 26:21 where some Jews made the attempt
to kill Paul. In Deuteronomy 3:24 we have the word used in two senses.
God wants to know if any other god had made the attempt (tried) to
rescue another nation for himself by trials. And on the illustrations
go.
But
the basic idea doesn't show in most texts and the prominent idea is
testing or subjecting to a trial. Often it is Israel that puts God to
the test (tempts him) as in passages like Exodus 17:2, 7 and sometimes
it is God who puts his elect to the test (tempts them) as we can see
from Genesis 22:1 and Deuteronomy 8:2 and in Exodus 16:4 where God tests
(tempts) them to see if they will obey his instructions.
In comparing how the same words are used we learn the difference in meaning depends on motivation and purpose.
Israel puts God to the test when their hearts are evil and that spirit
gives the testing its moral quality. Their rescue from Egypt, Gods
keeping his word to Abraham and his children all that is forgotten and
distrust and ingratitude lead them to test God. You come across a lot of
this in the Gospels when people come to test (tempt) Jesus.
The words are never used of God testing the non-elect and this suggests a specifically covenantal quality and though this does not
mean that God doesn't put the non-elect to the test, it does mean that
OT texts relate peculiarly to the elect. Gods testing of Abraham or his
elect nation doesn't rise out of spite or some wicked motive. Its what
loving parents often do with their children, its what good coaches do
with athletes or what good teachers do with students. The aim of testing
(tempting) is not to produce failure but the reverse. This pure purpose
to bring about blessing (to someone somewhere) gives the temptation its
moral quality.
Some
might have been tempted and fallen into evil and wanted to justify
their fall, to excuse themselves and claim it was Gods doing, but James
1:13-17 will not allow that. James makes several assertions.
1) He says God cannot be tempted with evil.
2) He says God doesnt tempt anyone (to do evil).
3) He says a man is tempted (to evil) by his inner workings.
In saying that God
cannot be tempted James isn't denying that Israel tempted God; he is
saying there is nothing in God himself that can respond to an
opportunity to sin. This not only says something about the inexpressible
holiness of God, it underscores the next point.
God
is so far removed from sin because of his own nature, he can never
approve of it; his spirit is forever set against sin. This means that no
one should think that God wanted him to sin, that God thought or thinks
that it is a good thing for the man to sin. God knows we will sin when
put to the test and he will use even our sin to further his blessed
purposes but the sinful choice is our choice and not his and it is not to our credit that he is able to use our evil to bring good.
We
who are sinful have been shaped by sinning and when the occasion
presents itself outside us and we are seduced by it into sinning its
because we have it in us to sin when the opportunity becomes available.
This should lead us to understand that our being tempted and Jesus being tempted are the same but different.
Satan
is presented as tempting Jesus to do evil and as tempting us to do
evil. The aim is the same and the satanic motive is the same but the
inner workings of temptation are not the same because in us there is the
moral capacity to want to do
evil and this was absent in Jesus. To be willing to do evil or to want
to do it is already a moral defect (compare Matthew 5:28 and texts like
it). There was nothing of that in Jesus so when the invitation
(temptation) to sin came to him it didn't come to him out of his sinful
willingness (see again James 1:14).
The
perfect holiness of the Christ was gained by ceaseless adoration of his
Holy Father and the practice of righteousness. This one was so healthy that the sinful virus could find no place in him as it initially found and now finds in us.
Temptation, for us, is a complex combination of our inner make-up and the thing outside us so that in our experience
temptation includes our capacity to be attracted by the evil and then
carrying it out. When we resist temptation we have by Gods grace said no
both to the offer outside us and no to the inner attraction we feel for
what is offered. In such a case we not only say no to the act we say no
to the sinful bias that is now a part of us.
But even that needs further development. Its untrue to say that a temptation is not really a temptation unless
we find the offer appealing, that we would like to do it. Praise God
there are hosts of people among us who have so outgrown specific evils
that when the offer is made to them they hardly take notice of it. They
have become so inwardly shaped and strengthened that the offer which
continues to be real is rightly dismissed as no temptation at all.
We should take great comfort in that! It means that by God's grace there are some things to which we can say a resounding no and
what's more, were expected to do just that; see Titus 2:11-12! [That
strengthening grace from God is extended to us in so many ways, family,
friends, experiences, honourable acquaintances, good response and many
more. But never by magic.]
[In saying that Jesus was tempted as we have been tempted were not to conclude that there were times when he wanted to do evil. To want
to do evil is evil! This would mean that the temptations that came
Jesus' way were not beaten by a sheer act of conscious willing; they were
beaten by the set of his heart, the vision of his soul and the practice
of righteousness. This would mean that there were opportunities to sin
that he hardly noticed and that when the screws were turned and the
pressure of circumstances became a very great burden he called on his
training and the discipline of his soul and his unswerving loyalty to
his Holy Father and his purposes.
Its
important to say that the set of Jesus heart was made up of innumerable
small decisions to do what is right when it was easy to do what was
right. He didn't come into our human life with an already existing inner
armour. He grew in wisdom and stature and in favour with God. See Luke
2:40, 52.]