THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS

CHRIST.

MATTHEW iv, 1-11; MARK i, 12, 13; LUKE iv, 1-13.

I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Genesis iii, 15.

XXI.

THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS CHRIST.

MATTHEW iv, 1-11; Mark i, 12, 13; LUKE iv, 1–13.

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Reality of the Temptation. wilderness to be tempted of the devil." Such are Matt. iv, 1. the words with which the first evangelist introduces his account of the temptation of Jesus Christ.

An incredible statement, surely! For was not Jesus Christ absolutely holy, and, therefore, absolutely beyond the reach of temptation? Moreover, was he not Divine; and can Divinity be tempted? Such are some of the difficulties which press upon us when we read the story of the temptation. And so we come to think of Jesus as a kind of phantom Christ, tempted only in appear

ance.

Nevertheless, we must believe the story. For, first, it is made possible by the fact that Jesus was a man, and therefore finite; and temptation is inseparable from finiteness. The very fact that there are limits is also the fact which permits and invites transgression of those limits. Where there Rom. iv, 15. is no law, there is no transgression. The very fact of finiteship involves all possibilities of evil. This

James i, 13.

Luke i, 35.

Temptation

Gen. iii, 1-6.

is the reason why God can not be tempted: being infinite, occupying all space and all time, there are no limits for him to transcend. Not so was it with his incarnate Son. Jesus Christ was a veritable man, and, as such, finite, and therefore open to temptation. Moreover, although he was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and therefore Divinely generated, yet he was also born of sinful woman, and therefore inherited human nature under disabled conditions; so that, like any one of us, he was accessible to temptation. So far, then, from its having been impossible that he should be tempted, we must believe that he was tempted, even though no scripture had asserted it. And scripture does most expressly assert it. Nothing can be more explicit than the language of the evangelists in narrating the story of the temptation. If we doubt here, we may doubt anywhere, even in the matter of the incarnation itself.

Yet in all this was no sin. For we must disnot necessa- tinguish between temptation as assault and temptation as conquest. There is no sin in the mere fact of being tempted. Eve was not to blame for the presence of Satan in Eden; nor was she to blame for the fact that the forbidden tree seemed desirable: her blame began when, instead of instantly repelling the tempter, she began to dally with him, and allow herself to look with longing on the tree. Jesus was not to blame for the presence of Satan in the wildnerness; nor for the fact that there was force in Satan's suggestion that he should satisfy his hunger by using his miraculous power to turn stones into bread. Had he allowed

Matt. iv, 1-4.

himself to cherish for one fleeting instant Satan's
suggestion, then temptation would have swept into
sin. But there was no sin in the mere fact of his
having been tempted.

'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall.

"Measure for Measure," ii, 1.

And the very fact that he was really tempted in Heb. iv, 15. all points like as we are, yet without sin, is the fact which gives to the story of his temptation and victory its glorious power and exhaustless cheer.

But why was Jesus Christ tempted? Sinless, Reasons of the Temptation. why should he be exposed to such fierce assault? Remembering who he was, and why he came into the world, we might have supposed that, if ever man would be spared temptation, that man would be the Christ of God. Why, then, was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil?

His

Sake.

own

Jesus was tempted, first, for his own sake. He Tempted for was a man; and therefore, like every other man, he had a character to build. And temptation is essential to character-building.

Temptation not

only assays the quality of the soul; temptation also tempers it, bringing it by the stress of ordeal into the needed robustness-unfolding it, fortifying it, perfecting it. No man knows what is in himhow weak he is or how strong-until he is tried. And the trial, if he endures the test, not only reveals him, it also girds him. Temptation itself when vanquished becomes a buttress. To be tempted continually, and to conquer continually—