The Temptation Of Jesus -- By: Theodore J. Jansma

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 05:2 (May 1943)
Article: The Temptation Of Jesus
Author: Theodore J. Jansma


The Temptation Of Jesus

Theodore J. Jansma

IN THE Epistle to the Hebrews our attention is focussed on Christ’s temptation as the source of his sympathy with us. He is an high priest who understands our needs and trials not from mere observation but from actual experience of the same. We can rely upon his aid because he has endured the same conflicts and, what is more, he waged them with complete success; “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). His qualification as our sympathetic high priest consists therefore in something he has in common with us, and in something in which he differs from us — his temptation and his sinlessness.

Looking at these two qualifications we are immediately confronted with a profound problem. Christ’s sinlessness in the exercise of his mediatorial office seems to detract from the reality of his temptation. How could his temptation be the same as ours when it was coupled with absolute sinlessness, and when his victory was a foregone conclusion? The Son of God was not merely able not to sin, but not able to sin; not simply potuit non peccare, but also non potuit peccare applies to him. If he was free from the seed of corruption, and the fountain of his being was impeccably pure, what sting could temptation hold for him? Any temptation must certainly present the alternative courses of good and evil, but how can such temptation cause any tension when every inclination of the tempted is always in the one direction of good? Christ’s sinlessness was not something attained, but something native and essential. Not only was he free from every sinful propensity, but his delight was in God, and his will was in perfect harmony with God. His human nature detracted not one whit from his divine person; he always remains the second person of the Trinity, possessing entire all the perfections of Godhead.

The same problem, in some respects, arises in connection with Adam’s probation. God had created man perfect, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. And even though this was a mutable condition, we are still puzzled by the fact that a sinful propensity could and did arise in such a creature. But the mystery in the person of Christ is even more profound, for mutability can not be predicated of him. Furthermore, he was possessed of the Holy Spirit in all his fulness, and “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9).

In the attempt to solve this problem serious men have often stumbled into the heresy of denying Christ’s deity or, at the other extreme, denying his humanity. Hilary of Poitiers, in order to give what ...

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