Growing In Godliness Blog
“How to Tempt a Good Man”
Categories: Author: Paul Earnhart, Jesus, Sin, TemptationHow to Tempt a Good Man
By Paul Earnhart
When Satan undertook the temptation of Jesus, he faced the greatest challenge of his whole career as a tempter. All other men and women since Adam and Eve had been relatively easy victims. But Jesus was different.
Jesus knew God’s will even better than the theologians. And He was firmly committed to doing God’s will. For these reasons, He could not be tempted as many mortals are tempted. Such temptations as adultery, lying, stealing, drunkenness would have been useless. Jesus had doubtless been exposed to those sins in His earlier life, but He knew that scripture plainly condemned such things, and He would not even consider them.
Satan had to tempt Jesus to do something which was not immoral in itself, something which would even seem to offer some spiritual benefit. Now most people would suppose that if a thing seemed to offer some spiritual benefit and was not immoral, then it could not be sin. But Satan knew better and, thankfully, Jesus knew better.
An act is not a sin because men consider it to be immoral. An act is not a sin simply because it hurts someone. Neither is an act a sin just because it violates civil law. An act that violates civil law is a crime, but sin is a violation of Divine law. Any violation of God’s law is sin whether anyone is hurt or not; whether it appears immoral or not; whether the results appear harmful or beneficial.
Many people look at Matthew’s account of the temptations of Jesus (Mt. 4:1-11), such as the temptation to turn stones into bread and to jump from the pinnacle of the temple, and say, “I don’t see anything wrong with doing those things.” But if Jesus had done either one of them, He would have sinned. He did not do them because He knew scripture well enough to know that they were not God’s will for Him. That’s what made them sin, and that’s why Jesus did not do them.
