Someone recently asked me a question about Jesus’ experience with temptation. She was wondering in what sense, if any, were Jesus’ temptations worse (deeper and stronger) than our own. Did he really know what it was like to go through the whole range of feelings and pressures in resisting the temptation to sin? I’d like to suggest that Jesus not only experienced temptation as we do, but that he actually went through a temptation at a deeper level than anyone else has ever known.
Remember back to a last time you were tempted but then gave into that temptation. The temptation started out at a particular level of compulsion. How long did you resist? You might have resisted for minutes, hours, or even days. But eventually you caved in at a certain point when the temptation got so strong that your will reached its breaking point. All this to say that the intensity of temptation is not constant. It grows. The longer you resist the stronger temptation becomes—at least in the short run. And because we have all given in to temptation at one point or another, we’ve never really known the full power of it.
C. S. Lewis discussed this increasing pressure of temptation in his chapter on “faith†in Mere Christianity. He wrote, “A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. . . . A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it.â€Â Â
If this is true—if the pressure of temptation grows—then what must Jesus’ experience with temptation have been like? Lewis goes on to remind us that Jesus is the only man who never yielded to temptation at any point in his earthly life. And therefore, he is the only one to know the true meaning of temptation. You and I have never known what it is like, in every temptation we’ve ever faced, to make it all the way up the scale until temptation is at 100% capacity. But Jesus does. Therefore, he is the only one who can sympathize with each of our unique difficulties and weaknesses. Besides the man Jesus, you will never meet another human person who can fully identify with your own struggles.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.†— Hebrews 4:14-16Â
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. How does the realization that Jesus knew temptation more deeply that we ever will, impact how you come to him with your personal struggles?
2. What are other passages from the Bible that instruct, encourage, and comfort us in our temptation?
3. What are other thorny questions in your mind which surround how Jesus interacted with temptation?
4 Comments on “Why only Jesus can measure temptation”
Plus it seems to me, J’s temptations were greater than ours because He was alone in them. No one then or now, could be His peer or support in a deep way – a way that was comon like fellow drug addicts etc.
Jesus was alone. No one to really explain and be understood by. No one to ‘check in’.
Jesus was the savior, a unique position. Unique and lonely.
I like looking at Matt. 4:1 and following; the last verse of chp 3 is God the Father’s voice – this is my son whom I love. Next verse, Jesus was lead “by the Spirit into the desert to be tested”. Yikes.
So the same Father that gushed with pride and ovation to the crowd – over sees his son ‘lead’ immediately in to the wilderness alone.
Our God is loving, and careful, and personal, but also interested in our growing through tempations and trials.
Hi Brent,.
Regarding the blog regarding temptation.
Part of your answer ( You might have resisted for minutes, hours, or even days. But eventually you caved in at a certain point when the temptation got so strong that your will reached its breaking point.)
What about the Scripture. 1Cor, 10:13,13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
Maranatha,
CC
I think you’re all right, and I agree with you all.
I think it’s often hard for us to get our heads around the fact that Jesus was fully God and fully human, because we are not. I think that what made his temptation worse than ours was that, as fully God, he knew exactly how truly evil his Temptor was, whereas we are often naive to and blindsided by the enemy. He makes things look appealing and interesting to us, whereas God can see through ANYTHING, even pretty smells and colors covering up evil. For us, we sometimes don’t realize we’re being tempted until it’s too late…Jesus knew exactly what his Temptor was doing.
Cliff,
Maybe I should have been clearer, but I did preface my comments by saying, “Remember back to a last time you were tempted but then gave into that temptation.” I didn’t mean to say that a person had to cave in, but was simply asking people to remember a time in which they did (by choosing to). We all struggle with the weakness of the will, and therefore, choose the evil at times.