Weekly Devotional 2-22-16 His Testing was His Proving
Recently, a participant of a men’s Bible study that I am part of asked, “If man’s sinful nature is inherent from Adam how could Jesus be sinless?” The short answer given to that question was that Jesus indeed was man, but not of man. He was born of God the Holy Spirit through Mary, the espoused wife of Joseph. At conception He was God in the flesh and God cannot sin. To this answer was the rebuttal proffered by the questioner, “He was born through Mary a sinful human. Wouldn’t that sinful nature be passed through her to Jesus?” Again, the short answer is no. The sinful nature is spiritually transmitted generically through the seminal headship of the first man, Adam. God the Son has always been God. When He became man He did not stop being God. As God he could not sin. This was proven by the testing He went through after He was baptized by John the Baptist, and the life He lived afterward.
“1Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ 4But He answered and said, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’’ 5Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and ‘In their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone.’’ 7Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’’ 8Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’ 10Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’’ 11Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him. (Matthew 4:1-11 NKJV).
The writer of the Book of Hebrews affirms this. He testified; “14Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
The testing that Jesus faced when tempted by Satan and the temptations He faced as he walked through life were not to learn if He would sin, but to prove that He would not and that He did not sin.
Thank you Lord Jesus
stevelampman@comcast.net stevelampman.com
Transforming Power; The Work of God on Behalf of Man
Evangelical Free Church www.efreebible