Jesus Is Not Me, Or You!

  There is a reason that Paul warns young Christians not to look to teach, and I was definitely one of those that had no business teaching as a young Christian. I can remember sitting in a church in California, as a brand-new Christian and confusing my own thought life for Christ's! I had less than a year in the faith, and I read the following verse: 

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin..." Hebrews 4:15.   

Upon reading this verse, (or maybe the pastor was preaching on it, I don't remember that part exactly), it hit me, and in that moment, I was comforted, as I logically made the connection. Jesus struggled in all the ways I do; he knew what it was to lust, what it was to desire things that weren't mine, because after all, Jesus was tempted (that's what it means to desire) and it really did bring me comfort! For me, that meant that the difference between Jesus and me was that he was able to say no, and sometimes I couldn't say no. He could not just sympathize but empathize with me, and I just needed to get stronger and better at saying no. 

Sound ridiculous to you? Well it should, because it is! Allow me to begin by saying this; I'm not saying that I was not a Christian at the time I had this thought. But I am saying, that I was a Christian with very poor theology, and to go even further, I had very bad Christology (knowledge of Christ).  My misunderstandings were several, and I want to share them with you with the hope of strengthening your own Christology. The issue for me, and I think most Christians, is that when we think of Jesus we tend to split Him in two. We have on one hand, His humanity, and the other His divinity. But Jesus is not two people, He is one; and these two natures are not separate but rather exist in such a manner that there is no way to distinguish where one begins and the other ends, this is known as the doctrine of the hypostatic union. Jesus is both fully God and fully man at the same time and we can't expect anything in His human nature to contradict His divine nature and vice versa. 

This is important because this is exactly what I was doing. By creating a version of Jesus that lusts, or that was tempted in the same way that I am tempted I was creating a Jesus whose humanity contradicts his divinity. As 1 John 1:5 tells us, God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all, or 1 Peter 2:22 which says explicitly of Jesus, "He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth." This is very important for us to understand, because in order for salvation to be possible, this must have been the case, only a perfect sacrifice would be able to cleanse us. If Jesus was tempted in the same way as you and I are tempted by sinful passions, then He is not God and cannot be our sacrifice. 

  So, the question is what do we do with Hebrews 4:15? I think the answer is actually quite simple when you recognize that temptation is often spoken of in scripture in two different ways. First, there is that temptation which comes from the heart. Think of James chapter 1, in verse 13 it says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God", for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. First see here again, we have an apparent contradiction with the Hebrews passage, but then James goes on to define this type of temptation, verse 14, "each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by His own desire." This is the temptation that comes from within, this is that which Jesus Himself condemns in the sermon on the mount when He says, "he who even lusts after a woman has committed adultery with her." This type of temptation is sinful, there is no way around it. We are guilty of even that which occurs in our thought life, but God by His grace has provided forgiveness even for that through His Son.

  But the second type of temptation is that which is circumstantial, or situational, that which is purely based upon certain circumstances. For this kind of temptation think of Jesus being lured away by Satan to be tempted. In each of the temptations, what took place? Satan attempted to get Jesus to act in a certain way by placing Him in different circumstances. First, He was without food, then was offered power, and then He was tempted with a final testing to reveal Himself, and in none of these situations are we told that Jesus had any single desire within Himself to do that which the Devil tempted Him with; but rather He defeated Him by not giving in to the temptation. 

  So, in conclusion, let us not confuse our sinful temptations with Christ's sinless temptations. We are not the same. Christ was without sin, we are not, which is why we need Him so much; any attempt to make Him less Him is not only foolish, but also blasphemous, as it makes God to be less than who He is. Let us think through our theology clearly, God is always God and in Jesus He has been made flesh but He is still God. His sinlessness is not a strike against Him but rather it is part of what makes Him, Him, so stop trying to make Him, you.