Jesus Resisted

What Did Jesus Do?

We have a great high priest who in every respect has been tempted as we are,
yet without sin.
Hebrews 4.15

When you are a “strange visitor from another planet” who is “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap over tall buildings at a single bound” people will be apt to call you “Superman.” And when bullets bounce off you, knives bend when thrust at you, and fire doesn’t burn you it isn’t surprising that people refer to you as the “Man of Steel.” Jesus was no superman.

Oh, He was fully God, but Jesus was also fully human. He was a man of flesh and blood, not a man of steel. Though the Bible says nothing about it, I suspect Jesus was as susceptible to the common cold as you and I; as likely to have had chicken pox as a child as the rest of us. And, far more important for you and me, like every human being since Adam and Eve, Jesus was vulnerable to temptation. Honestly, temptation really isn’t temptation if you’re not tempted. And the Bible tells us that Jesus was tempted with real temptations, just as you and I are, with one huge difference. Jesus resisted all temptation, so that He remained free of the stain of sin and the taint of transgression, and for us that made all the difference. For it was only a perfect and spotless lamb that could to be sacrificed in propitiation for our sins; only the Lamb of God, who resisted all temptation, would be acceptable. And only the Son could and would perfectly obey God, surrendering only to the Father’s will, but never to temptation.

It was tempting for the young Jesus to remain in His Father’s house and be about His Father’s business. (Luke 2.49) But that would have meant disobeying Joseph and Mary, His parents, which would have been a sin; so the Lord dutifully returned to Nazareth with His family, where He submitted to the authority of dad and mom, and in the process grew in stature and in wisdom, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2.50-52)

Christ’s temptation in the wilderness is well known, but many people fail to understand all that would have been lost is Jesus had not resisted. And Jesus was truly tempted. After forty days without food, it was real hunger Jesus felt. But Jesus resisted the temptation to feed His flesh, and satisfied himself with the Word of God which nourished His spirit. (Matthew 4.1-4) And, to shut Satan up, what would it have hurt to prove He was God’s beloved Son by leaping off the pinnacle of the Temple? But Jesus resisted the temptation to prove to Satan how much the Father loved Him by putting God to the test; Satan would learn the power of the Father’s love for the Son when, three days after the crucifixion, the Father would raise Jesus from the dead. (Matthew 4.5-7)
And, as King of kings, it was tempting to have all the nations of the world dangled before Him. But Jesus resisted grasping for authority and power, content to wait for the time when the Father would hand all authority and power over to Him. (Matthew 4.8-10)

Even on the cross, when the agony of His suffering and the taunts of the bystanders and the imminence of death had to have made the temptation to come down from the cross unbearable, Jesus resisted to the end, the greater glory of the Father to be revealed in His death and resurrection. (Matthew 27.39-44)

If not a superman, how then did Jesus resist? If no man of steel, where did the Son find the strength to overcome all temptation and remain faithful to the Father? The Holy Spirit; and it is this truth that gives us hope to resist in the face of our temptations—the Father imparts the Holy Spirit to all his children. Jesus resisted for us all, and in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit all may resist.

Recognizing and resisting temptation was not the work of Superman; it was the mission of the Son. Only flesh and blood, not steel, can be tempted; it was a Savior who could bleed and die who resisted to the end. The Father did not create a race of supermen and superwomen impervious to temptation, but he loves beyond measure his human daughters and sons who wrestle with temptation every day. And every temptation we resist in our flesh by the Holy Spirit, we resist not for our sake alone but for all who are part of the Body of Christ, and for the Father’s glory. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4