Even though our Lord "was tempted in all points as we are" (Heb.4:15), He was NOT battling with the same temptations forever. He must have been tempted in the sexual area, as we are. But He must have finished overcoming in this area at a very young age, through His utter faithfulness. As a result, He was not even tempted in this area by the time He entered His public ministry. Women could wipe His feet and He was not even tempted. Likewise He had overcome the love of money also, while working as a carpenter. Those who are not themselves faithful in their battle against these temptations will not be able to understand this.

When Satan tempted Jesus at the end of forty days of severe temptations in the wilderness, Satan knew that it was futile to tempt Jesus in the areas of sex and money, because Jesus had conquered those areas thoroughly, many years earlier. The last three temptations in the wilderness were temptations of such a high order that we can understand their subtle implications only as we ourselves are faithful in walking the way that Jesus walked.

THREE WRONG TEACHINGS:

1. Some teach that Jesus had no desires contrary to His Father's will that he had to deny. They teach that it was impossible for Jesus to sin. If so, then His temptations were a charade and mere playacting. It is a very serious sin to accuse Jesus of such playacting!! In Gethsemane, we see clearly that He had a strong desire NOT to drink the cup. But His Father's will was for Him to drink the cup. So Jesus denied His own desire and did His Father's desire. In John 6:38, Jesus Himself says that He NEVER DID His own will (His own desires) but only His Father's at all times. Jesus had strong desires within Him (as a Man), that He denied all the time. That is why He can be a Forerunner for people like us (who also have strong desires to do our own will).

2. Some teach that even though Jesus did not sin, yet He came in our sinful flesh and had "sin in His flesh". This is another heresy. Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit. He did not have the 'old man' that we were born with. We have sinful flesh, whereas Jesus did NOT have sinful flesh. He came only "in the LIKENESS of sinful flesh" (Rom.8:3). No- one can stand before God with any type of sin - even if it is sin in his flesh - for God is so pure that He cannot look at sin. If Jesus had sin in His flesh, He could not have had fellowship with His Father even for a single day of His life on earth. That is the clearest proof that Jesus did NOT have sinful flesh. God can have fellowship with us (who have sin in our flesh) ONLY because we are covered by the righteousness of Christ Who had no sin in Him.

3. Some teach that Jesus may have sinned unconsciously like we do. This too is heresy. Under the old covenant, a sacrifice had to be offered even for unconscious sin when a man became aware of it (Lev. 4:2,13,27,28). So even unconscious sin has to be atoned for. Under the new covenant, the blood of Jesus immediately cleanses away unconscious sin as soon as it is done, if we walk in the light as far as conscious sin is concerned (1 Jn. 1:7). That is how our fellowship with the Father is maintained. No blood however was available for Jesus for unconscious sin to be cleansed, if there had been even one unconscious sin in His life. This is the clearest proof that Jesus did NOT sin even unconsciously.

Unconscious sin is the result of our having lived for many years in selfishness and in pride. Jesus never lived like that even for a moment. He never had a dirty dream because all His conscious thoughts were pure. No sin was found in Him - in His conscious life or in His unconscious being. We, on the other hand, have unconscious sin in us, because our attitudes, habits and practices in our past life have given a selfish and conceited bent to our soul. Now the Spirit has come to make our crooked soul straight.

Those who have come to a life of victory over sin need to be totally honest here. There are many who have a measure of victory who excuse many un-Christlike things in their behaviour, speech, etc., by calling them 'mistakes' or 'deeds of the body'. But if they analysed the reason for those 'deeds of the body' they would discover that the underlying cause for them was their pride and their selfishness. However if they do not love the truth about themselves, God will allow them to be deceived in this matter (2 Thess. 2:10 ,11). Such a person may be very righteous in external matters and even have a good testimony before men, but the light will not get any brighter in his life as it should (Prov. 4:12) because he is always excusing sin in his life by calling it a mistake! We must walk in total honesty, if we are to avoid being deceived.

God does not demand that we BE like Jesus now. He knows that, that is impossible, for "BE-ing" refers to our total personality. We can BE like Jesus only when He returns. Today God only demands that we WALK as Jesus walked (Compare1 Jn. 2:6 with1 Jn. 3:2). Walking is a conscious act and refers only to our conscious life. Only in this area can we follow Jesus.

The good news of the gospel is that because Jesus became a man and was tempted like us in all areas and overcame, we too can overcome as He overcame (Rev. 3:21). So there is no excuse for sinning in the conscious area of our life any more. This is not a matter for theological argument but for obedience - for Jesus came to SAVE us from our sins and not merely to FORGIVE us our sins (See the first promise in the New Testament in Matt.1:21)!

Hallelujah, for such a glorious gospel!

(For a fuller study of this topic, please read Chapter 7 in the book "New Wine In New Wineskins" (and other chapters in that book) - available on our webpage)