Did Jesus have a beginning! Was Jesus tempted as we are? Can God be tempted? These three questions demand answers! Years ago, I was sitting a Bible class when at the end of the class the teacher asked; If Jesus was tempted, he was God, and God cannot be tempted?” One lady in the class spoke up and said, that she was not going there. As this was the question and we should deal with it! But does the Bible go there?
The New Testament is generally understood that Jesus was tempted in all points as we are: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin;” (Heb. 4:14-18) and yet, God cannot be tempted: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man” ( James 1:13) Just how can these two points be true? If Jesus was God and he is, how can he be tempted, as he was and still be God?
First, let us answer the first question: “Did Jesus have a beginning?” Here we turn to John who wrote: ”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1) The one referred to as the “Word,” is God! Now what happened to this “Word?” Turning to verse fourteen, John wrote: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (verse 14) The key words are: “The Word was made flesh!” God the Word was made something he was not at the beginning. In fact, he was made “flesh.” The key words are “was made.” This is the Greek word “ginomai” which means “to cause to be.” The “Word” was made something he had not been before at a certain point in time! Looking now Matthew where he wrote: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). At the conception, Jesus was “made flesh” and come into being, as the “Word was made flesh!” Thus, Jesus as savior, but in order to be a savior, he had to be flesh and blood. It is through his “blood” that we are saved! As the old song goes: “Nothing but blood!”
A second text which must have our attention is Isaiah: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). The name “Immanuel” means “God with us!” And what did “the Word” become, but flesh! Thus, God with us! As John wrote: “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us!” Let me point out that the pronoun “us” does not mean “us” today, as our eyes have never looked upon God in the flesh, as we know him through the New Testament! Nevertheless, we know him, and we know that “God, the Word” was made flesh and blood and by God in the flesh we are saved! If we do not know him, we cannot be saved, as John wrote: “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2::3). John went on to write: “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (Verse 4).
You can now see that it is imperative that we know Jesus, who was while upon this earth, as if we do not know him, we cannot be saved and this means to know by keeping his word! Yes, God was made flesh and dwelt among us (those at the time Jesus lived upon this earth)! Clearly, Jesus could only be tempted in his humanity, flesh and blood!
It is the hope that the reader will understand the subject of Jesus better now than before, even though we will have more articles to follow! We will look at Jesus in the flesh, yet, without sin!
Frank R. Williams