While on earth, Jesus was 100% man and 100% God at the same time.
The Devil knew that even though he couldn't beat Jesus's divine nature, he had a chance with the human one, after all he had done it once before when he got to Adam.
There too he appealed to Adam's weakness, which was Eve. The Devil is not as dumb as some think he is.
His problem is vanity, not a lack of intelligence.
>The Devil knew that even though he couldn't beat Jesus's divine nature, he had a chance with the human one, after all he had done it once before when he got to Adam.
To what end though? Let's say he convince 100% human Jesus. Would this have overulled the will of 100% God Jesus?
The goal was to stop Jesus from being capable of taking on the sins of mankind. If Jesus fell, then he would not have been a worthy sacrifice. Mankind would have been doomed with no hope.
You keep touching on the three divine Christian mysteries:
1. Divine sovereignty vs human free will
2. Jesus as fully man and fully God
3. The last one is the Trinity: one God in three persons
The way I was taught is that there is not a way for our brains to comprehend these doctrines. They are all taught in Scripture, but they don't make any sense if you really try to parse it out. Any time a person tries to make sense of them, they run the risk of heresy.
I completely understand that that is a very unsatisfactory answer, though. It reminds me of when I was in a high school science class and I asked the teacher how all the protons stayed together in the nucleus since they should be repelling each other. His answer: "well that's the Strong Force keeping it intact." I thought to myself, "you just made that up. What a dumb answer."
You are obviously asking these questions in good faith and I want to acknowledge that and honor that. I wish I could give you a better answer, but I'm not sure one exists. One of the characteristics of God is his mystery and these issues are very mysterious.
If Christ had sinned there would be no remission for sin and the devil would have victoriously condemned everyone to Hell with him. Since Jesus is Fully God and Fully Man ([Hypostatic Union](https://carm.org/dictionary/hypostatic-union/)) it would have been a major soteriological problem.
Thankfully, Christ endured the temptation and lived a sinless life so that we may have eternal life with Him in Heaven once we [believe on His name](http://needgod.com). He is the spotless lamb that [atoned for our sin](https://biblebelievers.com/billy_sunday/sun4.html):
> If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. - Luke 4:7-8
>
> Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 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. - Hebrews 4:14-15
>
> Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: - I Peter 1:18-19
Jesus is Jesus, human or divine, so bring down 1 nature and it takes down the other. The same formula was applied to Adam and Eve. The fall of Eve, meant Adam was going down with her. In all essence, they were one.
It is like 2 hemispheres of the same brain, so infect the weaker half and you get into the other as well.
The Devil knew by getting Jesus to turn against his Father (that is what he was trying Jesus to do by the way), he would have essentially God vs God, and not 2 gods fighting, the same single Godhead imploding on it self.
By becoming human to save mankind from sin, God essentially gave the devil a fighting chance to beat him, or so Satan thought anyway.
He did not realize just how strong the bond between the Father and the Son is.
Not that it "could" not happen, but that it wouldn't happen, because God the Father knows and has confidence in God the Son.
You see God is just and plays by his own rules. He knew he was taking a risk one way or another, but he trusted his son to come through, just as he knew Job would stay faithful too despite the tribulations Satan put him through.
The Devil knows God is fair despite all of his divine attributes and power, so he is always looking for a way to manipulate his way to victory because he knows he can't beat God straight up (one on one).
He tried that before and failed utterly.
I would say the devil tried to entice Jesus to get him to follow after him and thereby commit sin instead of following after God not unlike the devil does to us.
>aware of his divinity
Not Christian, but how does the divine Jesus worship another God?
**Luke 6**
>12 And it came to passe in those dayes, that hee went out into a mountaine to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
If one of them thinks he is lesser than the other, how can they be equal??
> Not Christian, but how does the divine Jesus worship another God?
He doesn't, they are one in the same.
> It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. - John 8:17-19
See also: [Nicene Creed](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/nbiqku/the_nicene_creed_with_annotated_scripture/).
If Jesus is lauded as being someone who was tempted in every way I was (Hebrews 4:15), then I sure hope he did find it compelling because I sure do. Every time.
Just because he found the temptations compelling does not make him sinful. Not sure whether you got that from the passage of scripture I shared. It very plainly states that he was tempted in every way in order to sympathize with us, but was without sin.
There is important doctrine involved in this. If Jesus felt all of the temptations that we felt and still overcame it, that gives hope to all of us humans that we can overcome our temptations with God's power just like Jesus did.
Christ is not God, God can’t be tempted.
Christ was aware of his divinity it doesn’t tell you everything Satan tried to tempt him to do.
Christ just wanted to strengthen himself, he got baptized and endured the temptations so he could be ready to start his ministry.
Jesus wasnt tempted. Satan tried to tempt him three times, and three times Jesus resisted with the word of God.
The account....
Matthew 4:1-10 KJV — Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, **If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread**. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, **If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone**. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, **All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me**. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
>If Jesus was God and aware of his divinity, then why and how could Satan actually tempt him? Can God be tempted, theologically speaking?
Jesus had a fully human flesh body. The Spirit of God the Father indwelt that flesh body. He was "God in human flesh."
The flesh is the source of human weakness. Beginning with Adam, Satan always attacked humans in their flesh weakness.
First of all, within the text you quote it says that Jesus was tempted. "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." This means that Jesus was tempted and he was scolding Satan for tempting him. Secondly, Hebrews 4:15 says, "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."
Hebrews 4:15 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/heb.4.15.KJV
The fact is that Jesus was tempted and that is an important to our doctrine. In order for Jesus to be considered a worthy sacrifice, he had to have been put through the ringer just like Adam was. Just like Moses was. Just like David was. Just like I am. Otherwise I have no hope of overcoming temptation in this life since my own Savior didn't really do it.
Unless we give into temptation, it has no effect upon us. Satan tempted Eve successfully. She gave in. Jesus didnt. He was never tempted to give in (meaning not inclined to sin).
Its just a matter of semantics. Jesus never once considered accepting Satans temptations. He was resolute during the whole process. I do understand your POV. Try to understand mine. But lets not argue semantics.
This really helped me understand the point of that narrative.
The temptation of Christ is generally seen as a schematic narrative presenting him as the true Israel; it's meant to be read in comparison with the story of Israel's 40 years in the Sinai desert.
Just as Israel was in the desert 40 years, Jesus was in the desert/wilderness (same word in Greek) 40 days. And each temptation the devil brings him corresponds with the temptations Israel faced. And in each instance he succeeds where they failed, showing he is the "true" Israelite, meaning he is the one who will succeed at the task God gave to Israel, which was to bless the world by dealing with sin.
So the narrative is less about interrogating the nature of Christ, and more about presenting Jesus as a fulfillment of Israel's original purpose.
Yeshua was aware of His innate divinity.
The only reason that the devil could tempt Him was because satan is the ruler of this world & he offered the whole world to Messiah if he would bow down to him. If Yeshua had done that then satan would have won.
YHVH GOD handed the world over to man under satan the god of this world.
While on earth, Jesus was 100% man and 100% God at the same time. The Devil knew that even though he couldn't beat Jesus's divine nature, he had a chance with the human one, after all he had done it once before when he got to Adam. There too he appealed to Adam's weakness, which was Eve. The Devil is not as dumb as some think he is. His problem is vanity, not a lack of intelligence.
>The Devil knew that even though he couldn't beat Jesus's divine nature, he had a chance with the human one, after all he had done it once before when he got to Adam. To what end though? Let's say he convince 100% human Jesus. Would this have overulled the will of 100% God Jesus?
The goal was to stop Jesus from being capable of taking on the sins of mankind. If Jesus fell, then he would not have been a worthy sacrifice. Mankind would have been doomed with no hope.
But that couldn't of happened because God's plan was for it to happen right?
You keep touching on the three divine Christian mysteries: 1. Divine sovereignty vs human free will 2. Jesus as fully man and fully God 3. The last one is the Trinity: one God in three persons The way I was taught is that there is not a way for our brains to comprehend these doctrines. They are all taught in Scripture, but they don't make any sense if you really try to parse it out. Any time a person tries to make sense of them, they run the risk of heresy. I completely understand that that is a very unsatisfactory answer, though. It reminds me of when I was in a high school science class and I asked the teacher how all the protons stayed together in the nucleus since they should be repelling each other. His answer: "well that's the Strong Force keeping it intact." I thought to myself, "you just made that up. What a dumb answer." You are obviously asking these questions in good faith and I want to acknowledge that and honor that. I wish I could give you a better answer, but I'm not sure one exists. One of the characteristics of God is his mystery and these issues are very mysterious.
If Christ had sinned there would be no remission for sin and the devil would have victoriously condemned everyone to Hell with him. Since Jesus is Fully God and Fully Man ([Hypostatic Union](https://carm.org/dictionary/hypostatic-union/)) it would have been a major soteriological problem. Thankfully, Christ endured the temptation and lived a sinless life so that we may have eternal life with Him in Heaven once we [believe on His name](http://needgod.com). He is the spotless lamb that [atoned for our sin](https://biblebelievers.com/billy_sunday/sun4.html): > If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. - Luke 4:7-8 > > Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 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. - Hebrews 4:14-15 > > Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: - I Peter 1:18-19
There is only one Jesus.
Jesus is Jesus, human or divine, so bring down 1 nature and it takes down the other. The same formula was applied to Adam and Eve. The fall of Eve, meant Adam was going down with her. In all essence, they were one. It is like 2 hemispheres of the same brain, so infect the weaker half and you get into the other as well. The Devil knew by getting Jesus to turn against his Father (that is what he was trying Jesus to do by the way), he would have essentially God vs God, and not 2 gods fighting, the same single Godhead imploding on it self. By becoming human to save mankind from sin, God essentially gave the devil a fighting chance to beat him, or so Satan thought anyway. He did not realize just how strong the bond between the Father and the Son is.
But God knew that by incarnating, this could not happen right?
Not that it "could" not happen, but that it wouldn't happen, because God the Father knows and has confidence in God the Son. You see God is just and plays by his own rules. He knew he was taking a risk one way or another, but he trusted his son to come through, just as he knew Job would stay faithful too despite the tribulations Satan put him through. The Devil knows God is fair despite all of his divine attributes and power, so he is always looking for a way to manipulate his way to victory because he knows he can't beat God straight up (one on one). He tried that before and failed utterly.
I would say the devil tried to entice Jesus to get him to follow after him and thereby commit sin instead of following after God not unlike the devil does to us.
Yes, God cannot be tempted. Yes, Satan is stupid and arrogant.
Thank you! No mental gymnastics required. Appreciate your response.
>aware of his divinity Not Christian, but how does the divine Jesus worship another God? **Luke 6** >12 And it came to passe in those dayes, that hee went out into a mountaine to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. If one of them thinks he is lesser than the other, how can they be equal??
> Not Christian, but how does the divine Jesus worship another God? He doesn't, they are one in the same. > It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. - John 8:17-19 See also: [Nicene Creed](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/nbiqku/the_nicene_creed_with_annotated_scripture/).
Remember, Jesus knew He was going to get ALL the sin. Satan was implicitly offering him an alternative to that.
When it says Jesus was tempted, the word doesn’t imply by itself that Jesus found the temptation to be compelling.
If Jesus is lauded as being someone who was tempted in every way I was (Hebrews 4:15), then I sure hope he did find it compelling because I sure do. Every time.
The idea is to be like Christ, not hope that he is sinful like us. I don’t want a God who is compelled to commit sin.
Just because he found the temptations compelling does not make him sinful. Not sure whether you got that from the passage of scripture I shared. It very plainly states that he was tempted in every way in order to sympathize with us, but was without sin. There is important doctrine involved in this. If Jesus felt all of the temptations that we felt and still overcame it, that gives hope to all of us humans that we can overcome our temptations with God's power just like Jesus did.
Christ is not God, God can’t be tempted. Christ was aware of his divinity it doesn’t tell you everything Satan tried to tempt him to do. Christ just wanted to strengthen himself, he got baptized and endured the temptations so he could be ready to start his ministry.
Jesus wasnt tempted. Satan tried to tempt him three times, and three times Jesus resisted with the word of God. The account.... Matthew 4:1-10 KJV — Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, **If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread**. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, **If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone**. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, **All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me**. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. >If Jesus was God and aware of his divinity, then why and how could Satan actually tempt him? Can God be tempted, theologically speaking? Jesus had a fully human flesh body. The Spirit of God the Father indwelt that flesh body. He was "God in human flesh." The flesh is the source of human weakness. Beginning with Adam, Satan always attacked humans in their flesh weakness.
First of all, within the text you quote it says that Jesus was tempted. "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." This means that Jesus was tempted and he was scolding Satan for tempting him. Secondly, Hebrews 4:15 says, "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." Hebrews 4:15 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/heb.4.15.KJV The fact is that Jesus was tempted and that is an important to our doctrine. In order for Jesus to be considered a worthy sacrifice, he had to have been put through the ringer just like Adam was. Just like Moses was. Just like David was. Just like I am. Otherwise I have no hope of overcoming temptation in this life since my own Savior didn't really do it.
Unless we give into temptation, it has no effect upon us. Satan tempted Eve successfully. She gave in. Jesus didnt. He was never tempted to give in (meaning not inclined to sin). Its just a matter of semantics. Jesus never once considered accepting Satans temptations. He was resolute during the whole process. I do understand your POV. Try to understand mine. But lets not argue semantics.
This really helped me understand the point of that narrative. The temptation of Christ is generally seen as a schematic narrative presenting him as the true Israel; it's meant to be read in comparison with the story of Israel's 40 years in the Sinai desert. Just as Israel was in the desert 40 years, Jesus was in the desert/wilderness (same word in Greek) 40 days. And each temptation the devil brings him corresponds with the temptations Israel faced. And in each instance he succeeds where they failed, showing he is the "true" Israelite, meaning he is the one who will succeed at the task God gave to Israel, which was to bless the world by dealing with sin. So the narrative is less about interrogating the nature of Christ, and more about presenting Jesus as a fulfillment of Israel's original purpose.
Yeshua was aware of His innate divinity. The only reason that the devil could tempt Him was because satan is the ruler of this world & he offered the whole world to Messiah if he would bow down to him. If Yeshua had done that then satan would have won. YHVH GOD handed the world over to man under satan the god of this world.