Could Jesus have sinned? If He could not sin, what was the point of the temptation?

This passage settles the question with which so many believers are troubled: "Could the Lord Jesus Christ sin?" They generally quote in connection with this Hebrews 4:15, that He was tempted in all points as we are. They claim that "all points" includes temptation to sin coming from within. Even excellent Christians are at sea about this question. Our Lord Jesus Christ is very God. Being manifested in the flesh does not mean that He laid aside His Deity. James says, "God cannot be tempted with evil," for God is absolutely holy. Therefore our Lord could not be tempted with evil. He had nothing of fallen man in Him; the prince of this world (Satan) came and found nothing in Him. Furthermore, the correct translation of Hebrews 4:15 is as follows: But was in all points tempted like as we are, apart from sin. In all other points our blessed Lord was tempted, but never by indwelling sin, for He was absolutely holy in His human nature, given to Him by the Holy Spirit.

Now let us come to the text bearing directly on the matter in hand. “For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted (Greek, peirazō, to try, to prove) like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). Another translation helps to make clear the meaning of “yet without sin.” It renders it, “sin apart” (New Translation, J.N. Darby). It does not mean that our Lord was tempted and capable of sinning, yet did not sin. It means that sin does not come into the question at all, that His holy nature was perfectly free from all taint of sin, even as the angel Gabriel said to Mary, calling Him “holy” from His birth into this world.

The Father having pronounced His delight in His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. In Mark 1:12 it is said the Spirit "drove" Him for Mark speaks of His servant character, and Matthew 4:1 interestingly reads that He was "carried" by the Spirit (JND trans.), for Matthew considers Him as King, therefore as it were carried as a king in triumph. But as the Man Christ Jesus He was "led," for He is here willingly dependent on the leading of His God and Father

This temptation (or test) by the devil was to prove who He really is, for there could be no doubt that He would triumph perfectly over such temptation: this had been settled by the Father's approval of Him beforehand: He is His own Son. But as the test of fire proves the reality of pure gold, so this test proved the Lord Jesus to be absolutely without dross, without sin. Satan's temptation may cause in us a struggle because there is in us an inclination to succumb. But in Christ there was no such thing. "In Him is no sin," no inclination to do evil, therefore no struggle, but firm decision against temptation. "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do" (Jn.5:19). It is impossible for Him to do anything other than the Father does, therefore certainly it was impossible for Him to sin.

If Christ could not sin, how could He be tempted?

True – it says in the Gospels that Christ was tempted by the devil (Mk. 1:13). This means that Satan presented temptations to Him but there was nothing in Him that would respond to them this is where everyone else differs: we all have the inclination to respond to Satan’s temptations of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life ([1 John 2:16) because we have the flesh, the sinful nature in us, but not so with Christ]. He needed to be tempted. However, this was not to test whether He would sin but to demonstrate that He would not.

But it will be said that while He did not yield to sin, He could have done so; and if not, of what use was the temptation? We might well ask, If He could have yielded to it, what need for the temptation? Perhaps an illustration may be helpful. There are tests to detect metals which look like gold, and are not. These tests are applied to true metal as well as the counterfeits, not to show it is capable of yielding to the test and becoming brass, but just the reverse, to show it to be absolutely incapable. In like manner the believer in Christ has "eternal life" and an never perish, yet the tests of profession are applied to him, and they bring out the reality of the life lie has. It is impossible for gold to respond to a test for brass, impossible for a true believer to fall away as a mere professor, and how much more impossible for our Lord to have yielded to temptation. But it will be said that the true child of God may yield to temptation, and why not our Lord? What is it that makes it possible for the child of God to yield to temptation? The presence of the fallen nature, the flesh. Did our Lord have that? "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1 John 3:9). This is said of the believer, as born of God; is less to be said of that Holy One?

But we are told that the temptation would have been a farce had He been incapable of giving way under it. I fail to see any absurdity in a person putting himself to a powerful test, in order that he might display his ability to answer to the test, and to do it in such a way as would let all see that for a man of his power the test was practically no test at all. The temptation of Christ only brought to light the perfection of His glorious person, and has furnished for us an example worthy of following. We are tempted when we are drawn away of our own lust and enticed (Jas. 1:14-15). Our Lord was never tempted in this way. “He knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21); “AND IN HIM WAS NO SIN” (1 John 3:5). He was tempted in all points as we are, apart from sin (Heb. 4:15). His temptations came from without, and all the suggestions were loathsome to Him. “He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). We have such temptations also, but we have others that come from the lusts of our own hearts, and these He never had.

A short three and a half years pass by and again Satan flings himself into the conflict, but our Lord said, “The prince of this world comes and has nothing in Me” (John 14:30). Who shall say the Lord’s temptations were not real, but not real in the sense in which they are with us, for in our case, sinful nature within answers to temptation without. In our Lord’s case there was no sinful nature. He could not sin, but the very perfection of His sinlessness made His temptations very, very real, far beyond anything we could ever experience! “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him” (Heb. 5:8-9). Thus inextricably are bound up His experiences in the days of His flesh and His atoning work of the cross.

Were the Lord’s temptations in the wilderness real temptations or not? God does not tempt with evil. Satan always does. The very sinlessness of our Lord surely gave Him exquisite sensibilities and the deepest shrinking from receiving temptation from such an one as Satan. He must have suffered intensely in His spirit, as none of us with our sensibilities blunted by sin could ever suffer. Who shall say these were not real temptations? Thank God, there was no sinful nature in our Lord to experience responsive attraction to the evil temptations of the devil. Yet how real were His temptations.

In His being "tempted as we are," therefore, there was not the slightest inclination in Him to yield to the temptation. We have come to think of the word "temptation" as involving the idea that on inclined to sin, but the Scriptural though temptation is that of a trial, or "test." God allowed the devil to tempt the Lord Jesus in order to prove the sinless perfection that was in Him. This test proved the facts. There was no possibility that this "Lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet. 1: 19) could fail in any way.

I think so! He enters into conditions resultant from the fall and stands there for God. He is seen in these conditions as a perfect, sinless, incorruptible, subject Man, and it is as such that He overcomes the devil. The temptation was not to see whether He was sinless or not, but to bring into manifestation the fact that He was. The movement was His own in perfect holy Manhood, as subject to the leading of the Spirit.