Bible Study Could God be tempted?

[evechot]

At Matthew 4:1 Jesus is spoken of as being tempted by the Devil. After showing Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world and their glory," Satan said; "All these things I will give you if you fall down and do an act of worship to me." Matthew 4:8,9 Satan was trying to cause Jesus to be disloyal to his Father in heaven.
But what test of loyalty would that be if Jesus were God? Could God rebel against himself? But angels and humans could rebel against God and did. The temptation of Jesus would make sense only if he was, not God, but a separate individual who had his own free will, one who could have been disloyal had he chosen to be, such as an angel or human.
On the other hand, it is unimaginable that God could sin and be disloyal to himself. So if Jesus had been God, he could not have been tempted by satan? James 1:13 "When under trail, let no one say; "Iam being tried by God". For with evil things God cannot be tried nor does he himself try anyone."
Not being God, Jesus could have been disloyal. But he remained faithful, saying "Go away, Satan! For it is written, "It is the Lord your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service." Matthew 4:10

 

[Robert Cragg]

It is hard to understand but when Jesus was here as a man he left his Godly power behind he was just like a regular man in everyway except his Virgin Birth. So he allowed satan to temp him
so he had temptations just like any other man. If you read Hebrews 4-15. I hope this helps you.
God Bless You,
Rob

 

[Vic C.]

There are seven verses in the OT where man tempted God. I believe though, that He can't fall into temptation.

(Exo 17:7 KJV) And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

(Num 14:22 KJV) Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

(Deu 6:16 KJV) Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

(Psa 78:18 KJV) And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

(Psa 78:41 KJV) Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

(Psa 78:56 KJV) Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

(Psa 95:9 KJV) When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

(Psa 106:14 KJV) But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.

 

[RadicalReformer]

Could God be tempted? Sure.... however, that doesn't mean that God is tempted.

In other words, I do not believe that God could entertain the possibility of doing anything that is contrary to His attributes.

satan did attempt to tempt Jesus - to the foolishness of satan and to our benefit!

It was foolish of satan, because Christ cannot sin. To our benefit because it revealed how we can resist the temptations that we face!

The act of 'tempting' has two parts. The person doing the tempting and the person receiving the temptation. God does not "receive" the temptation, as I said earlier, God does not and cannot entertain the possibility of the temptation. It would be like someone "tempting" me with coffee. I dislike it - it would be an excerise in fultillity for the person to attempt to tempt me with "coffee".

Hope this helps...

Because of Him!

 

[Imagican]

If Christ 'could NOT' have sinned, then we would NOT have the story of His 'temptation'. Christ DID not sin and THAT is how He was able to DEFEAT death. Where Adam failed, Christ succeeded.

Only in the 'minds' of men that would 'make' Christ God HImself could there be a 'misunderstanding' of the scriptures and WHY they were offered. Not only in the temptation of Christ, but throughout the espistles there is PLAIN explanation that it was THROUGH Christ NOT sinning that He was able to defeat DEATH. If this is HOW He OVERCAME it, then that means that HE COULD HAVE failed.

MEC

 

[Vic C.]

(note to self: i need to set a limit on when a topic expires from being bumped... 30 days? 60 days) :-?

 

[mutzrein]

(note to self: i need to set a limit on when a topic expires from being bumped... 30 days? 60 days) :-?

No way!! Resurrection is what it's all about . . . isn't it? :wink:

 

[Imagican]

Mutz,

You are one 'witty dude', (he he he).

Vic,

Do you offer this because of a 'disagreement' with what i have offered?

If Christ 'were God Himself', it would have been IMPOSSIBLE for Him to be tempted OR to sin. We have a PERFECT example of Christ BEING tempted. It is even refered to as; 'the temptation of Christ'. NOT, the 'temptation of God'. And it is OBFVIOUS to the reader that the account would NOT have been offered if there had been NO PURPOSE of it's offering. And THAT purpose was to show that Christ WAS able to 'overcome' temptation.

In order to TEMP someone or something, (in this case Christ), there would have to be AN OFFER that would be enticing to accept. Satan would NOT have been STUPID enough to offer something that was NOT deliverable. Satan HAS dominion of this planet. That he CAN offer and did. But to offer this to GOD would be a REDICULOUS offer. Satan is NOT that STUPID. Full of PRIDE? Most definitely. But IGNORANT of the workings of heaven and God? NOT likely since he WAS the MOST beloved of ALL the angels.

So, did Satan tempt GOD? NO WAY. Satan tempted the SON of God, here in the flesh. In the HOPES of 'postponing' the inevitable; his defeat. But THROUGH the 'overcoming' of the temptations offered, Christ WAS able to defeat him THEN.

Satan simply tempted Christ with that which HE fell to; Pride and greed. And NEITHER of these was he able to entice Christ with. And even the examples we have of demons encountering Christ, NEVER did one call Him GOD, but the Son of God. Recognizing COMPLETELY who they were encountering.

And, as Christ, (not God), defeated Satan through obedience, so too were the apostles empowered to defeat Satan's demons. Given the ability to 'cast out demons'; NOT in the name of God, but in the name of HIS SON who had ALREADY obtained this ability by overcoming temptation; Christ.

When Peter was rebuked by Christ this is another example of Satan tempting, NOT GOD, but His Son. For Satan would have NEVER been foolish enough to even THINK that he could FOOL God. His Son? Maybe........... For Christ was facing a terrible death and Satan had the advantage of this FEAR, (yes, Christ was most definitely FEARFUL of the upcoming events that He KNEW were close at hand. If NOT fearful of the pain and suffering, MOST DEFINITELY fearful of the POSSIBILITY of failure in performing that which was MANDATORY for His purpose to be fulfilled), that he used against Christ in tempting Him to either fight or flee. Satan would NEVER have tempted God to FLEE. And Satan must KNOW in the 'back of his heart' that he CANNOT defeat God Himself. But would surely attempt to tempt the Son into 'falling' in the same manner as himself. For Satan KNEW the temptation of 'power' and 'self' and KNEW how tempting it may well be to The Son.

Regardless of the 'nature' of Christ's relationship to the Father previous to His coming in the flesh, YOU DO KNOW that he DID 'come in the flesh', correct? And by BEING flesh, He was EXPOSED to the 'cravings' of the Flesh. He was tempted JUST as we and perhaps EVEN MORE. The difference is that He was able to OVERCOME temptation because He DID know God His Father and through their shared love, was able to be obedient, KNOWING that IF He succeeded in His mission He would obtain an even HIGHER love than that EVER known by ANYTHING in existence OTHER than God Himself; His Father. That's quite an incentive wouldn't you think?

So, Christ didn't NEED to BE God in order to fulfill His mission. He simply needed to REMAIN obedient IN SPITE of temptation.

MEC

 

[Vic C.]

(note to self: i need to set a limit on when a topic expires from being bumped... 30 days? 60 days) :-?

No way!! Resurrection is what it's all about . . . isn't it? :wink:

: : :





No MEC, I offer it as a joke. :-D

 

[Imagican]

There are seven verses in the OT where man tempted God. I believe though, that He can't fall into temptation.

(Exo 17:7 KJV) And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

(Num 14:22 KJV) Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

(Deu 6:16 KJV) Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

(Psa 78:18 KJV) And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

(Psa 78:41 KJV) Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

(Psa 78:56 KJV) Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

(Psa 95:9 KJV) When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

(Psa 106:14 KJV) But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.

It may be profitable to note that these verses offered point to TWO conclusions:

One: that God CAN be tempted to anger.

Two: that EACH of these examples concerned ONLY the temptation to anger of God BY MAN. Not a one of them speaks of God being tempted by Satan.

We KNOW that God was tempted at least ONCE by Satan. The 'reason' of Satan's being cast out was undoubtably to be considered a 'tempting of God'.

But, with these 'things' in mind, was the 'tempting of Christ' ACTUALLY a 'tempting of God Himself'?

I find it unlikely that we would have been offered this example in scripture WITHOUT purpose. And that purpose to PLAINLY SHOW that Christ, The Son of God, WAS tempted but OVERCAME this temptation THROUGH OBEDIENCE. Each time His answer to Satan WAS the Word of God. And this 'word' of God was TOLD to us BY Christ NOT to BE HIS OWN, but GIVEN Him BY The Father.

While SOME of the power of Christ WAS relinquished upon 'taking on the flesh', we can PLAINLY see throughout scripture that MUCH was RETAINED. For He WAS able to 'cast out demons', heal, create from NOTHING, raise the dead, etc........ Now we KNOW that these accomplishments WERE through the POWER of God. But PERFORMED by Christ. For, as He stated, for those that are ABLE to HAVE faith, NOTHING is imposible.

And the FACT that we often witness Christ PRAYING for strength, miracles, forgiveness of others, etc, offers even MORE insight as to His limits to exercise His OWN power.

And Christ was NOT ONLY tempted three times by Satan. We find a myriad of examples of His 'temptation' throughout the Gospels. "How often must I be among you" is most DEFINITELY an expose of 'temptation'. "Satan get behind me" purely shows temptation raising it's ugly head. The anger which He exhibited in the temple. The list is varied and extensive. Even the accusations thrown at Him concerning the 'breaking of the Sabath', being quesitoned on the MOST important commandment, paying taxes, the 'perfume' considered 'wasted' by those that witnessed the event. Even the woman that was 'shuned by the deciples', that EVEN indicated that WAS ABLE to even open Christ's eyes.

Which brings up a pretty important issue concerning the IDENTITY of Christ. IF Christ WERE God, then could He have NOT known that He was sent NOT ONLY FOR THE JEWS, but to the Gentiles as well. Yet the indication offered concerning His reaction to statement offered, 'even the dogs eat the scraps from the masters table', is that up to that point EVEN He didn't realize that His 'purpose' was toward the Gentiles AS WELL AS those of His own nation.

But the question posed as to 'God being tempted', of COURSE He CAN be tempted in PARTICULAR regards. He MOST CERTAINLY CAN be 'tempted' to anger by those that He loves. And He CAN be tempted to JOY by those He loves as well. For we have the evidence in that the SINNER David WAS a 'man after His OWN heart'.

MEC

 

[Bick]

Quote by MEC:
"We KNOW that God was tempted at least ONCE by Satan. The 'reason' of Satan's being cast out was undoubtably to be considered a 'tempting of God'."

MY RESPONSE: Hi, MEC, could you give me the Bible passage (with context) for your above quote?

 

[Bick]

When I think of the temptation (testing) of Jesus by Satan, I liken Him to a piece of stainless steel.

Stainless steel can be tested in many ways, with acids, corrosives, etc, and yet without harm.

In the same way, Jesus was tested, yet without sin. He was truly tested, just as the stainless steel was, yet he never failed to be what God the Father wanted Him to be.

 

[destiny]

What could we possibly even begin to offer God that He couldn't already have IF He wanted it?? N-O-T-H-I-N-G!! that's what.