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Was it possible for Christ to have sinned ?

Hi Imagican,

I thought I would paste my reply from Georges, "Did the devil tempt God" thread. Christ, being God...having all the attributes of God...and proceeding eternally from the Father...was tempted in His flesh. It was by the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from both, that Christ did miracles. The Holy Spirit was in Him, being conceived by Him...born of (sent by) God, and born of woman. He was not the seed of Adam as we are, and therefore not tainted with sin. I believe satan did know Christ was God, and set up his temptations cleverly, to try and get Christ to break His covenant with the Father. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all work together as One in a covenantal manner. Satan is rebellious, and in his rebellion thinks he is right. Notice that he was guilty of every sin he tempted Christ with, and that each on was set up to appeal to Christ's flesh, but have divine consequences. The Lord bless you.

lovely wrote:
The Temptation of Christ.
Yes, satan tempted God, the Son, Christ.

1st Temptation.

Christ is the Bread of Life, and the Word. He is our Eternal Salvation, and God. We, believers are partakers of the BREAD, and it is because of God's MERCY, and so that we should not die, but live!...Just as David, was allowed to eat the show bread for life, so are we, but unto eternal life!

Matthew 4:1-11 (in red)
Lets look at the passage, and break it down. We know that Jesus had just been 40 days, and nights, fasting and praying.

1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Israel was also taken through the Wilderness, and was tempted. Deuteronomy 8:2

2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

The children of Israel were allowed to go hungry, and God gave them manna FROM Heaven. Exodus 16:14-15

3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Obviously, Christ was hungry, and had the divine power to command bread, but instead He answered with a quote from Scripture.

4 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.
Deuteronomy 8:3

Jesus is the WORD, that proceeds eternally from the Father.

In Deuteronomy 8:3 It is evident that the manna they ate, the bread from Heaven, was temporal, but God was telling them that they shall live by the WORD...John 1:1 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Deuteronomy 8:3

3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

Christ also tells us that He is the bread of life, the MANNA from Heaven. Well, in John 6:22-59 we find that Jesus declares Himself to be the Bread of Life...the manna that was sent by the Father from Heaven...come down from Heaven.

John 6:31-33

31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world
34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.


So, we can understand that the first temptation, the lust of the flesh, was resisted in that Christ did not use His divine power to make stones into bread to prove He was the Son of God, the Word...God. He is the Word, the Bread of life, and the MANNA from Heaven, and this is our sign. Satan, demanded a sign from Christ to prove that He was the Son of God. The pharisees also demanded a sign, remember? Satan ensnared Himself, revealing his own guilt of not believing God.

2nd Temptation


Christ is the Rock, and from Him proceeds the Living Water, the Holy Spirit...that was also sent by the Father, out of the Rock.


5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 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.


Psalm 91:9-12

9 Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.



Satan, being true to his deceptive nature twists this Scripture about the godly trusting in God, and abiding in Him, THE MOST HIGH, to justify tempting God. Interesting, given that is exactly what he was doing himself, because Christ the LORD, THE MOST HIGH is exactly who the godly are abiding in! He was tempting God! Odd that satan takes Him to a high place for this. He tempts Christ with the pride of life here, and Christ does not throw himself down to prove to satan that the angels can be called on. He did not call the angels to save Him from the cross either, but submited willingly to the Father's will, and died for our sin...satan would bruise His heal. The covenant though, is that the Father would raise Him, and He did. Christ will bruise satan's head.


7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy again, Deuteronomy 6:16 recalling Massah "Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah."

The incident of Israel tempting God in Massah.


Exodus 17:2-7

1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.
2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?
3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7 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?


Jesus declares that He is the Rock out of which flows the living water, the Holy Spirit. God provided (sent) the water from the Rock...The Holy Spirit, the Living Water, proceeds from both God, the Father, and God the Son, the Rock.

The Woman at the Well. Christ, the gift of God, is able to give the Holy Spirit, the Water, for the purpose of Salvation.

John 4:10-14

10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.


Christ is the Rock

1 Corinthians 10:1-4

1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.


The Spirit is the water.

John 7:37-39

37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)



3rd Temptation.

8 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;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.


Satan is the ruler of the world, and he offers it to Christ in return for worship. Christ was not a sacrifice unto satan, but God...we are partakers of the alter...You can not drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons, you can not partake of the Lord's table, and that of demons. Satan, by offering Christ power, in return for worship, wanted Christ to leave us in his grip, and we would have died in our sin. He resisted, in the flesh, to take power of the world right then for the sake of our salvation, not because He couldn't, but because if He had he would have broken the covenant, and this would have served satan. Fulfilling the immediate desire to be out of His humble state, and be once again in all His glory, as God, was resisted....the lust of the eyes...but the world will be His to rule once all enemies are under His feet, and He will deliver it to the Father according to the Father's will....this is who Christ, being God, was serving in His flesh. This was because of the eternal covenant.

I Corinthians 10:16-22

16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
18 Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
19 What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.
22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?



10 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.

Satan should have been worshipping Christ, and serving Him, but once again he (satan) was the one guilty of the very thing he was tempting Christ with, he worshiped Himself before God, and Christ having a divine eternal inheritance, being God, did not even do this, but did the will of the Father.

Deuteronomy 6:13-15

13 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;
15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.


Israel failed in this, and did not resist temptation as Christ did. Deuteronomy 8:2 I think verse 15 was Christ explaining satan's fate to him, it caused him to leave.

11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

The Lord bless all of you.
 
lovely,

I agree with ALMOST EVERYTHING that you stated. The ONLY difference is that you believe Jesus Christ WAS God and I simply accept that He was 'a PART of God' WITHOUT being God Himself. For I believe that God IS THE FATHER, and Christ IS The Son. Other than this, I agree with EVERYTHING that you stated.

Christ was NOT of the seed of Adam, this IS TRUE. He was OF THE HOLY SPIRIT and woman. This MAKING Him the Son of God AND the Son of MAN. BOTH STATED throughout the NT.

But, if we ELIMINATE the 'Christ IS God' part, we see that there WAS a reason to tempt the Son, that could NOT exist with the Son BEING God Himself, WHO we KNOW IS The Father.

Thanks for your offering in reply to my post. Your's are always a treat for their content and show MUCH Understanding.

MEC
 
Imagican,

You say Jesus was/is, "part of God", could you explain this to me further? You acknowledge that Christ was part of God, which part of Him was divine in your understanding? I believe He was both fully.

Do you agree that the "part" that was/is God was/is eternal, or do you believe that it began at the incarnation...that the part that was/is God had a beginning in time?

How do your reconcile Christ as the Word, being with God, and God? How do you understand the eternal covenant, and that the Holy Spirit proceeding from BOTH the Father, and the Son? Certainly the Son is God if the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him as well.


To be honest, I do not have a clear understanding of your postion, though I have tried to understand it. I think some believe Christ an angel, and others do not, but simply the Son of God, a man. I am interested in the likeness of God in Him, and how you see that. We both believe Christ is the Son of God, but I am wondering if you agree that Christ has an eternal divine inheritance, as the Son of God, and that we are allowed to take part of because of our adoption.

I am also interested in how you see his priesthood, without lineage...as eternal?

I will stop here, and take this to another thread to avoid getting off topic

http://www.christianforums.net/viewtopi ... 058#280058

linked to Questions for Imagican.
 
Tongue in cheek comment but couldn't resist - shouldn't the trinitarian response to this be, "All things are possible with God".

Seriously though, I intend to come back and post on the three temptations of Jesus since I believe what is recorded in scripture provides a key for dealing with every element of the temptation that we are faced with.
 
mutzrein said:
Tongue in cheek comment but couldn't resist - shouldn't the trinitarian response to this be, "All things are possible with God"....
It's been used already. Maybe not here, maybe not recently, but it's been used. Actually, it would be too easy to use. 8-)
 
vic said:
mutzrein said:
Tongue in cheek comment but couldn't resist - shouldn't the trinitarian response to this be, "All things are possible with God"....
It's been used already. Maybe not here, maybe not recently, but it's been used. Actually, it would be too easy to use. 8-)

Ahhhh - I knew I could count on you Vic. BTW I've been meaning to ask about the Stevie Wonder 8-) 'look'. Is there any significance?
 
mutzrein said:
Ahhhh - I knew I could count on you Vic. BTW I've been meaning to ask about the Stevie Wonder 8-) 'look'. Is there any significance?
It's Ray Charles! :smt064

All kidding aside, please, keep the silly "blind" jokes to yourselves.
 
vic said:
mutzrein said:
Ahhhh - I knew I could count on you Vic. BTW I've been meaning to ask about the Stevie Wonder 8-) 'look'. Is there any significance?
It's Ray Charles! :smt064

All kidding aside, please, keep the silly "blind" jokes to yourselves.

Sorry, my bad. They all 'look':-? the same to me. Keep up the good work. I was wondering though Vic, there has been a couple of posts that I made to you but you gave me no response. I'm trying to gauge whether you didn't see them or couldn't answer. Cheers.
 
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