We Believe In Jesus: The ChristSample

Jesus’ Obedience and Sympathy: Hebrews 4:14; 5:8-9

Jesus was entirely sinless; he never disobeyed God. But he was also fully and truly human. So, he had to learn God’s righteous requirements and to overcome challenges and temptations throughout his life. As we see in the temptations he suffered, Jesus obeyed God both by keeping the requirements of his Law, and by submitting to the Father’s plan for his life. And this obedience prepared him for his work as Christ, because, as we read in Hebrews 5:9, it made him an acceptable sacrifice to God, so that he became the source of eternal salvation.

Jesus’ temptation also gave him sympathy for his people. Jesus didn’t give in to temptation, but he still felt it acutely. He recognized that the things Satan offered him were desirable, and his weakened condition from fasting must have amplified his longing for them. And this experience caused him to grow in compassion and understanding for us as we suffer and struggle with temptation in our own lives. 

The fact that Jesus faced and resisted the temptation to sin, gives Christians great comfort because he was fully human in every way. He experienced temptation but did not succumb to it. And there is a sense in which everything that Jesus endured becomes a model for how Christians can deal with temptation. – Dr. Simon Vibert

When we consider that Jesus faced and resisted the temptation to sin, Hebrews 4 talks about that at length. One of the things that that does is address what’s a fear for a lot of us … that we’re alone, that we’re having an experience that is unique when we are drawn to do something wrong or evil. And in fact, Jesus understood then in his earthly life what it was to be tempted, and today, as he is in heavenly places as our Great High Priest, he has that understanding. So we can be confident that we’re not alone, that there is nothing that we can take to Jesus himself that he hasn’t already understood and now is able to turn and to be our helper in the midst of that situation. – Dr. James D. Smith III