Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.
JESUS' WORK SHOWS HOW HE WAS LIKE YOU AND NOT LIKE YOU
Jesus could do the work of High Priest because He's like us, and He's not like us. He's like us because He took on a human body, and had blood that could be shed. He's not like us because that blood was sinless and undefiled. Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin.
Do not think that Jesus got off easy when it came to temptations. It wasn't just those three temptations mentioned in Matthew chapter four when Jesus was in the wilderness. It wasn't just those forty days preceding that in the wilderness. Satan was out in full force against Jesus. There was even a time where Jesus had to tell His disciple Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!" And here it says that He was tempted in all points as we are.
What's your biggest temptation? Pride, laziness, lovelessness, disrespect for authority, drinking, lust, greed? Jesus was tempted in all of those areas. Yet unlike us He did not yield to those temptations. This was more than being an example so that we could ask "What would Jesus do?" There was a purpose to His perfection, and that was that He would be a perfect sacrifice. His blood would be enough to pay for sin. He had to be like us in being true Man, but He also had to be unlike us and be true God in order to be our High Priest.
