Audio Transcript
Jesus was tempted in every way as we are tempted, and he didn’t sin — not once. Our whole salvation rides on his perfection. But does this mean that Jesus was tempted by evil desires inside of himself, like we are? A sharp question to ask, even if it is an uncomfortable one to ask. Here it is.
“Hi, Pastor John. My name is Sophie, and I live in Sydney, Australia. I’m grappling with a question about temptation and sin. In James 1:14, it says people are tempted by their own evil desires, which lead to sin. This seems to create a clear distinction between temptation, evil desires, and actual sin. However, I’m struggling to reconcile this with Hebrews 4:15, which states that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, but did not sin. If James 1:14 connects temptation with evil desires, how can I understand this in light of Hebrews 4:15? It doesn’t seem right to say that Jesus had evil desires, yet these passages seem to contradict each other. How can I fit these two verses together and understand how Jesus could be tempted in all the ways we are, yet remain sinless?”
Five Facts
Okay, here are the basic facts from the Bible that need to be put together in a coherent way.
First, the Greek word translated test and the Greek word translated tempt are exactly the same word in Greek: peirasmos is the noun; peirazō is the verb. That’s the first observation. It’s really significant.
Second, God tests us. He tested Abraham (Hebrews 11:17), he tests us, and he invites us to test him by trusting him: “Test me, prove me, and I’ll pour out blessings on you” (see Malachi 3:10).
Third, God cannot be tempted, according to James 1:13, and he himself tempts no one, according to that same verse: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”
Fourth, Christ was tempted, according to Matthew 4:1: “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Hebrews 4:15: “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Fifth, James defines temptation like this in James 1:14: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed” — literally, dragged — “by his own desire.” In other words, this is legitimate desire, like being hungry to eat bread after you’ve fasted for forty days. Legitimate desire is not temptation, as James defines it, but it becomes temptation when it becomes a controlling enticement or lure and drags or lures a person into active sinning.
Okay. Those are the facts from the Bible regarding temptation and testing.
Narrow Definition
Now, to put all this together coherently, it is absolutely crucial that we recognize that this definition of temptation in James 1:14 is narrow and may be distinctive to James. It’s not the way most people think about temptation. Most people think of temptation as an outward invitation to evil that you can resist and thus be innocent. In that sense, Jesus was tempted (yes, he was) in the wilderness. There was an outward invitation to sin, and he didn’t do it.
But James is defining temptation much more narrowly than that, more narrowly than “an outward invitation to evil that can be resisted.” He is saying, “You are not tempted until that outward invitation has become an internal luring and enticing and dragging of the will into active sinning.”
Now, here’s the reason. The reason James defines temptation in this narrow way is because he wants to distinguish between testing, which God does send, and temptation, which he does not send into our lives (at least, not in the same way). James says in 1:13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God.’” Or we could translate that, “Let no one say when he is tested [which he is], ‘I am being tempted by God’ [which he isn’t].”
“Jesus was indeed tempted outwardly, but he was never tempted inwardly by being dragged by his own desires into sin.”
James would never say that about testing — namely, that I’m not being tested by God — even though it’s the same Greek word. In James 1:2–3, he said, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet [tests]” — same word, temptations or tests — “of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” So, he wants to distinguish testing (from God) and temptation (not from God). But James doesn’t have two different words to work with. The same Greek word means test and temptation.
So, what’s he going to do? He’s going to make clear that there is a good experience of peirasmos, testing, and there’s a bad experience of peirasmos, temptation. So, in James 1:12, he says, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under [peirasmos]” — testing. And in James 1:14, using the very same word, he says, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”
So, being tested is good, but being tempted is bad, the way James is defining them. But they’re the same word, as if I said in English, “Being tempted is good and being tempted is bad.” That’s what he’s got to work with. So, he’s got to be careful, and we need to read him carefully.
Proven Savior
Here’s the point, in answer to Sophie’s question. When Matthew 4:1 and Hebrews 4:15 say that Jesus was tempted, it’s using the broad Greek word (peirasmos, peirazō) in the sense of being tested by outward enticements, which do not become internal compulsions to sin. That’s the way Matthew and Hebrews are thinking about testing or temptation. But when James says that God (and by implication, Jesus) can’t be tempted, he doesn’t contradict that because he’s defining tempt narrowly in reference to being sinfully dragged by desire into outward sin.
And the reason he defines it that way is to make clear that, even though the same word is used, God does test us — but he does not drag us by our desires into sin. Our sinful heart does not need any active help from God to feel enticed toward sin and dragged into sin. On the contrary, we need help from God to overcome these innate sinful impulses. In fact, we need a miracle of new birth, which is what James says some verses later, in James 1:18. He says, “Of his own will [God] brought us forth” — that is, caused us to be born — “by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” — his new creation.
In other words, if we are going to escape from the bondage of sinful temptation, the way James defines it, we must be made new creatures (or be given new birth) by God. And James says this happens “by the word of truth.” So, even though it’s a miracle of God, we can pursue it by listening to the truth of the gospel.
And we have a gospel like that because Jesus was indeed tested or tempted outwardly, and enticed by the devil, but he was never tempted inwardly by being dragged by his own desires into sin. He was a perfect, sinless sacrifice. And for that we can be eternally thankful, because until Jesus comes again or until we die, we are not only going to be outwardly enticed by sin, but we are going to be inwardly compromised by sinful desires — to which Paul cried out in Romans 7:24–25, “Who will deliver [us] from this body of death?” And he answered, and we answer, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
