Article October 7, 1905 Issue

"Tempted in all points"

Arthur T. Pierson

The Homiletic Review

We read that Jesus, though "in all points tempted like as we are," was "without," or "apart from sin." This expression (Xwpls auaprlas) occurs twice in Hebrews (see 4:15, and 9:28).

These words should, in our opinion, have more weight than they ordinarily do. It seems a monstrous perversion to make Hebrews, 4:15 mean that our Lord's temptations were at every point precisely similar to ours, the result alone being different. Part of our temptations are from within, found not in the outside enticements, but in our being drawn away of our own lust (James, 1 : 14). Satan and the world might present a suggestion of evil to a perfect being; but no perfect being can know those inward drawings of lust toward sin which are the outcome of a nature wholly corrupt and bad! If Christ was tempted literally in all points like as we are, he must have known the power of sin within—a corrupt nature whose gravitation is toward evil. But the exact word of the Greek is apart from sin, so that, as Alford says, "throughout these temptations, in their origin or suggestion, in their process, in their result, sin had nothing in him; he was free and separate from it." He was on all points tempted like as we are, so far as this is possible to a being who is apart from sin; i.e., has in him no sin. The temptations addressed right or innocent desires, but suggested wrong methods of gratification. It is sufficient for us to know two things,—

1. That he suffered, being tempted.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Errors in Translation