Are Skeptics badgering you about the sinlessness of Jesus? Are they making you question his place in the Godhead? If you are, you might come up with this often used claim against the authenticity of Jesus being God made flesh. Skeptics often claim that because Jesus was tempted, he could not be God. The passage that Skeptics use to back up this claim is found in James Chapter 1, verse 13, which says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” -The claim comes up that because God cannot be tempted by evil, Jesus could not be God because according to Hebrews 4:15, Jesus was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” considering the seemingly clear contradiction here, it does seem as if the skeptic is making a solid claim against the belief that Jesus was God in the flesh. However, with proper study of the scriptures we can see that this is not a contradiction at all.

Test and tempt…

To begin, we need to understand what it means to be tempted. broadly defined, temptation is the enticement to do evil (James 1:14). James 1:13 clearly states that God cannot be tempted (or enticed to do evil) nor does God entice anyone. Throughout scripture it has been clearly shown that Satan is the tempter (Mt. 4:3; 1 Th 3:5). -But there is one more word that is extremely important to the subject at hand. “test” is very important to keep in mind. See, Skeptics often like to use the translations of the Bible that they feel are less of an issue for their proof texts against certain doctrines of the Christian faith. For example, in Hebrews, other translations say “testings (NLT)” or “tested (HCSB)” rather than “tempted” …. This could be a problem for the skeptic’s objections already, because there is a clear difference between tempting and testing.

For example…

As we have already settled, temptation is the enticement to do evil. To entice is to attract by offering pleasure or advantage.. Whereas testing is a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something, especially before it is taken into widespread use. This is very interesting because we do find that throughout scripture God does test his people in order that he may establish them as his own. For example often times throughout the Old Testament, God tested Israel (Deuteronomy 8:2), also, God tested Job by allowing Satan to afflict him (Book of Job), and God tested Abraham (Gen. 22:1). In all these circumstances, God was not enticing his people to sin, but rather allowed hard circumstances to happen to them so that he could establish them as his people. In these circumstances, Satan often times comes to tempt God’s people. Temptation however, is the work of the devil. Satan hates mankind, and wants us to live in the same evil filth that he is in. This is why he successfully tempted Adam and eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:4).

James 1:13; Hebrews 4:15 ..

So back to the text, if Jesus is God made flesh, why was he able to be tempted if God cannot be tempted? Well, the simple answer that Jesus was never enticed to do evil, in fact, the Greek word in Hebrews that is in place of tempt is “peirazo” which  has a dual meaning of both “tempt” and “test.” This isn’t necessarily meant to say that Jesus was not tempted, because he was.. However, the difference is that Satan tempted him in a sense that he was “trying” to entice Jesus to sin. Jesus himself however did not give into temptation and was therefore was not tempted himself. This is why the translations often appear to be different. In fact, if we were to say that Jesus in this text was indeed tempted, or in other words, gave into temptation, we can also say that in Psalm 78:41 that God was also tempted! Which says in the NASB “Again and again they tempted God, And pained the Holy One of Israel.” However, just as it is with Hebrews 4:15, This is nothing other than a dual use of the word “tempt” and “test” as other translations such as the NIV, NLT, and ESV show “test” as the word being used in the text.

As if it could be any more injurious…

Now as if it could be any more injurious to the skeptical claim, we also have to apply some logic to the equation here using some other great scripture regarding the perfection of Jesus. Something important to note in James 1 is that the verse after verse 13 it says: “But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires.” (HCSB). -Now tell me, if scripture says things about Jesus like, “committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22),  “In him is no sin” (1 John 3:5),  and “had no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21), how on earth can we say that this verse applies to Jesus? If Jesus had, as James 1:14 describes, “his own evil desires” How could it be that he was ever without sin? There was no evil in him! So it only logically concludes that Jesus is God made flesh, and that this verse is talking about those who have given into sin and fallen short of the glory of God because of the evil desire of their hearts. None of which is the criteria that Jesus fits. Jesus was the sinless and spotless Lamb of God! (1 Peter 1:19)

Conclusively…

To conclude this article I have established that Jesus was not enticed/tempted as we are, he was actually tested/tempted as we are, and he came out victorious in all circumstances because he knew no sin!  James 1:13 is talking about people who have evil desires and have fallen short of the glory of God, none of which are things that Jesus did. Jesus was tested in every way just as we are, yet he knew no sin! (Hebrews 1:13) -And proper word study and comparisons between translations as well as with the Greek will show that Jesus was tempted/tested by Satan, but could not possibly give into the temptation itself. Now we can rest and be assured that Jesus is God made flesh, and he dwelt among us, knowing no sin whatsoever, and that because of this, his death on the cross for our sins has become the atonement for us once and for all.