God Cannot Be Tempted

Why I Reject the Trinity Part: 10

The argument, that there is a difference between temptation and temptation, doesn’t really work. True temptation cannot be unless the desire is there to act on it. I am not tempted to burn myself because I have no internal desire to feel the pain in my body. (some people do) In order for Jesus to be tempted he had to have some form an internal desire or else temptation has not taken place. If temptation did not take place based on desire, then he didn’t “overcome” anything. It’s not sin for Jesus to desire an alternative to God’s plan. The point is that he overcame the desire with the words of God, Adam did not. The fundamental difference between willful submission and simply “God in flesh” is the existence of more than one internal desire. Without that conflict there can be no submission. Yet how does an internal distinctly non-God desire exist inside the Trinitarian Jesus?

Even when I held a Trinitarian view people would quote Hebrews 4:15 that he “was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.” I couldn’t help but say in my heart, “Yeah...Right! How could he possibly understand my temptation unless he had the desire to sin?” That is, to deviate from any step of God’s plan. If we view him as the last Adam, a man that had to hear and obey God by keeping his heart engaged with his spirit and not his flesh, then Heb 4:15 makes more sense and the definition of temptation in James is in harmony with Jesus.

James 1:14-15
“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”

It is not having the desire or lust that is sin. If Jesus did not counter his lust with the desire of God, it could and would have conceived and brought forth sin and then death. This is the biblical definition of temptation and it requires two things; the first is internal desire and the second is enticement. In order for Jesus to be tempted he needed both according to his half brother James. God, however, cannot be tempted because he has no internal desire toward flesh or against himself in anyway. Nor can he be enticed away from himself, “for God cannot be tempted by evil,” James 1:13. Yet, Jesus can be!?

Jesus then was the vehicle for the Father’s earthly ministry of reconciliation, and God was with us inside of him. He was the express image of the Father in every way yet distinctly other than Him. Therefore, his temptation and obedience is legitimate. He had personal human desires. Desires other than that of the Father’s at times, yet he submitted and did the Father’s will. He had much knowledge of the mind of the Father but he does not know everything that the Father knows.

PART 11