Jesus was a man who convinced those closest to Him that He was also God; His humanness is not in doubt...The Gospels show Jesus experiencing human limitations (hunger, Matt. 4:2; fatigue, John 4:6; ignorance of fact, Luke 8:45-47) and sorrow (John 11:35, 38). Hebrews stresses that if Christ had not shared all these facets of human experience-weakness, temptation, pain-He would not be qualified to help us as we face such trials (Heb. 2:17, 18; 4:15, 16; 5:2, 7-9). As it is, His full human experience guarantees that in every moment of our relationship with God we may go to Him, confident that He has been there before us, and is the helper we need.
Christians, focusing on Jesus' deity, have sometimes thought that it honors Jesus to minimize His humanness. For example, it is sometimes suggested that Jesus was always consciously omniscient, and only pretended to be ignorant of facts. Or it might be thought that He only pretended to be hungry and weary, because as a kind of superhuman He was above the needs of daily existence. But the Incarnation means that the Son of God has only one Person, existing in two natures, and there is nothing lacking from His human nature, sin only excepted.
Jesus could not sin, but he was able to be tempted. Satan tempted Him to disobey the Father through self-gratification, self-display, and self-aggrandizement (Matt. 4:1-11), and the temptation to retreat from the Cross was constant (Luke 22:28; cf. Matt. 16:23; and Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane). Being human, Jesus could not conquer temptation without a struggle, but being divine it was His nature to do His Father's will (John 5:19, 30), and therefore to resist and fight temptation until He had overcome it. Since His human nature was conformed to His divine nature, it was impossiblee that He should fail in the course of His resistance. It was inevitable that He would endure temptations to the end, feeling their entire force, and emerge victorious for His people. From Gethsemane we know how acute and agonizing His struggles were. The happy result for us is that because "he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted" (Heb. 2:18).
Sproul, R.C. The Humanity of Jesus. The Reformation Study Bible. Orlando: Ligonier Ministries. 2005. 1836
Christians, focusing on Jesus' deity, have sometimes thought that it honors Jesus to minimize His humanness. For example, it is sometimes suggested that Jesus was always consciously omniscient, and only pretended to be ignorant of facts. Or it might be thought that He only pretended to be hungry and weary, because as a kind of superhuman He was above the needs of daily existence. But the Incarnation means that the Son of God has only one Person, existing in two natures, and there is nothing lacking from His human nature, sin only excepted.
Jesus could not sin, but he was able to be tempted. Satan tempted Him to disobey the Father through self-gratification, self-display, and self-aggrandizement (Matt. 4:1-11), and the temptation to retreat from the Cross was constant (Luke 22:28; cf. Matt. 16:23; and Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane). Being human, Jesus could not conquer temptation without a struggle, but being divine it was His nature to do His Father's will (John 5:19, 30), and therefore to resist and fight temptation until He had overcome it. Since His human nature was conformed to His divine nature, it was impossiblee that He should fail in the course of His resistance. It was inevitable that He would endure temptations to the end, feeling their entire force, and emerge victorious for His people. From Gethsemane we know how acute and agonizing His struggles were. The happy result for us is that because "he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted" (Heb. 2:18).
Sproul, R.C. The Humanity of Jesus. The Reformation Study Bible. Orlando: Ligonier Ministries. 2005. 1836
