How Was Christ Tempted?

I certainly agree that Jesus had desires but He did not lust because lusting is sin.

I disagree that thoughts are amoral. I agree that temptation is not sin. But if, in your head, you begin fantasizing you are at that point crossing the line from being tempted to lusting and ergo sinning.

Jesus was tempted to lust and in turn act. But even if he had only lusted it still would have been sin.

No it was satan in christs case ...

Tuc I agree with everything you say except that thoughts/lust is not sin.

If that is true we could sit around all day and intentionally daydream the most vile imaginations and not be sinning.

Now, I do believe there is a point of temptation where we are not sinning. If we see a provocative picture on a magazine at the check out counter our initial reaction (wow) may not be sinning because of the way we are "wired." But if we keep looking and imagining we have now sinned. Unintentional thoughts are not sin; intentional thoughts might be.

But I do agree that Jesus was really tempted and He could have sinned. I do not hold to the impeccability doctrine.

Say a person sees something or someone who is attractive, that is temptation....it only becomes sin when we look back a second time and as has been said, engage our imagination. We don't really get to choose who/what we are attracted too but we do get to choose how we respond/react to being attracted. Sin is always a choice whereas temptation is circumstantial...

Now some people have to obey their lust because they're a slave to it, because they haven't yet experienced salvation/victory but even that is a choice from the heart.

After some time meditating last night on Brenda's thread, it is just clearer now (for me) more than ever- we all have exactly as much of God as we want. We are exactly as holy as we want to be and we sin whenever we want to. The problem is we inflate/exaggerate our holiness and rationalize our sin,... then throw a lil bible knowledge in the mix and you've got a self justifying sinner and that's a sad as scary thing/place.

The Pinterest site is a perfect example of lust as a principal of action...
People see attractive things, respond to their lust for it by putting a "pin" in it so it appears on their page and other people can visit your page and see what you "pinned" or are lusting after and then follow other people's lust... It's like lust discipleship!
People are sooo impressed by other people's pages(lust) that they "follow them" and that way they can one day learn to lust like them and other people will be so impressed that they will want to follow their page/lust too-

Now I have allot of clients who use this site (hence my knowledge) and try as I might to convince them there is nothing godly about it and it will only lead to deception, but it is of no avail.. They don't believe it's wrong or a sin and so to convince someone to give up something they take great pleasure in imagining having is no easy task, especially if they are "saved" and have bible knowledge it just makes it harder in some cases. They are just people who feel unimportant and lacking in value and believe that if other people will affirm them then they will have importance/value so they sin in order to get this affirmation.
The sad thing is we all do this in greater or lesser degrees and often rationalize/justify our actions...
As a rule if you have to "justify" your actions it's because they aren't justified
Just as if we have to rationalize our actions it's because they're irrational-

Yes but.... "Saved" people still sin because they lust (per James) and have not.... The problem of sin is compounded when we seek justification apart from Christ which, unfortunately we sometimes do...
Jesus said He neither said nor did anything that He didn't see/hear His Father say/do. So while I see and receive the point being made of "identification" the person who sins is ultimately responsible for their choice to sin against God after salvation has appeared to them and their minds enlightened by the truth.
For me personally, it seems to be a case of not fearing God in spite of the repeated NT warnings to this effect-

Yes that is true but not exclusively so...
For example; earlier while driving home from holiday with the kids, I got a roll of sweet tarts for them to hopefully distract from hours in a 45 yr old truck with no airconditioner and after peeling off some paper to get them a few, the thought/temptation came to toss the minuscule paper out the window... now immediately after that thought, almost on top of it, came the thought that the Lord would have me leave it in my truck and discard it later in a proper fashion. So if I had tossed it anyway would that have been sin?
Yes for me to do so is to violate my own conscience and that would only lead to the justification/rationalization I alluded to earlier which serves to harden our conscience toward sin. That's why what is sin for one may not be sin for another. There is no law prohibiting me from tossing the paper out the window and so I'm free to do so,...except in this case it wasn't ok for me to do so tho for another person it may not be an issue to do so.

This is where Jesus excelled and we all have failed at one point or another even after salvation. Just like Jesus, today I had a choice to obey or disobey (even in small things). So when someone cuts us off or almost causes us to crash, we have a choice to either respond in frustration/fear and give space to bad thoughts and act/speak on them or in faith towards God and act/speak on these....Jesus, no matter what, always responded in faith towards God and was thereby perfected through suffering.

The reason I see it as a fear issue is because if I had tossed the paper out and hardened my conscience, as opposed to obeying and keeping it supple, I would have acted apart from my fear of the Lord and sinned. Tho because of my fear that I may sin against Him and thereby break communion, I for conscience sake simply obeyed. Now in the moment it didn't occur to me but after a moment the Lord showed me how that tossing it out would be a bad example to my young boys and seemed undisciplined which in their eyes would make me a hypocrite as I surely don't allow them to toss things out of a moving vehicle.
I guess what I'm trying to say is this, while I totally get the point of identity, it in and of itself is not all there is to our walk in a practical daily sense. In my understanding, our walk is a deeply personal one tho the implications of obedience/disobedience are pervasively corporate.
Again this is where Jesus excelled, as He says it was for the disciples sakes that He sanctified Himself tho there were many things He could've otherwise done.

Jesus was tempted on this wise, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and the pride of life. The question asked is could He sin, honestly the better question is why would He, He is God, He subjected Himself to our low estate so that He could lead us through the cross and resurrection keep us through His prayers of intercession knowing full well what it is we suffer through when we are vexed by temptation and in this with the supply of the Holy Spirit lead us through to victory or remediate us until we become overcomers.

Yeah He could have sinned otherwise there is no real temptation... and so why would He? well Jesus got hungry after 40 days of fasting and was tempted to turn a rock into bread... Now if He didn't have a choice then there was no temptation, if He did have a choice and the power to satisfy it then the temptation would be real would it not? Jesus was tempted on all points just as we are but responded in faith towards God. Jesus got angry more than once but responded in faith, not in anger and so did not sin. He even resisted the temptation to sin unto death.
He feared His Father and as Isaiah 11 prophesied, delighted Himself in it.
And Jesus tells us to fear Him too!
But do we,...do we really fear Him?

Jesus knows our Father more intimately than any of us and if He fears Him and tells us too as well and then sets an example for us of obedience unto death then perhaps it is an important aspect of overcoming temptation.
People are more likely to give in to temptation when there is no perceived immediate consequence to having done so... But sin always has a consequence just like the truth does. Temptation also carries a consequence in every case,...either we resist it and grow in grace or we give in and make grace of no effect. Jesus had to grow just like we do, and had to choose righteousness just like we do,...in spite of what temptations may come our way. None of us will be tempted beyond what we can bear so in the end we are without an excuse.

Define sin

The word temptation means to be tried or tested. This is the broadest definition of the word. However, most Christians when they hear that word assume it means to be enticed or seduced to commit sin. Jesus was tempted meaning he was tested with hardship, difficulties, persecution and/or suffering which he could have gotten out of, but if he did that he would not fulfill God's will for Him. Jesus never had any desire or desires to do or say anything that God forbids. Any temptation of Jesus to gratify sinful desires would have been futile because Jesus did not have a sin nature inherited from Adam. It would be like someone offering me a cigarette. I don't smoke so I pass the test or temptation easily. But I was tempted in the strictest definition of the word temptation. All humans inherited a fallen nature from Adam and therefore have to deal with sinful desires within. Some people more than others and in different areas. Jesus was tempted to not go to the cross, to not endure scoffing and mocking and derision from Pharisees, etc. and to not endure the scourging and other abuses that happened prior to the Cross. These were severe testings (temptations). But Jesus never had any sinful desires in Himself.

Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me (John 14:30).

There was nothing in Jesus that would respond positively to any enticement from the world, the flesh or the Devil.

I know that plenty of Christians have a different take on this than what I am presenting here. If you feel offended by my post and you decide to respond to it and give a reply, I ask only one thing: Tell me by answering either YES or NO to this question: Did Jesus ever have any desire to any degree to do or say anything that God forbids? I say the answer is NO!

-Daniel