When Jesus was tempted by Satan, I always assumed that He had a choice as to whether to sin or not, but He chose not to. Jesus IS fully human. W.G.T. Shedd wrote, "When the logos goes into union with a human nature, so as to constitute a single person with it, He becomes responsible for all that this person does through the instrumentality of this nature...Should Jesus Christ sin, incarnate God would sin." And we know that is impossible. I have know way to know if Shedd is right or wrong, but his body or work pretty much ensures he knows better than me. So, if we know that Satan's temptation of Jesus could not result in Him sinning, what is the point of the temptation? I believe God wants us to know Satan is real and that Satan's main purpose is to lead us away from God through sin. By Jesus taking on flesh, he wanted to experience all that we will experience and demonstrate to us how to resist temptation and encourage us that we can. Some will say, "how could He have experienced what we do if He was God?" Fair question. I hope I get to ask Him one day. Until then, I will keep trying to understand.
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