The Gospels make it clear that our Savior was conceived by God’s Holy Spirit. When Jesus put on flesh and dwelt among us, he did so by the power of the Spirit. It’s beyond my feeble mind to understand how that works. I have no clue. I wouldn’t know how to even begin explaining it to somebody. However amazing and miraculous it is, I do know that this life conceived by the Spirit was not exempt from what happens to all of us living on this planet.
Jesus’ life didn’t skip any of the bad stuff. None of it. He was “tempted in every way, just as we are.” He felt pain. He grieved with friends and family. He bore the burdens of illness and death. He suffered physically and emotionally. He fought off temptation. He felt despair. Our Lord endured all the things we endure.
Life doesn’t give us any free passes. And Jesus didn’t get any either. But he endures — indeed he triumphs! — over sin and death and Satan by God’s provision and by the power of the Spirit who conceived him.
We, too, are conceived by the Spirit. We are a new creation, living in a Resurrection community, born by and empowered by and indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit. And not at all exempt from life’s cares and woes. Lost jobs. Illness. Family issues. Pain. Suffering. Emotional stress. Death. We see it all.
The grace comes in knowing that, as with our Savior, there is nothing in us that is inaccessible to or incapable of holiness. By God’s grace, Christ’s blood, and the Spirit’s presence, we too will endure. No, we will triumph!
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Congratulations, Cassie! 
We love you. May our God bless you richly and accomplish in you and through you more than you could ever possibly ask or imagine. And may you walk with him always, faithful to the end.
Peace,
Uncle Allan
I think all too often we forget that Jesus was just as much a human as we are. We feel overwhelmed about our struggles, our temptations, and we forget that our Lord went through them also. He set the example in life; he turned away and stayed pure and he calls us to do the same.
Thanks for the reminder.
-Chris
Each of us is sufficiently tempted that we sin. The temptations we are faced with are sufficiently strong that we succome to them. The temptations with which we are faced are “sufficient cause” for us to sin. Every human, according to God will face irresistable temptations at some point in his life, because he will sin. That man will fail is indelably inscribed in his nature. God has admitted that man is of such a nature that he will NOT overcome all temptations.
Since Jesus never sinned, he, of necessity, never faced temptations sufficiently strong as to cause him to sin. Jesus must have been of such a nature as having the capacity to resist all temptation (unlike humans). In that sense, he could not have been subjected to what we are subjected to.
Howard
Irresistable temptations? We all know there are no such things. Using your criteria of “experience” and “reason,” it’s clear that I am to blame for my sins. I have given in to temptation many times in my life, more than I care to count. I’ve sinned. I’ve done wrong. I’ve offended my God by my self-centered actions. Am I to blame the temptation for my actions? Do I excuse myself for choices I’ve made? Nobody makes me sin. Nothing overwhelms me to the point that I no longer have a say in the matter. I rationalize and justify and give in. My call. It’s on me.
To claim that since Jesus never sinned he could not have been tempted in the same ways as me is the same thing as saying that since I drive the speed limits I’m obviously not tempted to speed. I’m actually tempted to speed everytime I get behind the wheel. But I choose not to. If you drive over the posted limits, is that an irresistable temptation?
Jesus became man and lived a perfect life to show us what it looks like to be completely submitted to the Father and empowered by the Spirit. It is a mystery to me. I’m not totally sure I or anyone has it all figured out, this God-in-man dynamic of the Christ, how much was divine and how much was human. But I do know if all the really great things Jesus was able to do he was only able to do because he was God, it doesn’t really help us much. He says follow me. Be like me. Imitate me. We can’t do that if he’s God and we’re not.
He was human on this earth. And he said ‘no’ to Satan and temptation. He said ‘no’ to the same things we willingly say ‘yes’ to.