It showed Him fit to be the sacrifice for sin
"Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor 5.7), makes it clear that the passover lamb in Exodus 12 is a type of Christ. That lamb was chosen without blemish on the 10th day and kept under close observation until the 14th day. I believe that these days find their answer in the 3½ years' public ministry of the Lord Jesus. John the Baptist pointed Him out at the beginning of His public ministry as the Lamb of God (Jn 1.29). Then, for the remainder of His public ministry He moved freely in and out among the people, unlike John the Baptist who was often in the deserts. Christ could face His chief critics and ask, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" (Jn 8.46).
The record of the temptation of the Lord is a testimony to all succeeding generations of His fitness for sacrifice. Thus we have the words of impulsive Peter in 1 Peter 2.22, intimate John in 1 John 3.5, and intelligent Paul in 2 Corinthians 5.21.
Because the sinless Saviour died
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
C L Smith
We want to guard jealously the impeccability of Christ. When we say that He was impeccable we mean that he was incapable of sinning. I was pleased to read this definition of "impeccable" in my twentieth century Unabridged Webster's Dictionary: "exempt from the possibility of sinning". I especially enjoyed the sentence that used to illustrate its meaning: "no mere man is impeccable". Thank God Christ was no mere man. He was the only person ever born holy (Lk 1.35), born of a virgin. He was the only person ever born without a sin nature, and He was God incarnate. It should be pointed out that all dictionaries do not have as good a definition of "impeccable".
Some believers, even born-again preachers and writers, have thought that they were honouring Christ to say that although He never did sin, He could have sinned. In the final analysis that is blasphemy, although it is not obvious blasphemy or no true believer would ever say it.
The Lord Jesus was truly human even though He was impeccable. Adam was truly human before he sinned. Adam was created innocent. Adam was not created holy. Sin is not an essential part of humanity though it is an essential part of fallen humanity. Since the Lord was born holy and without a "sin nature" His tendencies all throughout His earthly life could only be holiness.
Christ had two complete, perfect natures in one unique blessed Person. He had both full, absolute deity and sinless, holy humanity. He had to be both in order to be the Saviour. His humanity made His sacrifice possible, and His deity made His sacrifice of infinite value.
Since the Lord Jesus is God and God is unchangeable, it is impossible for Him to change or to sin (Heb 13.8). The omnipotence of God banishes from our thinking the possibility that He could be overcome by the temptation of Satan, a mere creature. His omniscience eliminates from our minds the possibility that He could be deceived by the devil.
We can illustrate it this way. If we had a gold bar and we showed it to someone who did not believe that it was pure gold, we would gladly submit it to a chemical test to prove that it was so. We already know that it is pure gold. Christ was not tempted to see if He was pure gold, He was tempted to prove that He was pure gold.
There was no possibility that Satan, a created being, would be victorious over his own Creator. The inherent holiness of the Lord Jesus, His perfect love for His Father, and His perfect hatred of sin made a fall impossible. There was no possibility that He could ever sin.
It helped to fit Him for priesthood The book of Hebrews has these words: "For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted" (Heb 2.18). Christ deliberately chose to continue to suffer the pangs of hunger than to satisfy a legitimate need out of the will of God. He truly was hungry after doing without food for forty days. It is sad to say about us sometimes that instead of continuing to suffer, we yield, but, praise God, He never would yield. The solicitation to evil on the part of Satan was real but there was no favourable response from the Lord Jesus.
Another way in which the Lord Jesus suffered in being tempted was that the suggestion of Satan was utterly repulsive to His holy being. Think of back-sliding Lot: "For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds" (2 Pet 2.8). This being so, think of the anguish that the vile suggestions of Satan caused to the holy Son of God, whose revulsions to sin were infinitely greater than those of the saintliest person who ever lived.
Even those who have taken the name of God in vain often find, when they were saved, that it hurts them to hear someone using the same kind of language that they themselves used in their unsaved days. Many a saint has suffered in the presence of a vile blasphemer. Here Christ was in the presence of Satan and He felt it keenly because of His sinless, holy humanity, and because as the Son of God He hated sin with a perfect hatred.
Aaron was chosen to be high priest instead of Moses. Moses had never experienced the taskmaster's whip in Egypt. Aaron could feel what the Lord's people were going through better than could Moses.
So we see that the temptation helped to fit Christ for priesthood, as also did His experiences in Gethsemane. His intense suffering there was in anticipation of being made sin for us (2 Cor 5.21), of bearing the incredible load of our sins (Is 53.6), of drinking the cup of wrath that was full because of all of our sins (Mt 26.37-42; Mk 10.33-41; Lk 22.4-46; Heb 5.7). Surely the trial was real, but there was no possibility that He would refuse to do the Father's will. The Father loved the Son from all eternity for His willingness to bear infinite sufferings on the cross.
To be continued.
