Posted on by Chad_S.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” – Hebrews 4:15

Throughout my childhood and teenage life, all I knew about Jesus was what I saw in pictures, most of which depicted Him as an effeminate Caucasian man with long hair and a beard, typically holding a lamb and smiling while staring off into the distance or sitting and laughing with a bunch of kids on his lap. I saw these images as a child in Sunday school, coloring books, paintings, and on flannel boards. All of these formed my mental image of the Son of God. Continually, I was told Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and if I “asked Him into my heart” I wouldn’t go to hell; that’s all I ever really knew about the gospel. For me, and (I would imagine) for many others, this abbreviated, misrepresentation of the gospel did not lead me to repentance and produce a deep understanding of God’s love resulting in a radical “giving up everything” to live for His glory. In my childhood and teenage mind, the gospel could be shortened to simply this – Jesus was obviously a very nice guy (as pictured with children on his lap), and He died on the cross for all my sins.

Throughout my experiences growing up in church, time after time I saw people get emotional while talking about the death of Jesus. I would wonder what was wrong with me? What was I missing? Why did I feel so apathetic towards Jesus’ death? I would even try to force some sort of emotion inside of me while pondering on the death of Jesus. But if I was honest, I knew I wasn’t as impacted by the death of Jesus as I thought I should be, and most of the time felt down right apathetic to it. I realized that throughout history Jesus’ death impacted many people all over the world. As a matter of fact, Jesus’ death on the cross is seemingly the only fact of the gospel that has been extraneously highlighted all over the world in art, jewelry, tattoos, etc… Even while the crucifixion of Jesus is an critical part of the gospel, I suspect that many people, similar to me throughout most of my life, have the understanding that Jesus’ death on the cross is essential for salvation, but what they’re missing is the enjoyment which comes directly from the implications of the deep, rich love for them in Jesus’ death – because they never truly understood two foundational aspects of the gospel – Jesus’ life, and resurrection.

As Christians, in order to understand just how much Jesus loves and pursues you, you have to understand that Jesus didn’t just die for you. Jesus lived for you.

One important fact regarding of the Son of Man that is easily lost in a world full of pictures of a smiling Jesus, holding sheep and coddling children on his lap – is that Jesus lived in the average; in the mundane and difficult parts of life, exactly like we do. Jesus, motivated by His love for us, left the beautiful perfection of Heaven and was born into the same broken world you and I live in today. He was born into a human body with the very same fundamental anatomy as yours and mine. He had the same average pints of blood flowing through his veins. The bones of his body were just as susceptible to fracture. He went through puberty. He worked a job. He made friends and lost friends. He had to deal with difficult people. He got tired and exhausted. Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we are, yet did not sin.” (Heb 4:15). When it all comes down to it, Jesus was tempted to sin just as we are, in every way. Period.

Some people might say, “Well, Jesus never struggled with my exact, present-day temptations.” Well, yes in a sense He didn’t. All cultures in every age throughout history have their differences, and America, two thousand years after Jesus’ life on earth, produces situations that cause temptations different than those in cultures of the past. What it really boils down to is the fact that He did indeed struggle with the root of all our temptations. Others may argue, “Well, there’s no way Jesus experienced temptation like I experience temptation. After all, He was God!” Anyone who would stand by this argument still holds to the idea of the “coloring book Jesus” – a Jesus who never experienced real life and was never burdened with intense temptation of any kind. A great quote from of an observation by Wayne Grudem reads as follows:

“Many theologians have pointed out that only he who successfully resists temptation to the end most fully feels the force of that temptation. Just as a champion weightlifter who successfully lifts and holds over head the heaviest weight in the contest feels the force of it more fully than one who attempts to lift it and drops it, so any Christian who has successfully faced a temptation to the end knows that that is far more difficult than giving in to it at once.”

I agree with Grudem – Jesus not only experienced intense temptation, He experienced it more intensely than you or I ever will.

The imperative fact we should draw from Hebrews 4:15 in order to truly understand Jesus’ relentless, overwhelming love for us is this: Jesus did not just die for you. He lived every second, every minute, every hour and every day of His life for you in absolute moral perfection to earn a perfect “track record” in the eyes of God, therefore making it possible to be freely given to those who truly believe. He resisted the compelling temptation of lust – to sinfully hold His gaze on a woman’s beauty – in fervent determination to earn righteousness for you, knowing one day you would not resist the same temptation. When one more sip of wine would’ve led to drunkenness, He resisted the temptation to drink, knowing one day you would lack self-control. Then, after just 33 years of age spent earning your moral perfection by resisting temptations of various kinds, He willingly allowed himself to be executed. This was the climax of His mission – that on the cross He took the just punishment that you deserved for your track record of sin and injustice in all of its entirety, and gave you a perfect moral standing before God. This is grace.

It is important to understand that when your view of Jesus becomes so reduced to what is depicted in coloring books and pictures in Sunday school, with a Jesus who is always happy and never experienced intense temptations to sin and the vast array of real life difficulties you experience in this day and age, you lose sight of the real Jesus described in scripture; A man who has experienced every human struggle, and can therefore be our sympathetic high priest! What vast love comes to light when we focus our attention on what it would take practically, in Jesus’ life, to live a life of perfection, knowing exactly whom He was to suffer for, whom He was to be forsaken by the Father for, and whom He was to die for. This is grace.

Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace for help in time of need. Because in every second of His life, He resisted temptation not only so that we could have comfort in that fact alone – but so that we could ultimately live in the freedom of God’s grace – accomplished only through the sacrifice of His pure and sinless Son – as the old hymn goes, “In my place, condemned He stood” – fully human, yet fully one with the Father. This is the humanity of Christ. This, is His amazing, unfiltered, impractical, grace.