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The Golden Chain - Robert J. Wieland

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Was He tempted to watch TV? To eat too much<br />

ice cream? To listen to rock and roll? To indulge in<br />

illicit sex? To use cocaine? (Incidentally, no addict<br />

has ever felt more compulsion to take a fix than<br />

was Jesus tempted to bite down on that sponge<br />

filled with the narcotic offered Him as He hung on<br />

the cross in horrible pain, but He refused, Matthew<br />

27:34). Hebrews 4:15 answers all our questions: as<br />

the second Adam "He was tempted identically with<br />

us," and the reason this is so is that he was tempted<br />

to the indulgence of self as we are and felt the force<br />

of the temptation as fully as do we. All our<br />

temptations stem from that root.<br />

10. Were not Christ's temptations different<br />

from ours in that He was tempted to use His<br />

divine power, which we of course are not<br />

tempted to do? And different because His were<br />

of greater intensity?<br />

<strong>The</strong> fact that Christ was tempted beyond what<br />

we are tempted does not imply that He was not<br />

truly tempted in all points like as we are, as well.<br />

46

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