My Daily Journal:
What is temptation? What is the difference between temptation and testing? Is temptation a sin? Could Jesus have yielded to temptation? Could Jesus have sinned?
Jesus was fully man. God gave man free will, the ability to make choices. Jesus had this choice as does any other man. There is no way He had less freedom than you or I. But His choice was different. His choice as a man reflected His strength as God. Temptation itself is not sin. Yielding to temptation is sin.
In examining this, it is interesting to look at how Satan tempted Jesus. He didn’t do it with a question, as he did with Eve. He did it with a challenge, an accusation. Basically, he said – “prove it.” “If you are the Son of God…” Every proof (geometry or any other mathematics, logic, science) always starts with a postulate or axiom. An axiom is a premise so evident as to be accepted as true without controversy. These are the givens. They are the things by which every other question is answered or proven. Prima facie. God is truth. God is the creator of everything. God is the axiom. God is the only plumb and square by which anything else can be measured. He is the postulate and He said, “This is My son.”
But Satan requests proof. To attempt to prove an axiom, by definition, means you remove it from being a cornerstone. Using any other measure to determine if an axiom is true means putting faith in that measure over the axiom.
And this is the heart of temptation and sin. Sin is simply the act of putting something else above God. Trusting something else as being more reliable than the Word of God. Adam and Eve did this – Eve trusted her eyes over the word of God (when she saw it was good for food and pleasing to the eye, Gen 3:6). You and I do this when we worry, doubt, rely on self, fail to confess, accept despair or simply drift away.
But Jesus did not yield to temptation. You don’t prove an axiom, it just is. And Jesus just is the I Am.
Please feel free to comment.
My Answers:
5.
a.
If you are the Son of God. v3, 6
b.
Jesus was the son of God. God Himself in voice from heaven had proclaimed it at his baptism. The father of lies sought to have him prove it. You don’t prove a postulate/axiom – it is self-evident.
c.
Matt:Don’t worry about clothing or food, God provides
Acts:Salvation is found in no one else but Jesus
Rom:The Spirit testifies we are God’s children – share in suffering
2 Cor:Hard pressed but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair
1 John:If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive and purify us
Heb:Pay the most careful attention to what we have heard so not drift away
The Notes are Good 
Loved this post! Well said!!! 🙂