Question: Can Jesus, who is God, be tempted?

Preliminaries:

While Jesus is in the desert fasting for forty days, Satan comes to him in order to tempt him to sin. In fact, as the Apostle writes: “Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil.” (Matt 4:1).

Obj. I: If Jesus is God, the Second Person of the most Holy Trinity, how can he be tempted? For as the Apostle James writes: “No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.” (Jam 1:13). For if Jesus is God, then he couldn’t be tempted, as the book of James states that God cannot be tempted.

Obj. II: It is unbecoming for Jesus to be led by the Spirit to be tempted, for Jesus as God shalt not be tempted: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Deut 6:16).

On the contrary, it is written “For we have not a high priest, who can not have compassion on our infirmities: but one tempted in all things like as we are, without sin.” (Heb 4:15).

I answer that, it is perfectly in harmony with Jesus’ Divinity that he be tempted in so far as he does not delight or consent to the temptation being presented. As Pope St Gregory the Great writes: “We should be aware that temptation is carried out in three ways: by suggestion, by delight, and by consent. When we are tempted, we frequently fall through our delight of something, or even through consent. Born in bodily sin we have within ourselves the source of the conflicts we endure. But God, who became human in the womb of the Virgin and came into the world without sin to take to himself a body, endured no inconsistency within himself. He could be tempted by suggestion, but took no delight in sin within his heart.” (Homily xvi).

Reply Obj. I: As Pope St Gregory writes temptation is three fold, suggestion, delight, and consent. But Christ did not delight or consent to temptation. The temptation that Christ had to endure was by suggestion from Satan. Yet Christ did not delight in the suggestion of temptation from Satan, nor did he consent or willed to do what Satan suggested. One must keep in mind that the suggestion is an external temptation, not one which takes place within Jesus. St Thomas writes: “Now temptation which comes from an enemy can be without sin: because it comes about by merely outward suggestion.” (ST.III,Q.41,A.1) and yet again, Pope St Gregory writes: “This whole diabolic temptation took place from without, not from within.”(Homily xvi). Further, insofar as the Divine nature is signified, it cannot be tempted, for God has no real relation to creation. But, insofar as the human nature is signified, it can be tempted by suggestion.

Reply Obj. II: It is not unbecoming for Christ to be led by the Spirit to be tempted, as St Augustine writes: “Why did He offer Himself to temptation? That He might be our mediator in vanquishing temptation not by aid only, but by example.” (De Trin, 4, 13). And Further Pope St Gregory: “And yet the second man overcame the devil by the same means that were used to overcome the first man. Now as a captive, the devil would be forced from our hearts by the same means that had given him access when he once possessed us.” (Homily xvi). Thus, Christ is our example, that by the graces given to us by God, we can throw away the vain temptations of Satan and not lean into them.