The Help and Hope of the Tempted

Hebrews 2:18 says, “For because [Jesus] himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” What a comfort to know that Jesus is able to help us when we are being tempted. 

I once went through a challenging season where I had a difficult time finding a job. During that time, I received a lot of encouragement and advice, but the words that impacted me the most were when somebody told me they went through a very similar experience when they were my age. Because they had experienced what I was going through, I knew that they could truly empathize with how I felt. 

This is how I think of Jesus relating to us in our temptation. We do not have an impersonal God who doesn’t know what it means to be human and to be tempted. Instead, we serve a personal God who, in Christ, became man. He suffered temptations. He grew tired, He experienced physical pain, and He knew the trials and burdens we carry to an even greater degree than we do. When we are tempted, Jesus is able to help us because He also suffered when tempted. 

However, there is one important difference between our temptation and Jesus’. We have all, at different times and in various ways, given in to temptation. We listen to the Enemy’s pleading, and we foolishly fall into his snares. But Jesus never did. When Satan tempted Him after 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, Jesus used the Word of God to counteract every temptation the devil threw at Him. 

But we are not that strong. We sin, we struggle, we flop around in the muck and the mire that we willingly choose time and time again. 

But we are not without help, and we are not without hope. Jesus was “in every respect…tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus endured temptation and came out victorious every time, remaining the sinless Son of God, the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Are you beset by temptation to sin? Does the inclination to gossip, to lust, to steal grip your mind until you feel powerless but to obey that dark whisper? Run to Jesus. Flee that temptation and cling tightly to Him who was tempted but never gave in and gives us the power to likewise overcome.

And when you do sin, when you do fall into temptation, the response is the same. Run to Jesus. Turn from your sin and turn to your Savior. The Bible tells us also in Hebrews that we can “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). There is no sin that the mercy and grace of Christ cannot overcome. So when you find yourself needing His forgiveness, approach the throne of grace with boldness.

Jesus is the help and hope for the tempted. Thanks be to God.