"But He was God!"

Have you ever heard that argument?

Have you ever used it for an excuse?

"Of course, Jesus never sinned. He was God! I'm not God, so what can you expect?"

"How can He really understand my struggles with temptation? He was God!"

Have you ever thought that by using that excuse you are actually denying the humanity of Christ?

We can't really understand it, but the Bible teaches that Jesus was 100% deity and 100% humanity at the same time. (It's called the hypostatic union for all you theological nerds out there. Not that that helps us understand it any better!)

Jesus never gave up being fully God, while at the same time He was fully human.

"So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man" (Westminster Confession).

His physical growth was real. His physical pain was real.

The temptation to turn rocks to bread was real - He was hungry and He could do it.

The temptation to take the kingdoms of the world without suffering was real - He was going to inherit them anyway, why go through the physical pain of death?

In His agony, He sweat real drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He plead with the Father, "If possible, take this cup from Me."

"For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted" (Hebrews 2:18).

Yes, Jesus was God. Yes, Jesus was man.

Yes, Jesus was tempted. Yes, Jesus did not give in to temptation.

Because of that, He can help us when we are tempted.

When we use the excuse, "But He was God," we are cutting off the help that we so desperately need.

(Summarized from Sexual Sanity for Men by David White, p 190).