As C.S. Lewis pointed out in Mere Christianity, a person only finds out how strong temptation really is by continually resisting it. Someone who give in after only a few minutes has no idea how powerful and evil sin is, they are the ones who are actually sheltered. Jesus was the only realist because he never gave in to temptation. He understands how powerful temptation is and how destructive it can be. Also because He was fully human and fully God, He understood how hard it is for us to resist temptation and not sin. The best we can do as humans on this earth is remove temptation as often as possible.
An alcoholic will tell you the same thing — get all alcohol out of your house so you are not tempted. Same with someone dieting, you have to remove the junk food from your home first, because if it is there long enough, you will give in. In much the same way, James tells us to clear our minds and get rid of all moral filth, it reads:
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
James 1:21
Similarly in Romans we are told to ‘offer our bodies as a living sacrifice’ and to ‘renew our minds’, it reads:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:1-2
We can allow God to renew our minds by humbly accepting His commands. Even if they don’t make sense, or conform to the latest trends. Doing all of this is an effective way to reduce the quantity and severity of what we are tempted by. God’s commands are heavenly and other’s focused, whereas worldly wisdom is typically selfish. Jesus was the perfect of example of this. When he was telling his disciples that He must suffer and die and be raised to life on the third day, Peter tried to convince Jesus otherwise, stating he would never allow it. Here Jesus gave the best response ever:
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Matthew 16:23
Jesus, as always, speaks the truth. Jesus is the truth. Scholars are unable to define what truth is and it’s evident now that no one is even interested in truth. Instead we talk over each other, whoever is the loudest, or whoever shames the other side into silence, ‘wins’. While there are two sides to every story, usually only one is ‘right’ in God’s eyes, and I believe we are to model our behavior and our choices on how Jesus lived because He was both fully God and fully human. Being fully God allowed Jesus to be ‘the truth’ and be ‘right’, because God is never wrong. Being fully human allowed Jesus to be ‘graceful’ and ‘forgiving’, because he understood fully the temptations we all face.
There are numerous examples of Jesus being both graceful and truthful. I think the following reveals the most about the character of God:
The woman caught in adultery, where Jesus refused to condemn her because no one else was able to, but also He told her to go and sin no more. This is relevant in several areas. Jesus showed grace; it showed that we *all* are sinners; it showed that we should be more ‘concerned with the planks in our own eyes’ rather than the ‘speck of sawdust’ in other’s eyes; it showed truth, that through Jesus, we are forgiven and Jesus also spoke truth in calling what she did ‘sin’ and telling her to ‘leave her life of sin’. Although we are forgiven, it is not a license to sin. Despite our best efforts however, we are still sinners, and we need Jesus to forgive us. Sometimes we create a false dichotomy with these two ideas, but it’s not “either/or”, it’s “both/and”.