We should be spending every day of our lives in various efforts to make it happen. It can be through loving our neighbor, showing kindness to those who have wronged us, or serving those we come in contact with. Our words, thoughts and deeds are supposed to reflect one particular thing.
We are all trying to be more like Jesus.
It sounds simple enough, yet countless numbers have spent their entire lives in an effort to do just that, and they all fall short. Of course this doesn’t mean we should stop trying. Becoming more like Jesus is a lifelong process.
Perhaps those who give up too soon do so because they don’t really understand Christ. Though many of us have read the accounts of His life in the New Testament as well as the Book of Mormon (another testament of Christ), how many have studied His life thoroughly? How many understand the motivation behind His acts? How many comprehend the enormous pressure being the Savior of the world constantly placed upon Him?
Many argue His abilities to resist temptation far surpassed ours because He was part God. I’d like to add how tremendously difficult His temptations were as compared to ours. I’d also like to mention that He was perfect because, as Howard W. Hunter, a former president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called the Mormon Church), stated:
“He wanted to be. It is important to remember that Jesus was capable of sinning, that He could have succumbed, that the plan of life and salvation could have been foiled, but that He remained true. . .He was perfect and sinless, not because he had to be, but rather because he clearly and determinedly wanted to be. As the Doctrine and Covenants records, ‘He suffered temptations but gave no heed unto them.’ (D&C 20:22)”
Shortly after His baptism Christ felt compelled to take himself into seclusion in order to commune with the Father. In order to become more in tune with His spiritual self, Christ fasted. It wasn’t for two meals, or even twenty-four hours. He fasted for a full forty days. During this time He was being fed spiritually, so much so He barely regarded His own physical needs.
The time of such close communion with the Father eventually came to an end. As Christ pulled away it would be obvious His physical needs would become apparent. Elder James E. Talmage, a former apostle of the Latter-day Saint Church, relates:
“Throughout the period of retirement, he ate not, but chose to fast, that His mortal body might the more completely be subjected to His divine spirit. Then, when He was hungry and physically weak, the tempter came with the. . .suggestion that He use His extraordinary powers to provide food. Satan had chosen the most [advantageous] time for his evil purpose. What will mortals not do to what lengths have men not gone, to [dull] the pangs of hunger?” (Talmage, James E., “Jesus the Christ,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981, p.128).
At this time Christ was tempted, not once but three different times. We know the first time was at this point, when Satan tried to get Christ to use the power of the priesthood to create food for himself. “If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread” (Luke 4:3). Christ could have done it, but refused.
Again Satan tried to tempt Christ, this time citing scripture. At the time Christ stood at the top of the temple. Satan knew it was prophesied that God would protect His son, and encouraged Christ to jump off the temple to prove Himself the Son of God. With this display of power truly many of the Jews would believe Him to be something more than mere mortal. Talmage states: “It would have been a sign and a wonder indeed, the fame of which would have spread as a fire in the dry grass; and all Jewry would have been aflame with excitement and interest in the Christ” (Ibid, p.131). Yet, as before, Jesus refused.
In another temptation Satan tried a new tactic. He showed Christ the riches of the world and said, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9). To this Jesus replied, “Get thee hence, Satan” (Matthew 4:10). Satan did leave, for a season.
This was not the end, nor the beginning, of the temptations of Christ. In fact He was tempted in all points just as all of us are, though with one significant difference. While we must always submit to the power of God, Christ had the power within himself to make happen whatever He desired. Therein lies the truest danger in all His temptations. Yet time and again He chose not to sin.
It is important to remember that without temptations, there is no real test. Christ understands what it’s like to be tempted. Through His resolute example we are given hope that we, too, can say to Satan and his followers, “Get thee hence.”
