He Took All Humanity’s Liabilities

Many claim that it was impossible for Christ to be overcome by temptation. If so, then He could not have been placed in Adam’s position nor have gained the victory that Adam failed to gain. If in any sense we have a more trying conflict than Christ had, then He would not be able to help us. But our Savior took humanity, with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear that He has not endured.HH 46.7

With Christ, as with Adam and Eve in Eden, appetite was the subject of the first great temptation. “And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’”HH 46.8

These first words betrayed the tempter’s character. “If You are the Son of God.” Here Satan introduced a hint of distrust. If Jesus would do what Satan suggested, He would be accepting the doubt. Satan had tried to plant the thought in Eve’s mind that withholding such beautiful fruit contradicted God’s love for them. Similarly, the tempter now tried to plant his own sentiments in Christ. “If You are the Son of God.” In his voice was an expression of utter disbelief. Would God treat His own Son like this, leaving Him in the desert with wild beasts, without food, without companions, without comfort? He hinted at the idea that God never meant His Son to be in such a condition as this. “If You are the Son of God, show Your power. Command this stone to become bread.”HH 46.9