He's Able

Hebrews 2:18

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Sometimes, when we are struggling with our humanity we feel ashamed of our failure to live up to God’s standard of Holiness. It is Satan’s job to entice you then condemn you. It’s Jesus' job to free you then fill you. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He became a human like us so that he could fully understand the weight of our human condition. Jesus was tempted in every way but he did not sin. The writer of Hebrews says, “He suffered when he was tempted.” When you resist temptation there is suffering that comes along with it because you are fighting against the gravitational pull of animalistic inclination as well as the repercussion of the backlash from a culture that does not understand your resistance to conformity. Holiness is what I long for but brokenness is what I need and brokenness hurts.

Jesus went through the gauntlet of being tempted. He resisted and his reward was crucifixion. Chuck D in his song, ‘Welcome to the Terror Dome,’ said, “Crucifixion ain’t no fiction still they got me like Jesus.” The terror Dome of life can be excruciating because of the crucible of life. Jesus absorbed all of our sins on the cross. By his death he destroyed Satan and freed us from the fear of death.

Jesus is able to:

1. Give us strength while we are being tempted. Jesus gets up under our heavy load to help us to bare our cross. In the poem, Footprints in the Sand, a man wonders why there was only one set of footprints in the sand during the hardest part of his life. He thought God had left him. Jesus said, “That was the time I was carrying you.”

2. Provide a way of escape. 1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

3. Set us free from the grips of sin and death. Hebrews 2: 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Dear God,

Give me the ability to successfully navigate my way out of temptation. Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil. Don’t move my mountain but give me the strength to climb.

In Jesus Name,

Amen