Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Why didn't Jesus sin? The usual answer is that He couldn't--impossible. But that's not true. We read that He "was in all points tempted like as we are" (Heb. 4:15), and temptation is not temptation unless there is the possibility of falling. Another answer is often given, Jesus didn't sin because He simply chose not to sin. And that's true; but why did He choose not to sin? Everybody else born into this world has chosen to sin.
The question is a serious one. We need to know the answer. And that takes us to 1 Corinthians 13, about "love." But it's not about what we flippantly speak of as "love." The word is agape. We read in 1 John 4:8 that "God is agape." And what is agape? Verse 9 tells us it is the motivation that led the Father to give His only begotten Son to die for us "that we might live through Him." It is a special kind of love that is willing to die the second death so that we might live eternal life. It is a love that is willing to go to hell so that we might go to heaven. It is a love that chooses to die on a cross rather than indulge self.
If "God is agape," and if Jesus is the Son of God, then in His incarnation Jesus is agape in human flesh. Charles Wesley's hymn is true--Jesus "emptied Himself of all but love" when He came to earth. All the prerogatives of divinity He laid aside, but He could not empty Himself of agape. And that's why He chose not to sin--He chose a cross instead.
There is some Good News here for us today: unless we choose to resist the grace of God, the Holy Spirit will "shed abroad in our hearts" that same agape (Rom. 5:5). No one is ever born with agape, except Jesus; our human hearts are empty of it. But it can be installed! And thus by faith we can become partakers of the nature of God. Faith is what appreciates the length, breadth, depth, and height of agape (Eph. 3:18, 19). Do you want it? OK, receive it!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 5, 1998.
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