“[Christ] was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” We’re told in another place, these “points” consist of three: “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” This trio, we are further told, is “common to all men.” They may not be the same in kind, but can be in degree. The converted immoralist does not have any more fire in his bosom to sin than the moralist with his inferno within.
C. S. Lewis writes, “A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is…A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it; and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means--the only complete realist.”
When the “temptee” says, “You don’t know what it’s like,” you can bet they’re ready to yield.” (RDS)
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