A fair number of Protestant Christians were wrongly taught that temptation to sin is never the same thing as sin. But temptation to sin is sin, when that temptation stems from within. Temptation from within is rooted in our fallen flesh, while temptation from without originates with the world and Satan. We know from God’s word that Adam and Eve were not initially tempted from the inside by their own desire, but from the outside by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. 

Once upon a time, it may have been enough for someone to say that homosexuality is sin, and leave it at that, in order to be considered an individual who holds to a traditional and biblically faithful sexual ethic. That is no longer the case, given the context of the Revoice discussion. Revoice theology agrees that homosexual behavior is morally culpable sin, but does not necessarily agree that temptation to homosexual behavior is morally culpable sin.

A fair number of Protestant Christians were wrongly taught that temptation to sin is never the same thing as sin. But temptation to sin is sin, when that temptation stems from within. Temptation from within is rooted in our fallen flesh, while temptation from without originates with the world and Satan. We know from God’s word that Adam and Eve were not initially tempted from the inside by their own desire, but from the outside by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. While some stipulate that an outward temptation must also have an inward element, nothing in the text of Scripture requires or warrants this assumption. We also have analogies in our experience that would lead us to reject the idea that every temptation requires an internal element. For example, consider those who do not struggle with SSA. They are disinterested, but not necessarily exempt from external temptation.

Does a lack of interest from Jesus in the event of external temptation serve to undermine the human subject of Jesus, leaving us with a docetic Christology? No, because if we as human beings can be disinterested with regard to any particular temptation to sin, as above, then so also Jesus could be disinterested with regard to every particular temptation to sin, and still share in human experience. Particular internal temptation to sin is a result of the Fall, and Christ possesses an unfallen human nature. Thus Jesus resisted temptation and overcame it not because of an inward struggle, but because of an inward righteousness. This is just what it means to be the Son of God.

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