The sympathy of Christ is associated with His priesthood on high. He sympathizes not with sin, not with sinners as such, but with the suffering saints of God. At the same time the Holy Spirit looks back upon Christ's own experience when He was upon earth. He was tempted, but then the temptation was not in any way from within. There was in Him no propensity to evil that answered to the trial of Satan, but, on the contrary, all that the enemy found was dependence on God, simple unwavering faith in His Word, never a carnal working, as in our hearts.
He "knew no sin." Hence, in order to guard against error on so holy and delicate a theme, it is necessary that we should hold fast the truth of Christ's Person as God has revealed it. [32]