Quote
geomic1 said:

The "higher decree" is God foreknowledge of all events, we agree. Pilgrim, consider another way of looking at what Christ did for us from Dr. John W. McCormick:

Heb. 4:15: Our Lord was subjected to testing in the totality of His Being, not that He might “overcome temptation and thus win a victory for all His redeemed”, but in order that the Impeccability of His Person should be forever manifested to men, to angels, and to demons!

The problem with this argument is that the Lord didn't need to become a man to display His impeccability. Hebrews 4:15 reads "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin."

This verse is describing a high priest who is merciful and faithful. And “because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Heb. 2:18).

Jesus, fully acquainted with human nature, is “touched with the feeling of our weaknesses,” as B. F. Westcott puts it. He has been tempted—in extent and range—in every way. Nothing in human experience is foreign to him, for he himself has endured it. And he has been tempted just as intensely as we are. The author adds the qualifying phrase yet was without sin.

When he was in the wilderness, Jesus experienced hunger, and the devil tempted him by asking him to make bread out of stones (Matt. 4:2–3). While hanging on the cross, he was mocked by chief priests, teachers of the law, and elders, who said, “Let him come down now from the cross … for he said, ‘I am the Son of God’ ” (Matt. 27:42, 43). He endured the full range of temptations, although, as the writer notes, without sinning. Sin is the only human experience in which Christ has no part.


Wes

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride. - Isaac Watts