God, in his own nature, is absolutely pure. As Habakkuk says, he has eyes too pure to look on sin with any approval [Habakkuk 1:13]. Sin is the opposite of everything that God is, and God abhors sin. Thus, temptation can find no clinging place, no grappling place in God, because God is unable to be tempted. Which in itself is another argument for the deity of our Saviour when he says that Satan has come but he can find no occasion in him. He is basically anticipating what James says here about God. God cannot be tempted because God is the opposite of sin, the opposite of evil. The word
Joseph A. Pipaevilhere is for the whole compass of sin; God abhors it. In fact, his abhorrence of sin is demonstrated powerfully in the humiliation and the crucifixion and the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ.1
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.