I have discussed this a couple of times with others, never coming to any consensus. I thought I would open the discussion here. Some say because He is God, He did have an advantage, others have been unsure.
What say you?
Jesus was a HUMAN MAN - the incarnation of the WORD, who was God, and since He was TEMPTED in all respects AS WE ARE, and since temptation STARTS in the individual (James 1:14) with their own strong personal desires (Lusts), he had to deal with the same process that we do. Jesus stated that he didn't do anything OF HIMSELF, but with God's power working through him. What we do know is that TEMPTATION is not "SIN" - UNTIL we allow it to "Conceive", and result in sinful actions.
Obviously, then, Jesus did not allow HIS LUST to "Conceive". How did he do that??? In our case, often we "Go with it", and allow it to become sinful actions. So Jesus, even though he was HUMAN like us, apparently had "something under the hood" that we don't. and He RESISTED the temptation -
BEFORE He was joined by the Holy Spirit at His baptism and was able to remain sinless for 30 years.
Harold Ockengae used to say that: "you can't keep the birds from flying overhead, but you CAN keep them from building a nest in your hair." In many cases we don't (we even give 'em the materials to build with), but Jesus was able to resist, so obviously He DID have some advantage, over the rest of us. When He was 12, we was debating theology with the rabbis in the temple -