It follows that when a believer gives in to temptation, desiring sin more than God, it is because God has allowed sin or the flesh to gain the ascendancy for the moment. He does not cause the sin in the same way that he causes the obedience. The obedience he brings about by a positive influence of renewal because he delights in holiness for its own sake. Sin comes about in the believer's life only by God's permitting man’s natural tendencies to reassert themselves temporarily. And he does this not out of any delight in sin but out of a delight in the greater end which will be achieved. We may not always understand his designs but we need not doubt his wisdom and power and mercy to bring us through to glory in the end. It is very probable that if God did not allow us to taste the power of sin from time to time we would start to feel self-confident and would not appreciate so intensely our redemption. Thus thanksgiving and praise will abound to God in greater measure because he has brought his people through struggles and failures to perfect victory in the end.

Now we may return to I Corinthians 10:13 to see if it comes into conflict with these things. If we analyze what is really happening in temptation it will become evident, I believe, that there is only one thing that provides "escape" from or endurance of temp­tation, namely, some kind of evidence that God is preferable to the sin we are being tempted with. Perhaps some promise or threat or command comes to our mind from the Bible, as it did with Jesus when he was tempted. Or perhaps we recall an experience we have had of God's kindness. Maybe a friend will speak a word of encouragement about God's glory and beauty. In any of these ways, and many others, evidence comes to us that God is to be desired more than sin. This evidence is the escape available to us.

I Corinthians 10:13 declares that God will never leave himself without a witness to his superiority over all sinful allurements. But the text does not promise that God will in fact keep a Christian from yielding to temptation. It promises that the sufficient cause of obedience will always be given in the hour of temptation, namely some evidence that God is more to be desired than sin. Whether a Christian will own up to the truth of this evidence, that is, whether the evidence will move him in fact to prefer God in this trial is not discussed in this text. The promise has an implicit if-clause: You can endure any temptation if you want to badly enough. You will not be tempted beyond your ability if you are relying upon and delighting in God more than what you are being tempted toward."

The important thing to notice is that this text does not deal with the more basic theological question concerning why I choose to rely on God at one time and on something else at another time. Therefore, the text cannot be used to prove that the reason I do this is my own inalienable power of self-determination. Romans 12:3 would, on the contrary, suggest that God regulates how much reliance on him I have. But that we can save for another time.