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.
When we come to faith in Jesus Christ and the bonds of sin are broken, a number of things become true of us immediately. We are transferred from death to life and indwelt by God’s Spirit. We’re placed within His family. We are redeemed, changed, and born again. Sin no longer reigns in our lives.
It does, however, remain.
In trusting Christ, we are not living a life of ease whereby we are exempt from attacks from the Evil One or the subtle tendencies of our own hearts. Instead, from the point of conversion through to the point of seeing Christ and being made like Him, the Christian is involved in “a continual and irreconcilable war”[1] against temptation.
Scripture is full of warnings about temptation: that enticement to sin and evil that we all experience. Temptation is not simply the lure of things which are wild and unthinkable, but the impulse to take good things which God has given us and use (or misuse) them in a way that sins against God. In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis alludes to this subtlety of sin when Screwtape urges his apprentice devil to “encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy [namely, God] has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden.”[2]
Scripture is clear that God is never and cannot be the source of temptation. When James says that “God … tempts no one,” he has built his statement on God’s character. God is incapable of tempting others to evil because He Himself is insusceptible to it. Tempting others to evil would require a delight in evil which God does not possess.
The word translated “tempt” can also be rendered “test.” So what our fallen nature might turn into a temptation to sin is also a test that can strengthen our faith. When we face a time of testing, which God allows, we should remember that His purpose is not our failure but our benefit. The devil longs for us to fail, but God longs for us to succeed. He is for us, and He is working all things, even trials and temptations, for our good.
So what temptations are you regularly doing battle with (or giving in to)? Learn to see those as temptations but also as opportunities—as moments to choose obedience, to please your Father, to grow to be more like Christ—to gain a victory in your ongoing war. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
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Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company, thegoodbook.com. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company.
