The world increasingly ignores, laughs at, or even mocks the idea of sin, and true believers Today tint take it seriously either. They might want to be delivered from their sins at some point – But not yet.
Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish playwright said “I can resist everything except temptation.”
I have been asked many times, “why people in the world are suffering, why is there so much pain?“ While some of it is because we live in a “fallen world.” Much of it is because of sin. God takes sin seriously – far more serious than we do. We either obey God or disobey Him, there is no other option, and He holds us accountable for our choices.
We make our own choices, and then our choices make us. Those choices put us on one of two roads through life, the easy way that leads us to destruction or the path hard way that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14). Temptation and testing are intimately bound up with these decisions.
The Nature of Temptation and Testing
Temptation to sin has been universal throughout history, no one had ever been exempt from it or from the consequences of yielding to it. In God’s Word temptation is an enticement to act in disobedience to His Will. It’s sources are the world, the flesh, and Satan. A test is a situation that God sends or allows in our lives with the intention of revealing our loyalties, motivations, character, and commitment to Him and helping to purify, strengthen, and mature us. If this test is successfully passed, the test will glorify God. Tests and temptations occur throughout our lives and are an important part of the process of maturing spiritually.
Major Examples of Temptation and Testing
Testing and temptation first appear in the Bible in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. This ancient account contains valuable insights for us today. Here we see that God lovingly places the first parents in a beautiful garden, which abounded with everything they needed to flourish as humans. He only set one restriction; “You may eat of every tree in the garden, but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die.” – Genesis 2:16-17
God designed this test to give Adam and Eve the opportunity to demonstrate their gratitude, love, and trust in Him by obeying one simple command. However tests hold the possibility of failure, and failure is always to goal of the devil, who rages against God and His people with an implacable hatred. He will tempt those who are being tested to disobey God. What God means for good, the devil will try to expliot for evil. What happen in the Garden demonstrates this fact and also gives us good lessons for resisting his schemes.
The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field they to Lord God had made. – Genesis 3:1
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the Garden?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the Garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.” then the serpent said “You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of it’s fruit and ate, and she gave some to her husband ate from it also. -Genius 3:1-6
When God told Adam not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil “You shall surly die.” By die meant you shall spiritually die.
A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who resist temptation know how strong it is… A man who givens in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, on one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it and Christ because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is the only man who knows to the full what temptation means – the only complete realist,
C.S. Lewis
When the devil tempts us, he doesn’t appear in hoofs and horns. He appears in an appealing guise. The devil has the power to assume a pleasing shape. The serpent in the Garden is described as crafty, and was more than likely beautiful like a emerald viper, not a hissing cobra or rattlesnake. The tempter seemingly innocent initial approach is deceptive ploy to ensnare Eve. He quickly moved to directly contradict God’s Word about the consequences of eating the fruit, “You will not surely die.” In this deft move, he undermined Eve’s trust to God’s goodness by contending that God was withholding something from her. “to be like God.” By introducing unbelief, followed by an appeal to pride, he cleverly placed a powerful temptation before Eve. She could have passed the test by simply obeying God’s command, for the tempt of could not have forced her to eat the fruit. Instead, she considered the apparent benefits of eating – it was good for food, a delight to make one wise. She freely chose to disobey God, and ate of the fruit. And gave it to Adam who ate too.
That one tragic choice brought disastrous consequences upon them, their family, and every person that ever lived. It alienated them from God brought Eve painful childbearing and Adam pointless work, murder to their family all in a manner of suffering, that led to eventual physical death. It also plunged the world into a catastrophic rebellion against God that has produced untold pain, suffering, and misery to this present day,
And what can we learn from this account? First the obvious one is the devil’s subtlety in lying and deception. With has major tactic throughput the Bible. Another is his malevolent war against God and His Word. And the devil’s hatred towards human beings in very clear, along with his cunning schemes to deceive, seduce, and tempt us in order to thwart God’s kingdom, purposes, alienate us from God, and bring suffering and judgment upon us. The devil uses our vulnerability to temptation and our need to be alert to sinful attractions to linger in our minds and looking only for the appealing features of sin and not the night and painful price we will have to pay is another important lesson we learn.
Another implicit lesson is our great need to quickly turn to God when we are tempted and to reject evil thoughts and not allow them to linger in our minds. We can also see here the root problems of unbelief and pride, such powerful avenues of temptation, and the tragic consequences of failing a test God has set before us,
The seduction of Adam and Eve also illustrates that the devil seeks every opportunity for strategic impact against God. And we can see it very clear.
From Pity to Praise 