Temptation - Dancing with Death

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 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. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:12 – 15 ESV).

This passage in James and the previous posting’s passage in 1 John inform one another – that is, each helps us understand the other and together they increase our understanding of temptation.

John makes it clear that if we follow our lusts (desires) in loving the world (this present evil age) that the love of the Father will not be in us (1 John 2:15). He also makes it clear that the world and its lusts are passing away, but that the one who does the will of God lives forever (not the one who thinks about doing the will of God!).

When Adam and Eve lusted after the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and acted on their desire the result was death; spiritual death working in the soul and body of humanity. James paints a picture of what this dance looks like, it is as if we are participating in a masquerade ball:

We see someone desirable to dance with, she (or he) looks attractive. As we dance to the music we are drawn ever more deeply into the embrace of our dancing partner. Before long we are unaware of our surroundings, our discernment abandons us, we lose our perspective and equilibrium. We are enveloped with and in sin. Do we realize that the fruit of our dance is death? To dance with death is to produce death. To dance with temptation is to dance with death. It may not look like death as we approach it; it may look desirable for food, it may be pleasing to the eyes, it may promise to make us wise if we will only dance with it – but it will kill us. It will deaden our souls, dull our minds, and harden our hearts.

Temptation will nearly always look like something better than what we have, and it will always entice us to disobey God’s Word and turn our eyes away from Jesus Christ.

James warns us not to be so foolish as to think, “This temptation is from God,” when he writes:

“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. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”

The stakes are high. How high?

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

This has to do with our love for God when facing temptation, do we love God or do we love our lusts? Note that John also frames the issue of our desires in the context of love: “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15b).

Temptation challenges our hearts. To whom do our hearts belong?

Paul evokes Genesis when he writes (2 Corinthians 11:3 NASB), “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” Once again, we are all reenactors; shall we play the role of Adam and Eve, or shall we play the role of Jesus Christ? Shall we choose to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or shall we eat from the Tree of Life, our Lord Jesus Christ? What is feeding our desires?

James writes:

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2 – 4 ESV).

The word “trials” can just as easily be translated “temptations”. God desires to use our temptations to mold us into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we are tempted we can either submit to God and His Word, or give ourselves over to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. If we foolishly think that we can control temptation, or that we can moderate our downward spiral into sin and death and somehow go so far and then turnaround and go back to obedience…we are fools. We are either slaves to God and His Word, or we are slaves to sin (Romans Chapter 6); what we are not is autonomous – we will either serve God or the devil…which will it be?

Temptation - Real Reenactors

          We are all reenactors. The difference between our reenactments and those of actors and actresses who reenact history on a stage is that the reenactments of humanity carry eternal consequences while reenactments of those who dramatize history on a stage are in the moment, as the dew on the morning grass.

            There is a sense in which we reenact the Temptation in the Garden of Eden every day. Compare this passage from Genesis with the following passage from 1 John:

            “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, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “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 when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” (Genesis 3:1a – 7, ESV)

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15 – 17).

            In Genesis Eve sees that the tree is good for food, in 1 John we read of the desires of the flesh. In Genesis Eve sees that the tree is a delight to the eyes, in 1 John we read of the desires of the eyes. In Genesis Eve sees that the tree is desired to make one wise, in 1 John we read of the pride of life.

            The warning that John gives in his letter is a warning that has its genesis in Genesis. The serpent is ever posing the question, “Has God said?” The enemy’s unrelenting attack is upon the Word of God, seeking to undermine our trust in, and obedience to, God’s Word.

            Temptation appeals to our egos, to our sensual and bodily desires, and to our desire to possess what we consider valuable. The word that the ESV translates as “desires” is often translated into English as “lusts” – when we lust for something we desire to possess it and consume it. Sadly, while we think we can posses and consume that which we lust for, the reality is that we are the ones who are possessed and consumed and destroyed.

            There is a story told of when the comedian W.C. Fields was nearing the last days of his life in a hospital. A friend walked into his room and saw him reading the Bible. When the friend asked Fields if he was searching for God, the comedian replied, “No, I’m looking for loopholes.” I don’t know whether this story is true, but I do know that it illustrates the way many of us approach temptation and the Bible, God’s Word. Rather than seeking grace to obey God’s Word in the midst of temptation and spiritual warfare, too often we look for loopholes. Are we thinking that maybe the serpent was right when he asked the question, “Has God said?”

            Every day of our lives we are reenacting the drama of the Garden of Eden. Shall we be the understudies of Adam of Eve, or will we be the understudies of our Lord Jesus Christ? As we will see in another meditation, our Lord Jesus engaged in His own reenactment when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness after His baptism by John the Baptist. Jesus rewrote the script, and in rewriting the script He gave us an invitation to join Him in the New Script, the New Creation, the New Man.

            In 1 Corinthians 4:9 Paul writes about being a spectacle to angels and to men. In Ephesians 3:10 he writes of God’s many-faceted wisdom being known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. We are reenactors on a cosmic stage – which part are we choosing to play when we are faced with temptation?

            Are we reprising the roles of Adam and Eve, or are we on stage with our Lord Jesus Christ?

Temptation: A Transformative Battlefield

A friend asked me about "temptation" - here is the beginning of my response: 

Dear Friend,

You’ve asked me about temptation; a subject I wish someone had talked to me about when I was a young Christian.  A subject I wish someone had talked to me about when I was a middle-aged Christian. Come to think of it, a subject I wish brothers (and sisters) would talk about now that I am an older Christian.  You get the idea.

I think it was Oswald Chambers who said to the effect, “A Christian wakes up every morning on a battlefield.” This is not a bad thing when we consider that we are engaged in a war of liberation (Isaiah 42:1 – 7; Matthew 10:1 – 8). In this war we are being transformed into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). We might say that we are on a transformative battlefield. On the one hand we wrestle with the enemy (Ephesians 6:10ff; 2 Corinthians 10:3 – 6), and on the other hand our heavenly Potter molds us into the image of His Son as we encounter pressures within and without (2 Corinthians 1:8ff; 7:5).

When professing-Christians say that they are seldom tempted, I wonder whether they have become desensitized to sin, especially the sin of “self” – the gravitational pull of who we are outside of Jesus Christ. To be sure I think I have known saints who live in the age to come more than they live in this present evil time, and I do not doubt that their lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3) in a wonderful fashion. However, let us remember the agony of our Lord Jesus in the Garden on the night of His betrayal – was He tempted to forego the Cup? I cannot understand that mystery, but I think it is wise to keep our Lord Jesus in Gethsemane before me.

I am also reminded of a Peanuts comic strip in which Charlie Brown is talking to Linus after playing another season of football. Charlie Brown says something like this:

“Just once I wish I was enough of a threat for the opposition to double-team me.”

What about us? If we are a threat to the enemy, then we can expect to be doubled-teamed. If the enemy sees us as threatening, by God’s grace, to liberate others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then we can anticipate opposition – we may be double-teamed or triple-teamed or worse. The enemy may use plays he has used before, but he may also devise snares which we cannot initially see and understand.

This brings us to a tension when thinking about temptation; we’ll call it the way of negation and the way of affirmation. This is a classical way of understanding the dynamic of saying “no” to temptation and sin and self while saying “yes” to Jesus Christ. Think of it as a bungee cord with one end hooked to reckoning ourselves “dead to sin” and the other end hooked to reckoning ourselves “alive unto God” (Romans 6:11).

I love meditating on Hebrews 12:1 – 3 (ESV):

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?”

Christ is the Founder and Perfecter of our faith. We can be confident that He will complete the work that He began in us (Philippians 1:6). He is our faithful High Priest who has been “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

We are on a transformative battlefield with Jesus Christ, He is with us always, never leaving us or forsaking us (Matthew 28:20), and greater is He who is in us, than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).

Christ is with us in the temptations we encounter – let us cultivate lives of “looking to Jesus” – never forgetting who He is, and who we are in Him.

John Newton's Counsel

About a year ago I posted a portion of the letter below from John Newton and made some comments...it seems that I ought to send this out a few times a year as I see professing-Christians swept into the confusion of our society...

The toxicity we are imbibing is causing brain, mind, heart, and soul damage; we are living in an opium den and don't know it.

An excerpt from a letter from John Newton (author of the hymn Amazing Grace) to a young pastor, John Ryland, Jr. This is dated August 1, 1775 and the context is the rebellion in the American Colonies.

“You and I will not differ about politics…As a minister and a Christian I think it is better to lay all the blame upon sin. Instead of telling the people Lord North [the Prime Minister] blunders, I tell them the Lord of hosts is angry. If God has a controversy with us, I can expect no other than that wisdom should be hidden from the wise. If our Lord’s kingdom was of this world, then I think his servants would have as good a right as others to take the lead in political disputes; at present I believe they will do as well to let the dead bury the dead, to mourn for what they cannot help, and to ply the throne of grace as the best and most effectual method of serving their country. I believe the sins of Britain and America have too much prevailed, and that a wrong spirit and wrong measures have taken place on both sides because the Lord has left us to ourselves….

“It seems to me one of the darkest signs of the times, that so many of the Lord’s professing people act as if they thought he was withdrawn from the earth, and amuse themselves and each other, with declamations against instruments and second causes and indulge unsanctified passions instead of taking that part which is assigned them, Ezekiel 9:4. [Sighing and crying for all the abominations done in the midst of Jerusalem.] I believe if instead of unavailing clamours against men and measures they would all unite in earnest prayer, we might hope for better times, otherwise I fear bad will be worse. Thus you have the substance of my political creed. Only I should add further that I believe the Lord reigns, that He is carrying on his great purposes in a straight line, that his wall shall be built in troublous times, and that He will be a sure sanctuary to them that fear him. For the rest I refer you to Ps. 46….”

Newton continues to write…concerning Jeremiah:

“He preached against sin, and foretold judgment, but I do not find that he made a parade about liberty, or concerned himself with the administration. He does not seem to have troubled his head, who was scribe or recorder, or who was over the host, for he knew that whoever had the management, the public affairs would miscarry because the Lord fought against them. When I hear the cry about liberty I think of the old cry, ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians’ [Acts 19:28, 34.] Civil liberty is a valuable blessing, but if people sin it away, it is the Lord [who] deprives them of it…It grieves me to hear those who are slaves to sin and Satan, make such a stir about that phantom which they worship under the name of liberty, and especially to see not a few of the Lord’s people so much conformed to the world in this respect…”

Words from My Past

I've been sorting through files, downsizing it's called. I didn't realize I'd kept so many pages of musings from decades ago. Some are typewritten, many are handwritten. Some are on yellow legal-size paper, others are on scraps of paper or on the back of other documents. 

There are charts I made of Biblical history, diagrams of Biblical books, harmonies of Gospel sections, word studies. I came upon a study of "gates" I did - I began in Genesis and kept going, trying to understand the significance of "gates" in the Bible. After all, "gates" are places of ingress and egress, and places of authority.

When I worked for Pulte Home Corporation in the late 1970s or early 1980s (can't recall the specific dates) I used the back of voided purchase orders to write thoughts down during the day. I found the following on the back of a purchase order dated March 24, 1978 - the thought must have come to me at work, during the day, and I took a voided purchase order and wrote:

"Faith is not blindly leaping, but rather sightfully walking. There is ample evidence in the Scripture that natural seeing does not produce faith, but that the development of our inner senses causes us to walk in faith."

I still believe that. Paul told the Corinthians that they were still not ready for solid food, that he couldn't speak to them as spiritual men but as "men of flesh" (1 Cor. 3:1 - 4). 

The writer of Hebrews makes a similar complaint to the recipients of his letter, concluding that "...solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil" (Hebrews 5:11 - 14). 

People talk about what they see, and if our eyes are on the natural world most of the time then we will primarily (sometimes exclusively) speak of natural things. Jesus tells us that if our eye is single  and clear then our whole body will be full of light (Matthew 6:22). 

Paul says that he and his companions don't look at that which is seen but at that which is unseen, for that which is seen is temporal but that which is unseen is eternal (2 Cor. 4:17 - 18). 

Psalm 119:130 tells us that when the Word of God comes into our lives, our hearts, our minds, our souls, that it gives light. 

Unless we cultivate our spiritual eyesight we simply cannot live lives of faith. Unless the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ, unless the Word of Christ and the Christ of the Word, is our center of gravity we simply cannot live as citizens of the Kingdom of God. As Jesus says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." 

We cannot serve two masters, we cannot do it - and yet we kid ourselves and others by thinking and living as if we can. When we attempt to serve two masters the Kingdom of God pretty much always loses - because God is not going to play those games with us...in fact...He will judge us and we will suffer the consequences of spiritual adultery. 

Of course the Kingdom is, in another sense, always advancing; the shame is that when we refuse to take up our cross and follow Christ that we do not advance with the Kingdom. We, who could be blessings to others, remain on the sidelines with lives uncommitted to Jesus Christ. 

Well, now you know what I was thinking back on March 24, 1978; and you also know what I'm thinking about today - 41 years later.