Temptation as God's Tool for Sanctification

A break from the reading in Luke. This was something we talked about at Youth Group on Wednesday.

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Matthew 6:13, And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

First thing to note: God is the One who leads the believer to temptation, not the devil as we so often claim. It was the Holy Spirit who led Christ into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days. God Himself never tempts us for He is removed from evil (James 1:13). However, He does allow the devil to afflict us in ways that could make us stumble (Job 1:8-12), and our own passions too often send us tumbling into sin. Still, we know that God uses temptation as a way of teaching us to cling desperately to Him.

Why then would Christ tell us to pray that God not lead us into temptation if, as one might accuse me of saying, "temptation is a good thing?" Because the man who prays earnestly for protection from the seduction of sin has already learned reliance upon God and distrust of himself.

Our faithful God introduces temptation into our lives to expose us to our weaknesses, weaknesses we are often blind to, and to create in us a reliance upon God. He who clings to God in fear of his own great sinfulness need not enter into temptation for he already knows the flesh is weak, and to such a one the Lord will give His strength (Isaiah 40:31 and Matthew 26:41). As John Bunyan put it, “He that is down need fear no fall.” That we might learn such self-doubt and absolute, desperate dependence on Christ alone!