Is it possible to face temptation and walk away unstained?
We’ve been answering this question over the last few posts by taking a close look at 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
Today, we will answer the question, What does it mean to escape temptation?
The Escape from Temptation
When God allows us to be tested with trials, He always provides a way out. There is always a path to victory. There is always an escape hatch. The Greek word for “escape” in 1 Corinthians 10:13 literally means “an exit.”
Here is a truth you may never have noticed in this verse: Paul tells us exactly what the way of escape is. God “with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” The way out is through. The way out of the temptation is to endure it as a trial and never let it become a solicitation to evil.
You have been wronged. You have been falsely accused. You have been maligned or treated unkindly or dealt with unjustly. So what? Accept it. Endure it with joy (James 1:2); that is the way of escape. Usually we look for a quick and easy escape route. God’s plan for us is different. He wants us to count it all joy, “and let endurance have its perfect result, so that [we] may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (v. 4). God is using our trials to bring us to maturity.
But how can we endure? There are many practical answers, so I will mention only a few here.
First, meditate on the Word: “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11). Second, pray: “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). In other words, ask God to keep the test from becoming a temptation. Third, resist Satan and yield to God: “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
There is one more key to endurance that I want to focus on, and that is faith. Hebrews 11 talks about the great heroes of faith, and their common characteristic is that they endured faithfully to the end. Of Moses, the writer of Hebrews says, “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen” (Hebrews 11:27). Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Rahab all ran the race that was set before them with endurance (cf. Hebrews 12:1). The writer of Hebrews summarizes:
What more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. (11:32–39)
Most of the heroes of faith endured incredible trials. If our faith is genuine, it will enable us to withstand whatever trials the Lord permits us to encounter. If you think your own trials are particularly severe, the writer of Hebrews reminds us, “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding [your own] blood in your striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:4).
When testing comes, we must apply the truths we see in 1 Corinthians, James, and Hebrews. What an encouragement to our faith it is to know that no test can come to us that is more than we can bear!
Meanwhile, we must continually, faithfully mortify our sin. We must pray and ask God to deliver us from evil temptations. We must refuse to heed the lustful hankerings of our own flesh. And we must pursue God’s whole purpose in allowing us to be tested: the perfecting of our faith unto endurance and spiritual maturity.
Through it all, we must look to Christ and lean on Him, our merciful and faithful High Priest, who is touched by the feeling of our infirmities, who can sympathize with our weaknesses because He was tempted in all points like we are—yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
How can we “run with endurance the race that is set before us”? (Hebrews 12:1). By “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (vv. 2–3).
Resisting Sin in a World of Temptation
We live in a culture that is filled with temptation. Our society glorifies sin and despises God. It is certainly not an easy age in which to live. But neither was the first century. Remember, we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
Someday He may test us in a way that requires us to endure physical harm or death in our striving against sin. If that day comes, we are assured that He will sustain us through it. In the meantime, our trials are strengthening us, drawing us closer to Him, building our endurance, and conforming us to His image. What an encouragement to know that He personally ensures that our temptations will not be too great for us! He sustains us so that we will not fall away. And “He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5–6).
In our current culture, sin is not defined as a matter of fixed morality, but instead is wholly subjective. The individual’s own preferences determine the line between good and evil. All around us we hear appeals for universal “tolerance.” One gets the clear idea that no sin is as evil as the killjoy attitude of those who think sin is offensive to a holy God. People love their sin. They will go to any lengths to rationalize and defend it
For Christians, however, life cannot reflect our culture’s values. We cannot try to excuse or tolerate sin. It was sin that put our blessed Savior on the cross to bleed and die. Sin was what set us at enmity with God. Now that that enmity has been broken, we want nothing to do with the old life. Now that we are freed from sin, we do not want to go back into bondage. And we don’t have to! To choose to do so would be a denial of our Lord. As the beloved apostle wrote,
No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:6–10)
(Adapted from The Vanishing Conscience)
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