GIANTS. #2. The Giant Called Temptation.

Temptation is something that every human person experiences. At times we may wonder why God permits it.

Why does He allow moral and spiritual dangers to afflict us? Could He not prevent every temptation that confronts us? And if He can, why does He not, or is there a deeper mystery to refuting it?

The Greek word temptation is pi-ras-mos. It means proving the experience of evil, resulting in adversity.

Since Satan is the author of evil, this Giant deceiver is among God’s fiercest enemies. Oddly, he was once the most beautiful of all of God’s creatures. But, he fell from God’s graces and was removed from Heaven like a bolt of lightning. Now, he spends every moment empowering his demons to assist him in taking revenge against his punisher – the living God. He knows the easiest way to grieve the heart of the Father is to deceive the believer into thinking God cut off His love and intimacy with His children. He does this by tempting God’s children to choose the modalities of his evil dwelling. 

It all started when the Lord created Adam and Eve. Satan was already on the formless planet before God made it a thing of glorious beauty. Then, it happened. He saw the God who punished him create humans. Satan knew that God only created perfect and beautiful things while clothing them in righteousness. I am certain his memory served him well. He, too, was perfect in knowledge and beauty at one time. He also knew that by one simple choice, one could fall from perfection and end up evil, like him. With that, he set out to tempt Eve to become like him – and it worked. First Eve, then Adam, and then every offspring that came from them was born into the domain of the tempter. This results in humanity tempting themselves and others to prove the experience of evil, resulting in a life of adversity. 

God’s will has many mysterious aspects, from what He prevents and allows. However, there are some explanations that particularly address the presence of temptation in our lives.

God created humanity with a choice system. He obviously created angels with that same system. In this, we discover how Satan was booted out of Heaven. In like manner, God booted Adam and Eve out of the Garden after they said “no” to God. In both cases, evil became the dominant force for their culture. Satan, trapped and tied to a planet, and humanity deceived into remaining there with him. As for humanity, evil soon showed its first mark – Cain murdering Abel. Again, Cain was removed from the land and chased to the far east to popularize a degrading culture that ended with the Great Flood – God booted humanity off the planet. That is but one family who said “yes” to God and maintained obedience to the descendants of Seth, who replaced the righteous position Abel once held. 

Temptation emerges from the “no” side of the equation of God’s creation. Sinful choices always contain something that is appealing to us. The reason is our fallen nature, flesh, is appealing to Satan while providing him with a portal to seduce us into his likeness. Since all of humanity is born into Satan’s DNA, we are not drawn to that which is righteous but rather unholy. Many ask what is in sin that is so overpowering and appealing to our existence. The answer seems confusing, but it is not. People join themselves with all things that match their identity within the soul. Since Satan owns the souls of all humans, unless Christ indwells them, he draws mass humanity to the image and identity he is bound by - evil. As born-again believers are drawn to the “yes” in obedience, unsaved children of Satan are drawn to the “no,” resulting in disobedience.

All the enemy needs is a small opening; that is all it takes to topple a life of honor. One submission to temptation is all that is needed to poison the Living well of indwelling Living. A single choice of sin can destroy the reputation of a Godly leader or follower. Every temptation received is another opportunity to keep unsaved people from God or stop an authentic believer from experiencing intimate fellowship with God.

All humans, born-again or not, experience temptation. While all temptations appear fresh and new, they are as old as Satan. The individual is deceived if anyone thinks they can resist temptations without Christ resisting Satan through them.

Authentic Christians tend to think that because they are being tempted, there must be something wrong with their walk in Christ. Not so. In fact, real-deal believers experience more temptations due to Satan’s hatred regarding their position and obedience to Jesus Christ. I believe Satan tempts unbelievers less due to their default to their Adamic nature, which is prone to sin as a lifestyle. In other words, they tempt themselves. When authentic believers are tempted, they should consider it a compliment – not in submitting to the temptation but that the enemy would consider them a target for temptation.

In a pragmatic sense, temptation is necessary since the choice system is built into our creation – to prove our salvation in Christ IS real. God permits temptation as a necessary condition to prove to Satan that His children ARE free and choose to obey Him willingly.

Further, if God never permits Satan to tempt God’s children, it would deny God the opportunity to prove His point that obedience IS possible under the choice system He created from Heaven forward. Hence, it is perhaps striking but true to recognize that there are eternal objectives that can come from temptation. Even in the case of an unsaved person – through their relentless failures in temptation, ultimately, they can be broken and thus turn their lives over to Christ for new Life.

Think about Paul’s words to us from the Holy Spirit, he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape. Really? That is not what most believers say or believe. If this passage is Truth, and it is, the passage reveals God indeed limits how much temptation the enemy can put upon one of His Son’s Bridal members. At the same time, it reveals a purpose in allowing temptation to come down on His chosen ones. Does temptation have an eternal purpose? Folks that would be an affirmative “yes.” Who you say “yes” to matters to God. It is in the “who” and “what” we say “yes” to that proves loyalty – to Jesus Christ, or God’s greatest enemy. The eternal logic and reason for temptation are cemented if authentic salvation is proven in endurance. Those who endure to the end, well, it is those who will be saved on our deathbeds.

Satan knows about this unchanging doctrine of God. It grants the enemy plenty of time while the born-again human is alive to cause each to lack endurance regarding their faith and life in Christ. Satan is all about renouncing Christ. This is the only loophole Satan has in the believer’s life. If you think I don’t believe in the security of salvation, I do, that is, if that salvation passes the test of authenticity. God tests whom He loves. Why would He do that? Our teaching today details why God makes use of temptation.

God promises you. There is a certain escape from temptations. The Lord, our God, will make a way to escape falling into Satan’s ploy. We indeed can bear it. However, no self-life strength can obtain such victory. It requires power and life within us to walk out the obedience unto the Father. Jesus is the only one who can say “no” to temptations, particularly the kind that comes directly from Satan’s hands. Since Jesus is the only one with such power, we need to receive His Life into our mortal bodies through a born-again experience. In this, we can release the mind and Life of Christ in moments of temptation to say “no” to the enemy. There is no other way. This is the practical meaning of God will make a way to escape. If you are not indwelt with Christ’s Life, the sad news is, you are dead in the water.

Here are some practical helps:

• Recognize when you are being tempted.

• Cry out for help from within. If not saved, cry out for salvation.

• Resist the devil by releasing Christ from within. Don’t worry; Satan will flee.

• Retreat from the person, place, or thing that is provoking temptation.

• If, by choice, there is a sin pattern in your life that matches the temptation, lay it before Jesus Christ, renounce it, and ask Jesus to fill that place with Himself.

• Some temptations require help. If the temptation is compulsively overbearing, seek out a Christ-as-Life helper to assist you.

• Always replace the demonic temptation with serving others in Christ. Service blocks temptations. The reason? It is other-focused. Sin is self-focused.

• Develop a habit of walking the road that Jesus walks. Read the Word of God.

• Finally, share your victories with the Body of Christ. Or, have them pray for you.

The Giant of temptation can be made impotent. Once Satan realizes that temptation can show forth the genuineness of Christ’s faith in you, we can live out what Peter said.  

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:6-7)

Yes. Coming to the end of yourself and embracing the indwelling Life of Christ will always defeat this Giant. Then, and only then, can we come through a world of temptations with Christ’s faith intact and show a depraved world the logic hidden behind temptations and the solution to humanity's biggest problem. Better yet, it leaves observers with the power of Christ’s faith, your proven faith, and thus leaves the Gospel of Jesus Christ on their doorstep. I say, endure to the end.

Passing the test of temptations will always ignite praise of Jesus, which develops a habit of returning to Him in our trials. God will do His part by making all things new, in the darkest moments of temptation, at the deepest part of our souls that seem to feed off the food the Giant of Temptations relentlessly offers. Pull that Sword of the Spirit out of its sheath and reduce this Giant to a pile of flesh.

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