Tempted and Tried
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
In the past two weeks we have taken notice how the same term used in the New Testament can contain multiple meanings, namely one that can mean tempted, tested or tried. The difference depends on the subject that is initiating the action and the outcome that is desired. The example of Job in the Old Testament offers a good illustration of how the same event can be either a temptation or a testing.
Different intentions
God allowed Satan to cause multiple sorrows and pains to come upon Job so Satan caused sickness, suffering and sorrow in Job’s life. Satan’s goal was to entice Job to sin by turning his back upon God and exchanging his trust in God with the cursing of God (Job 1:11). God’s intention in allowing those same events was to demonstrate to Job and others the genuineness and tenacity of Job’s trust in Him — same events but different intentions or outcomes expected.
While God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours, we can get a glimpse of His purposes in our times of temptation. The devil’s intention is to cause us to sin. God’s intention is to demonstrate to us and to others the genuineness of our trust in Him and devotion to Him.
The possibility of such a positive outcome is underscored by the promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it.”
It is the possibility of different results in times of temptation that allows us to conclude that temptation itself is not a failure or sin. Sin is the choice to respond in keeping with the devil’s agenda and not God’s. After all Jesus “was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). For our sinless Savior the temptations themselves were not sinful. Yielding to them would have been sin. Horatio Palmer expressed this idea in the opening words of a hymn that reads, “Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin.” To that sentiment he immediately added the observation, “Each victory will help you some other to win.”
Temptations to sin that are turned by faith into tests when God’s faithfulness is proved by our resistance can have a strengthening effect on our walk with God. Steel tempered by its fiery testing comes out stronger than ever. Are not we as God’s people more valuable than tested steel?
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