Temptation

1 Corinthians 10:13b
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.

I so often hear this passage used to suggest that if we just try hard enough to find it, God will always provide a way to "not sin." So I very much appreciated what Pastor said in Bible class on August 13. Just thought I'd put it out there in case anybody else wanted to listen in.

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Now, the word "tempted," you can think more broadly than "come on, do this sinful thing." Think of "testing" or "trial." It includes not only the temptations of the devil, but also if you get the diagnosis of cancer or if there was a tornado that ripped down your house. It's not only temptations from the devil, but also the testing and trial that comes through crises.

God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation or testing will also make an escape. God is faithful. To what? To His Word. To His promises to you. Like Paul says to Timothy, even when we are faithless, God is faithful for He cannot deny Himself. He is faithful to Himself and to His Word and to His promises to you. Therefore He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear or endure. Notice that it doesn't mean that the temptation or testing will be taken away. The point here is that you will be able to bear it or endure it -- without losing faith.

He will not allow you to be tempted or tested beyond what you are able to bear or endure, but with the temptation or testing or trial will also make the way of escape. Escape from what? Escape from sin, unbelief, despair. This is what we speak of in the sixth petition: God tempts no one. We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. What is the cause of false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice? Unbelief! So escape is always, finally, faith. So that you do not fall into despair, shame, vice, and unbelief.

God is aware that we're tempted to despair. He will make an escape from sin and despair. What is the escape? It is in His Gospel, in His Word. A person who dies without faith is condemned. That's not because God was not faithful, but because the person rejected. He promises to be faithful to you according to the promises of His Word. He promises that when you are tested, He will provide the way of escape that you may be able to bear it and not fall into everlasting despair.

Feelings of despair and depression certainly do not mean that you have no faith. That's all the Old Adam is -- unbelief. If he's not getting what he wants, he may be quite despairing. There's always this paradox of "I believe, help Thou my unbelief." And He promises to help you.

Mrs X mentioned that private confession and absolution is a wonderful way of escape. Pastor agreed that it is. The reason we retain private absolution is for the sake of the absolution which strengthens faith which is the way of escape from sin and despair. We need to see it more as a normal thing instead of only for extraordinary sins like the physical act of murder. So if you'd just like to kill someone, but never would, confession is there for you.

Mrs Y agreed that private confession is a wonderful way of escape because it fortifies one with the Gospel.

Faith lives from a real word, an external word from outside the self. We tend to sit in our despair when what we need is the external word.