Temptation and the Providence of God

Have you every wondered why God allows us to be tempted? According to the Scripture , God has good purposes for allowing His children to struggle with temptation and sin. Let's look at five purposes that God has in allowing us to face temptation.

1. God allows us to face temptation and sin so that He can demonstrate His fatherly love for us, His children.

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. (Hebrews 12:5-7, ESV)

2. God allows us to see the lingering corruption and deceitfulness of sin in our hearts so that we will be humbled before Him.

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:22-25, ESV)

3. God allows temptation and sin to teach us to depend on Him and the provisions that He has made for us through Christ.

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, ESV)

4. God allows temptation and sin to make us more watchful and aware of future occasions of sin. In other words, God helps us to grow in His grace (i.e. sanctification), so that we are better prepared to walk in holiness.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4, ESV)

5. God uses temptation and sin to accomplish purposes that He has not revealed to us.

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.(Deuteronomy 29:29, ESV)

Sovereignty and Hope

"Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him" (Psalm 115:3, NIV)

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:28-31, NIV)

In the near future a number of changes will be taking place in my life: Amy's going to the hospital on Friday to be induced with our third daughter, unless of course the baby comes sooner; I'll have a full-time work load at seminary beginning in Septemeber; and as always, I'll have plenty of ministry work at Redeemer. (And these are just the things that I think may happen. God often has other purposes and plans for us.) Maybe today is like the calm before the storm. Yet, no matter what the Lord brings into my life I can rest in knowing that He is in control. In my life, the knowledge of God's sovereignty has been the greatest comfort for me. This is to say, an affirmation of God's sovereign and providential workings is much more than an abstract theological committment: it is also a constant source of hope. Isn't it wonderful to know that our Triune God works all things for our good according to his purpose, to praise of His name?

From Him, Through Him and To Him

Over the past week, I've been so encouraged and humbled as I've meditated on these verses from Romans 11. Indeed, we serve a great God!

"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (v.33-36).

Death, Funerals, and the Life to Come

Today, during a funeral service, I looked around and noticed that most of those in attendance were older. This can be expected when the one who has died was almost 103. As I sat among those people I thought about how the older a person gets, the more that death becomes a common reality. While death can come even to the young, it is certainly less common. Most of my friends (from high school and college) are still alive. Many of them are marrying and beginning new stages in life. Yet, for the aging, they live in a time in which their friends and family are not beginning new stages of life; rather, they are finishing life in this world. Yet, even in death, there is hope for those who are in Christ Jesus. The end of this life takes us to life unending. Oh, what joy awaits those who will see Him face to face!

**1 Corinthians 15:54-57 - "When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

**Romans 8:38-39 - For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Grace in Rags and Scarlet

"True love values grace in rags as well as in scarlet. A jewel is a jewel, though it lie in the dirt." -Matthew Henry

"Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be conceited" (Romans 12:16).