Where does temptation come from?

Photo by Bryan Garces on Unsplash

In this article, accompanied by a video podcast, we return to James, which I have been talking about for a while.

The last time we were in James together we were talking about the difference between tempting and testing and how God does not actually tempt us, but he does test us.

This previous section immediately leads to the question, where then does temptation come from?

Here are the verses we are focusing on:

And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, God is tempting me. God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions, and when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death” (James 1:10-15, NLT).

There’s a lot of controversy amongst Christians about our exact relationship to sin as Christians.

I believe that there are two things which are true. The first is that we do have a new nature. I’m not denying that in any way. I recently saw somebody online who was almost suggesting that because we have a new nature, that we no longer have an old nature, a sinful nature, if you like. The Christian, according to this view has a new heart which desires to follow God and live rightly. According to some this means we no longer desire to sin any more, and so we can trust our own hearts.

Whilst there’s an element of truth in that, of course there is, It does leave us open to deception. There’s no other word for it.

It is lovely to think that our hearts are now pure and undivided, but these verses suggest otherwise, as does our normal human experience.

One of the implications of this idea that Christians are somehow immune from temptation is that, particularly if you’re a mature Christian, that you can get to a point, not of sinless perfection, which I think most of us would agree is not going to happen in this world, but a state where sin no longer draws us the way it used to do.

Now, this all sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? But what it means is we put people who we think are mature on a pedestal and look up to them. We select people S leaders who are, let’s be honest, better at hiding their weaknesses than us. The truth is all Christians struggle with weaknesses and a divided heart,

Part of human life is that there are two types of problems we have to deal with. One is that we are tested, as we’ve spoken about a bit before, through suffering and the frailties of human nature.

But the other type of challenge is that we are tempted. We often blame the devil for temptation. We say, oh, he led me to it. In this we are no different to Eve who blamed the snake for her sin.

But some of us, at least in James’s time anyway, seem to blame God, I don’t hear too many Christians directly blaming God for temptation today. But there is a way in which we do indirectly blame God. It goes something like this. We believe that God is sovereign over everything. And therefore, the logic goes, if I make a choice to sin, then He is somehow the author of that.

But the Bible is very clear. God is not the author of sin. It is true, however, that God can turn even our sinful acts around for good. There’s no question about that.

Sometimes our situation is like Joseph when he interacted with his brothers years after they sold him into slavery. His brothers thought, oh my gosh, Joseph is finally going to get his own back on us now that dad is dead. But he said, look, you meant this for my harm. There’s no question about that. This was a sinful act. It was against God’s rules and it nearly killed me. I’m paraphrasing there. But he goes on, God meant it for my good.

What does all that mean? I think that God is a bit like some kind of cosmic chess player who knows exactly what everyone’s moves are going to be. Sometimes chess masters take on 20, 30 people all at once and they’ll move around the boards and remember somehow in their head what’s going on and what their plans are on each board. I believe God’s like that on a cosmic scale. But we are actors in all that. And, yes, the devil is an actor in that. But the choices that we make, they can’t ever frustrate God’s plans because he knows in advance. He might look like He’s going a queen down sometimes in our lives. But he will always turn it around for our good.

That’s what Romans 8 tells us. In all things, God’s works together for the good. And so, yes, that can even include our sin, which is quite a weird way of thinking. But we don’t want to take it too far. Because there is this sense in which some people believe that sin is somehow part of God’s best plan for our life. I would say it never is.

The verses we read say that God is not tempted by evil and he does not tempt anyone by evil. So don’t think that God is testing you when what you really mean is that you’re being tempted. These verses answer that question as to whether or not Christians still have a sinful heart. So the second thing that is true is we do still have sinful desires,

David said, create in me a pure heart. But he said that because he knew that inside of him, there was still desire after things that were not good. We’re like a split personality, if you like. You sometimes in psychiatry hear of people who present with two or more personalities. It’s a very rare condition. I don’t think I ever treated somebody when I was a psychiatrist who had this. But I think we’re a bit like that. At least I am.

Inside of me there is a a person who loves Jesus, there is a heart that wants to follow Him, that wants to obey him, that wants to do what He wants me to do, that wishes I spent more time with him. But then there’s also a part of me that is constantly drawing me away.

That is what these verses said, with your own desires, you’re ensnared. It could be said that you’re deceived. Inside of us, there really is an inner traitor. This is another verse in the New Testament that supports Jeremiah 17: 9 in the Old Testament which says the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

Unfortunately, until we get to heaven, our hearts will not be completely cured. As a result that “holy” person that you admire as this great leader, understand that they do also still have a sinful heart. Just like you they can be tempted and they can be turned away and they can let you down in a huge way.

Unfortunately, my generation have seen many that have been thought to be great men of God fall in quite dramatic ways. I think this is one of the reasons. We expect too much. We expect perfection and it’s never going to happen. Or at least, not in this life.

As a result of that, often we let our guard down. We think to ourselves, “I could never do that” when we consider other people’s sin. But there is a frequent saying “inside you is the seed of every sin.” This idea has a rich heritage in Christian writing.

Ryle “The seeds of every sin are latent in our hearts, even when renewed, and they only need occasion, or carelessness and the withdrawal of God’s grace for a season, to put forth an abundant crop. Like Peter, we think we can do wonders for Christ, and like Peter, we learn by bitter experience that we have no might and power at all. A humble sense of our own innate weakness, a constant dependency on the Strong for strength, a daily prayer to be held up, because we cannot hold up ourselves—these are the true secrets of safety.”¹

Others have said similar things previously:

Usher “For though all are alike disposed unto all manner of evil, (Rom. 7:14.) having in their corrupt Nature the Seeds of every Sin; yet God, for the good of civilized Society, restrains many from notorious crimes, through fear of shame and punishment, or desire for honor and reward.”²

Spurgeon also warns us strongly of the folly of thinking we have no sin:

“The idea of having no sin is a delusion. You are altogether deceived if you say this is the case. The truth is not in you, and you have not seen things in the true light. You must have shut your eyes to the high requirements of the law, you must be a stranger to your own heart, you must be blind to your own behavior every day.

You must have forgotten to search your thoughts and to weigh your motives, or you would have detected the presence of sin. He who cannot find water in the sea is no more foolish than the person who cannot recognize sin in their earthly body. As the salt flavours every drop of the Atlantic, so sin affects every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it you are deceived.

This self-deceit has taken you a good deal of persuading and ingenious trickery. To deceive another requires a measure of cunning, but to deceive yourself needs far more. Our deceitful heart reveals an almost Satanic shrewdness in self-deception. It readily makes the worse argument appear to be the better one, and it states a lie in a way that it disguised as truth.

If you say you have no sin you have achieved a fearful “success.” You have blinded your own eyes, and perverted your own reason! You have fed upon falsehood till it has entered into your very being, and made you incapable of truth.

I know you claim to be very sincere in your belief of your own rightness, and it would be very hard to persuade you out of your optimistic ideas. But this is all the worse, because you have so completely deceived yourself. Now that you call darkness light, and boast that your blindness is true sight, we mourn over you as all but hopeless. We fear in case the Lord should leave you to perish, because you cling so strongly to a lie.”³

These are hard words. But if you genuinely believe you are without sin, I urge you to pray that God himself will open your eyes so you can see that truly you are not superior to other people.

Jesus had strong words for the most religious people of his era, the Pharisees. In a parable he criticized their sense of self-righteousness:

“The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.”

Jesus condemned this attitude, but honored the attitude of the tax collector who prayed a very different prayer:

“The tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’” (Luke 18:9-14, NIV).

The true Christian knows that it is only the grace of God that stops them from committing any sin. The great revivalist preacher, George Whitefield was under no illusion about his own sinful nature:

“Whatever others may see in themselves I know not; this one thing I know, I see nothing but hell in my soul.”⁴

By the grace of God, I could have done any evil thing that anyone else has gone. Maybe I had a better upbringing and background than them. Maybe my body wasn’t born with certain genes that they have. But, I must not look down on anyone else.

In case you think Spurgeon was being a bit excessive earlier I will end with some verses which essentially say the same thing. But they also ensure that we do not allow ourselves to get trapped in fear and condemnation as a result of the recognition that we still have to battle sin as Christians:

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10, NIV).

Read More

Am I The Worst Sinner In The World?

1. Ryle, J. C. (1880) Expository Thoughts on John, vol. 3. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers.

2. Usher, J. (1702) A Body of Divinity: Or, the Sum and Substance of Christian Religion. Eighth Edition. London: R. J.; Jonathan Robinson; A. and J. Churchill; J. Taylor; J. Wyatt, pp. 194–195. Lightly updated into modern English.

3. Spurgeon, C.H. (1875) “Honest Dealing with God,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons. London: Passmore & Alabaster, p. 365.

4. Billingsley, A.S. (1878) The Life of the Great Preacher, Reverend George Whitefield. Philadelphia; Chicago: P. W. Ziegler & Co., Publishers, p. 127.