God does not tempt His people. We know this for certain because James 1 says, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” All the same, Jesus encourages us to pray, “And lead us not into temptation.”
As true as it is that God does not tempt, it is likewise true that mankind is sinful. While those who accept the new covenant in Christ are justified before God because of Jesus’ work on the cross for us, and while we are sanctified by the Spirit’s presence in our lives, we yet live in fallen human flesh on this side of the resurrection. Consequently, there are still all-too-human tendencies and habits that every child of God leans into that dishonour His Name. Some are ingrained habits that we know are wrong but find very difficult to break. We call those ‘besetting sins’. Others we are ignorant of, though we commit them regularly. Like a subtle dependence on our own righteousness (instead of His), they are invisible to both us and those around us. Yet all of them are personal impurities that God would have us set free of.
There is only one way to get rid of such impurities – we must find them out and ask God to put them under the blood of Christ, washing them away forever. The strategy for dealing with them is straightforward. The challenge is finding them out that we might effect the strategy. This we do either by ourselves in the presence of God (often in a time of prolonged prayer). Or we wait till the impurity inevitably is brought to light by trial.
Obviously the first is the better course of action. Waiting for a trial – a testing of our faith – is not the wisest course of action. Both because they are difficult to endure and because trials are always in sight of other created beings. But our impurity will be brought to light nevertheless. God will not suffer forever our willful ignorance and inattention. Christ will make His bride the Church ready, even if it means bringing us through difficult and stressful situations. All must be made pure. The sanctified must be thoroughly sanctified.
Jesus the Son of God, sanctified by the Spirit already upon Him at His baptism, “was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” The Spirit led Him into the desert, where He fasted for 40 days and nights and then was tempted by the devil. Jesus endured both a long introspection before God and a severe trial. A most harsh and thorough trial it was too, to be in direct confrontation with the most vile and deceptive of spirits.
Yet Jesus persevered and was proven blameless throughout both His prolonged fasting and His trial. There were no points of impurity brought to the surface in either, for He had none. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He endured it all in willful submission, that He might be tested as all flesh is tested.
Galatians 3:26 says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” We are God’s children by faith, and God our Father will have us cleansed of all impurity that we might stand before Him and walk with Him in perfect fellowship for eternity to come. Yet we know we are full of impurities, so it is far better for us to ask Him to not lead us into temptation. We can instead prayerfully ask Him to search us by His Spirit (who searches all things, even the deep things of God) in gentleness and grace. That we might be shown whatever impurity lies deep within. So that we might confess it to Him, so that He might put it away from us forever by the blood Jesus shed for us on the cross.
Amen.
We Christians must look sharp that our Christianity does not simply refine our sins without removing them.
A.W. Tozer
APPLICATION: Intentionality
Plan a spiritual retreat to spend time in reflection before God. Ask the Spirit to search you thoroughly. Confess any revealed sin to God. Thank Him for His gift of refinement.