Does God Ever Bring Temptation?

Biblegems #275

Question: Why are we are instructed to pray: “lead us not into temptation”? Does God ever lead people into temptation so that we need to ask Him not to?

“Lead us not into temptation” is part of the Lord’s Prayer, found in Matthew 6:13 and Luke 11:4 (a shorter version). The answer to the question is found both in the word translated “temptation” and in the remainder of the sentence in Matthew 6:13—“but deliver us from evil.”

The word peirasmos in the Greek New Testament translated into English as “temptation” actually means “testing,” or “trial”—in the sense of difficult circumstances.[i] This unfortunate error in translation shows up in the earliest English translations of the Bible, and seems to be perpetuated now mostly because of its familiarity. This is a classic example of the truth that God’s Word is inerrant; translators and translations are not.

Nevertheless, the practice of sound biblical interpretation makes Jesus’ meaning clear even where the translation muddies the waters a bit. We know from the clear teaching of Scripture as a whole that God never tempts anyone to sin:

         James 1:13-14 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.

James uses the same word translated “tempted” as Jesus does in the Lord’s Prayer. James, however, qualifies the word to indicate trials arising from one’s own “evil desires.”

From beginning to end, the Lord’s Prayer is a brief and practical guideline on how to pray effectively. “Lead us not into testing” recognizes on the one hand that life is full of difficult circumstances that God will use to test our spiritual development:

         1Cor. 10:13 No temptation [trial / testing] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted [tried / tested] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted [tried / tested], he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

On the other hand, while such trials in life are to be accepted when they come with a joy in knowing that God will strengthen us through them (James 1:2), we do not need to seek them out. Asking God, “lead me not into temptation [testing]” is tantamount to praying, “Lord, please teach me what You want me to learn through some other means, if possible.”

The remainder of the sentence in Matthew 6:13—“but deliver us from evil”—likewise recognizes that evil surrounds us and is often thrust upon us. Praying for God’s deliverance at such times is not only acceptable; it is God’s will!

         Eph. 6:16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

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[i] “The word peirasmos (“temptation”) and its cognate noun rarely if ever before the NT mean “temptation” in the sense of “enticement to sin” (whether from inward lust or outward circumstances) but rather “testing” (cf. also on 4:1-12).” —Comment on Matthew 6:13: EBC, In Loc.

Who “Will Never See Death”?

Biblegems #271

Question: In John 8:51 Jesus says: "... if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." Jesus must mean something other than death literally, so why doesn’t He just say what He means, or else explain why He uses “death” figuratively?

Jesus is not using the word “death” figuratively. Rather, He redefines the word to help us see what death really is, from God’s perspective, as opposed to the distorted human understanding of death. To do so He still uses our common vocabulary, yet reinterprets the term by applying it differently.

For example, a carpenter points to an assortment of lumber stacked in piles according to their relative size (2” X 4”, 1” X 3”, 4’ X 8’) and tells his newbie apprentice to go get a full sheet. The apprentice does not know that a “full sheet” refers to standard 4’ X 8’ plywood. Once the carpenter clears up the confusion, the apprentice has a new frame of reference for the word “sheet.”

From the human point of view, “death” typically means that a living biological organism as ceased to function. Since it no longer lives biologically, we say it has died. Interestingly, we can also say that something non-biological has died, such as a microwave oven or an automobile, and expect that others will understand. The way we use the term changes the meaning without requiring further explanation.

Jesus frequently re-defined the meaning of death. Whereas we see biological death as the cessation of life, Jesus treated death as a transitional stage of life, not unlike transitioning from sleeping to waking—a transition he had control over:

Mark 5:39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.”

        

We see death as a state from which there is no return, once decay has set in.  For Jesus, death is not biologically defined. From God’s point of view, once human life has begun it exists eternally. Biological death is an anomaly—an abnormality in God’s created universe brought about by sin:

         Rom. 5:12  …sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people…

Sin not only introduced death to the human experience, but it also traps humanity into an eternal existence cut off from God, who is the author of life.  To correct this, God entered the human race as a sinless human being to rescue us and restore us to eternal life in His presence. This is why Jesus said to Mary, Lazarus’ sister, outside the tomb of her dead brother four days after his internment,

John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

And then—

         John 11:43-46  …Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

Was Jesus The First To Rise From The Dead?

Biblegems #263

Question: Why do some New Testament passages say Jesus was the first to rise from the dead when the Bible contains several accounts of others who were raised from the dead?

The apostle Paul explains in Acts how Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection fulfilled Old Testament prophecies:

Acts 26:23 “…that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”

Paul was not ignorant of such miracles as Elijah and his protégé Elisha raising a child from death back to life (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:32-35). And he would have known how Jesus raised people from death to life, such as the raising of Lazarus, who had been entombed for three days (Jn. 11:38-45).

Why then does the New Testament refer to Jesus as “the firstborn from the dead” (Rev. 1:5)?

The answer lies in the uniqueness of Jesus’ resurrection.

Those raised from the dead in the Bible eventually died again. In that respect the Bible revealed ages ago what medical science would later confirm—reviving a person who has died is indeed possible. Beyond that, these miracles also foreshadowed Jesus’ resurrection, which would open the door for humanity to pass from death to eternal life, from mortality to immortality.

This seeming impossibility is made possible by one significant fact: death was not part of God’s original design in creation, but exists as the direct result of Adam and Eve intentionally breaking away from God’s design. That rebellious act fractured a universe once free of death and decay and launched the entire created order into an inescapable whirlpool of destruction. Imagine the entire universe existing in a state of perfect peace, like water in a bathtub—and someone opens the drain! At that moment, all the known “laws” of the physical universe would seem to be dramatically altered as the universe heads inexorably down the drain.  

The Bible calls Adam and Eve’s destructive act “sin.”

         Rom. 5:12  Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned…

To rectify this, God entered His creation as a human (Jesus), to ‘plug the hole’ with the sacrifice His own life and ‘refill the tub’ back to a place of order and peace. Because Jesus was sinless, death had no lasting power over Him:

Rom. 6:9-10 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  

Jesus’ entrance into the world was like the plug in God’s hand, plunging down through the swirling water of sin, destruction and death to stop up the drain. Believers in Jesus latch onto Him to escape being flushed into the septic tank the Bible calls hell. By latching onto Jesus we also latch onto the eternal life He has come to restore: 

1Cor. 15:21  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.