Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers.

Prolonged trials will always lead to despair and sin if we fail to trust God.

The moral drama here gets to the core of human existence. Notice that the passage says that Eve saw the fruit as “desirable for gaining wisdom.” Satan was not just selling Eve the best fruit in the garden, but something more fundamentally appealing. He was telling Eve that if she ate the fruit, she would be independently wise. The promise was auton

Three powerful temptations, however, threaten us. Each, in its own way, screams: “God’s love for you will never be enough! You are not lovable. You are not good enough.”

competing lures that tempt us and distract us from God’s lure, the consequences of our choices on others and ourselves—these remain sources of suffering and evil: the