FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
DIVINE GRACE & POWER TO RESIST SATAN AND OVERCOME SIN
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” 1 Cor. 10 :13, KJV.
Christians often say, “God is good. He is faithful.” How faithful and good? Here Paul reveals that specifically regarding TEMPTATION, which any and all true Christians are never totally above or immune to, while yet in the sinful mortal flesh this side of the resurrection morning, that God “is faithful,” not because He will remove or “desensitize” us against any and all temptations but because He “will NOT ALLOW us to be tempted” beyond our individual capacity to resist it.
He knows exactly each individual’s absolute limits, “even the number of our hair.” He is a personal Savior, a personal Friend. And because man was made a free moral agent with a will as the governing power in our nature, ultimate salvation is individual.
Moreover, God in Christ’s faithfulness is made even greater in that He faithfully provides, in the very temptation itself that He allows (to serve a high and holy purpose) to come upon His people, “a way to escape” from yielding to it, each and every time, without fail!
And each successful episode is a building block laid down in the image-template of a moral character being formed and perfected for eternity!
Hereunder explains how this “way to escape” temptation works:
“Will man take hold of divine power, and with determination and perseverance resist Satan, as Christ had given him example in His conflict with the foe in the Wilderness of temptation? [See Matt. 4: -11].
God cannot save man AGAINST HIS WILL from the power of Satan’s artifices [unnumbered schemes, hypnotizing fantasies, alternate facts, truths, and “illuminating”
conspiracy theories, fanaticism, spiritualism, etc.].
“Men must work with his human power [see Phil. 2:12, 13], AIDED BY THE DIVINE POWER of Christ, to RESIST and CONQUER at any cost to himself [substance of true self-denial and self-sacrifice]
“And then, through the victory that it is his PRIVILEGE to gain by the all-powerful name of Jesus, he become an HEIR of God and JOINT-HEIR with Jesus Christ. This could not be the case if CHRIST ALONE did all the overcoming.
“Man must DO HIS part; he must be victor on HIS own account, through the STRENGTH AND GRACE that Christ gives [if desired and sought by fasting and prayer].
Man must be a CO-WORKER with Christ in the labor of overcoming.” [Spiritual victory is a result of human effort aided by divine power and grace].
“The victims of evil habits must be aroused [spiritual resurrection] to the NECESSITY of making an effort for themselves. OTHERS may put forth the most earnest endeavor to uplift them, the GRACE of God may be freely offered, CHRIST may entreat [through the ‘still small voice’ of the Holy Spirit]. His ANGELS may minister; but all will be IN VAIN unless they themselves must be roused TO FIGHT THE BATTLES ON THEIR BEHALF.” – E. G. White, This Day with God, p. 254. Bless all, NMF
