The Temptation Equation Revisted

Having spent 69 days trapped inside the San Jose mine in Chile before being rescued this week, Mario Sepulveda says, he is a changed man. “I buried 40 years of my life down there, and I’m going to live a lot longer to be a new person,” he said in a video conference hours after surfacing from half a mile underground.

During the time he was trapped inside the mine, Sepulveda said, he saw both good and evil.  “I was with God, and I was with the devil. They fought, and God won,” he said. Sepulveda said he grabbed God’s hand and never doubted that he would be rescued.

Those trapped in a Chilean mine for 69 days are not the only ones who are caught in the crossfire between good and evil.

Dr. D. Martyn Loyd-Jones, in his book on spiritual warfare, The Invisible War, warns, “Anyone who is not aware of a fight and a conflict in a spiritual sense is in a drugged and hazardous condition.”  

As we have seen over the last few weeks, every one of us has an adversary who has a diabolical plan for our lives. His primary goal is to rob you of eternal life by blinding you to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But if he can’t succeed in keeping you from trusting in Christ and escaping eternal separation from God in the next life, he wants to rob you of the benefits of following God in this life.    

His desire is to rob us of the joy that comes from being in fellowship with God, the fulfillment that comes from being used by God, and the eternal rewards that can be ours by obeying God. That is why Jesus described Satan as a thief who came to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).

Not only does Satan have a desire to ruin your life, but he has a strategy to accomplish that goal. Ephesians 6:11 says, “Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to withstand the schemes (methodia) of the devil.” You have an enemy who has a plan to destroy you.    

The first step in defeating the enemy’s plan is to recognize the specific strategy he is utilizing to distract you from your relationship with God.  

Last time, we began looking at Satan’s three-fold strategy to destroy your life.  

Strategy #1: Discourage you from worshipping God.  

Strategy #2: Distract you from serving God. 

Now, we are going to look at the third and most dangerous Strategy Satan uses in his plan to rob you of everything God desires for you. 

1. Strategy #3: Deceive You into Disobeying God

Discouragement and distraction represent equally lethal, but admittedly more subtle, tactics Satan utilizes to separate believers from God. But overt disobedience to God’s commands is Satan’s preferred objective because of the resulting spiritual fallout in the Christian’s life, as well as the disillusionment that such disobedience produces in others.  

For example, I imagine you can immediately think of a Christian you deeply respected who, without any apparent warning:

• Deserted his mate in the pursuit of someone more appealing
• Allowed the allure of money to trap him into some illegal scheme
• Became ensnared in pornography or sexual immorality

While such falls appear sudden, they rarely are. For example, consider a gigantic glacier that, without any apparent warning, becomes a tremendous avalanche, burying everything in its path. However, the avalanche is the result of a slow, imperceptible change in temperature and shifting of weight that goes unnoticed to the casual observer until it is too late.  

In the same way, most of us do not fall into sin without any warning. Overt disobedience is usually the cause of a gradual change in our spiritual temperature and a shift in our priorities that one day results in a catastrophic calamity. But there is also an external force at work against us. We have an opponent who is looking for the opportune time to push us over the edge when we are most vulnerable.  

Disobedience always leads to death—whether it is the death of our family, our reputation, our friendships, our dreams, or our relationship with God. James uses an analogy to describe Satan’s method of deception. To be “carried away” and “enticed” by our own lust is to be drawn toward a trap that is both appealing and lethal. The word picture James paints can also describe a fish that is so blinded by its own hunger that it snaps at the bait dangling in front of it without seeing the concealed hook that will destroy it. Satan, the expert hunter and the master fisherman, knows precisely how to draw us toward sin and destruction. 

2. The “Temptation Equation” Explained  (James 1:14)

Here’s a formula that will help you remember James’ insight about our enemy’s methodology: 

Corrupt Desires + Right Bait + Wrong Choice = Sin

Let’s look at each of these factors in the “temptation equation” more carefully.

• Corrupt Desires 

James’s phrase “carried away” means to be drawn by an inward power. Each of us possesses strong appetites that draw us toward the trap Satan has set for us or the bait he drops in front of us. Those cravings include an insatiable desire for recognition, emotional intimacy with others, sex, food, and clothing. 

It is important to understand that there is nothing wrong with any of these desires. They are part of our basic wiring installed by our Creator. The problem is that our natural desires have been corrupted since the first couple’s fall in the garden.  

Adam and Eve’s attempt to satisfy their natural desires in their own way, rather than God’s way, has now become a part of our basic DNA. We easily fall victim to the same lie that Satan used with Eve—“God’s commands are designed to rob you of what you really desire in life.”  

Having bought into Satan’s lie that God cannot be trusted to provide what we need and that we are responsible for our own well-being, we are perfectly set up for the next factor in the temptation equation. 

•  Right Bait

When James writes about our being “enticed” into temptation, he is using a fishing term that means “hooked.” Satan, an expert fisherman, knows what bait to dangle in front of us. We don’t all crave the same thing at the same time. Depending on our circumstances or season of life, we have varying appetites.  

For example:

• A rocky period in your marriage may cause you to crave sexual intimacy, so Satan dangles just the right “someone” into your life
• A missed promotion at work may cause you to hunger for recognition, so Satan dangles a possible job transfer that is outside of God’s will for your life 
• An unforeseen emergency may cause you to lose financial security, so Satan dangles a dishonest business deal

Like any good fisherman, Satan not only knows what bait to drop in front of us, but when to drop it. Unlike God, Satan is not omniscient (all-knowing). He can’t read our minds, but then again, he doesn’t need to. By carefully observing our life circumstances and studying our habits, he knows what bait to use and when to use it. 

• Wrong Choice

The third factor in the “temptation equation” is the most important, and the one over which we exercise the most control: our choice. Our corrupted desires are not our fault. We can thank Adam and Eve for passing those along to us. We have no ability to control the bait that Satan selects to drop in front of us. Unless we are willing to isolate ourselves from everyone and everything in life, some alluring enticement will eventually find its way into our lives. Remember, isolation did not prevent the Tempter from reaching Jesus.

However, we do have control over our response to Satan’s bait. Unfortunately, many Christians follow the advice of playwright Oscar Wilde concerning how to handle temptation: “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.” 

Tragically, too many Christians assume that because they still possess desires that are contrary to God’s will, they must yield to those desires. But Paul declares that the power of those desires (which he calls “the old self’) was crushed the moment we trusted in Christ as our Savior.  

Speaking of traps, don’t fall into the snare of equating temptation with failure. Some people mistakenly assume that craving something outside of God’s will is tantamount to sin, and they feel needlessly guilty and defeated. If temptation is a sin, then Jesus was the greatest sinner of all time since He endured the greatest temptations ever known to man! What proved Jesus to be the blameless Son of God was not the absence of temptation in His life, but the absence of yielding to those temptations.

During the 40 days Jesus spent atone in the wilderness, the devil pulled out every lure he had in his tackle box of temptations. Satan offered to satisfy the Lord’s intense hunger apart from God, but Jesus said no. Satan promised Jesus an opportunity to rule over the kingdoms of the world without the suffering of the cross, but Jesus refused. Satan presented to Jesus a way to have what He wanted now without having to wait on God’s timing, but Jesus would not give in.  “Yeah, but He was the Son of God. No wonder He had such will power!” we are tempted to think. 

But Paul’s central argument in Romans 6 is that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is now at work in your life, giving you the ability to say NO to every temptation Satan throws your way.  

You don’t have to become a casualty on the battlefield. You don’t have to be another notch on the enemy’s belt. You do have a choice. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” James promises (James 4:7).   

Full Passage: James 1:14