WHAT WE BELIEVE AND TEACH ABOUT TEMPTATION

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried (Lit: When he has stood the test) he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." James 1:12.

We, the Holiness People, have no illusions about the fact of temptation. To us, as to others, it is intensely real; more real, we feel, than to those who do not know this grace of entire sanctification.

Some there are who have sought to combat this truth of sin's destruction, mistakenly contending that if all sin were destroyed within the soul, actual temptation would be impossible since there would be no ground of appeal in which the tempter could find response. Such reasoning, however, we deem to be fallacious, and that for the following reasons:

First, it is contrary to reported instances of temptation as found in the Word of God. Our first parents, in their original innocency, knew the keenness of temptation, and yielding, they fell.

Scholars of more liberal thought have explained, to their own satisfaction, the origin of what the Conservatives designate as man's fallen condition, insisting whatever corruption -- the Conservatives may be pleased to term it -- may be found in man's nature, is there, not by reason of one supposed Garden of Eden incident, but as inherited from an animal ancestry; and consequently has been within him from the beginning of his evolutionary process. Suffice it to say that teaching such as this is believed by the Holiness People to be distinctly repudiated by the Word of God which we insist sets forth man as a separate creation, fresh from the Divine hand.

It was to creatures made in the Divine image and after the Divine likeness that the tempter presented his wiles and uttered his deceits. Within them was nothing but the nature with which the Divine hand had endowed them; no sinful nature to respond. Yet there was something within them which did respond, for they yielded to the tempter, and yielding, they fell. That tragic response brought the sentence of death both to them and on the entire human race of which they were the representatives.

Our Lord Himself, who was God manifest in the flesh, also knew the sting of temptation, but facing it, He stood firm, and conquered. Concerning His temptation, the historic record is clear:

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." Matt. 4:1.

Nor does this plain historic statement stand alone, for immediately there accompanies it the record of the Satanic method of its presentation. Some have gone so far as to question its reality, making it a sort of display or exhibition rather than the stark realistic thing which the Scriptures make it appear. This, however, is answered in advance by the Holy Spirit through the writer to the Hebrews who distinctly states concerning the tempted Christ:

"He . . . suffered being tempted." Heb. 2:18.

"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Heb. 4:15.

In both these cases -- our tempted first parents and the tempted Christ -- it is evident that the temptation was indisputably real, yet within neither of them when the tempter approached was there sin to which he might direct his appeal.

Second, it is contrary to the plain teaching as to the nature of temptation as found in the Word of God.

Returning again to those two classical temptation incidents, it is natural to inquire as to the ground of temptation's appeal. If not an existing sinful nature, what was it? The answer is simple; it was the plain fact of a human constitution -- nothing more and nothing less -- which man was Divinely endowed, and which the Son of Man assumed.

"And God said, Let us make man... so God created man... man and female created he them." Gen. 1:26, 27.

"And the Word was made flesh . . ." John 1:14.

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same." Heb. 2:14.

". .. was tempted in all points like as we are. Heb. 4:15.

The ground for temptation's appeal is just the legitimate human tendencies and desires attacked, sometimes by shock tactics and sometimes in more subtle manner as the Scripture record of temptations will show. The appeal itself is to use these God-given faculties and appetites in illegitimate ways and to selfish ends -- to find satisfaction outside the orbit of God's will for them.

Consider carefully both the temptations to which we have already referred, and who will assert that either of the two grounds into which the tempter sought to cast evil seed had anything wrong in itself? Was it not in the case of our first parents, the fact of their wills being brought into action consenting and gearing to the Satanic propaganda, while, in the case of Jesus, His will was geared to resist it.

Why then should the critics so continually insist on the necessity of the sinful nature in order to make temptation real? Just plain humanity and a tempting devil is all they need.

Third, it is contrary to the promises given to the tempted soul as found in the Word of God. One out of many will suffice:

"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 ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." I Cor. 10:13.

As long as life lasts, temptations will continue. Only as we pass into heaven itself will they cease.