Though we regularly face temptation and though we sometimes succumb to temptation does not mean we are not in Christ or that Christ is not working in us. John Piper illustrates:
Suppose you are in a car race and your enemy, who doesn’t want you to finish the race, throws mud on your windshield. The fact that you temporarily lose sight of your goal and start to swerve, does not mean that you are going to quit the race. And it certainly doesn’t mean that you are on the wrong race track. Otherwise the enemy wouldn’t bother you at all. What it means is that you should turn on your windshield wipers and use your windshield washer.
When anxiety strikes and blurs our vision of God’s glory and the greatness of the future that he plans for us, this does not mean that we are faithless, or that we will not make it to heaven. It means our faith is being attacked. At first blow, our belief in God’s promises may sputter and swerve. But whether we stay on track and make it to the finish line depends on whether, by grace, we set in motion a process of resistance—whether we fight back against the unbelief of anxiety. Will we turn on the windshield wipers and will we use our windshield washer?
. . . The windshield wipers are the promises of God that clear away the mud of unbelief, and the windshield washer fluid is the help of the Holy Spirit. The battle to be freed from sin, as we have seen, is “by the Spirit and by faith in the truth” (2 Thess 2:13). The work of the Spirit and the Word of the truth. These are the great faith builders.
In fact, while Paul does not delineate all the provisions of God for those who face temptation, that God has provided us what we need to endure is sure, and the resources for battling temptations are plenty to enable the believer to thrive spiritually.
- God has given us all the spiritual blessings and resources we need to live faithfully to Him — blessings like regeneration, forgiveness, a new heart, and the Holy Spirit (with both His fruit and gifts).
- Our unity with Christ and His imputed righteousness enables us to do that which is righteous. Without union with Him, righteousness is impossible — it is impossible to please God. But conjoined to Him, we are able to please Him.
- The Scriptures inform our minds and direct our consciences so that we know what is righteous and how we can respond to temptation. The Bible is that which prepares us for every good work.
- We can run! The unbeliever is incapable of fleeing temptation; even his attempts at morality are at best done in self-righteousness and self-will and are rendered by God to be sin (because that morality is not done for the glory of God). However, the believer in Christ is capable of fleeing temptation (and flee he must).
- The body of Christ and all that comes through union with each other — fellowship and encouragement and exhortation and correction and accountability all serve as divine helps to avoiding temptation.
The believer is in a battle with the temptations of sin, but in His grace, God has given this and more so that in every circumstance every believer has everything he needs to flee from temptation.
Words of Grace 