Ourselves


 

There was something within the woman that Satan used against her. Each of us today is just as vulnerable to his deceptive tactics. By understanding this weakness within ourselves we will be much more prepared to defend against his attacks.

Our Vulnerability

Part 1: The Source of Temptation

On the surface, where temptation comes from may appear to be an easy question to answer. “Why Satan, of course” would undoubtedly be the answer many would give. Let’s see if Satan really is the source of the temptations we face today.

“Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is not tempted by evils, and He tempts no one. But each one is tempted by his lusts, being drawn away and seduced by them. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is fully formed, brings forth death.” (James 1:13-15, MKJV) James tells us the source of our temptation is our own lust. God does not possess evil desire (also known as lust), therefore cannot be tempted. The lust within each of us is the source of our temptation.

Part 2: The Source of Lust

Does our own lust being the source of temptation mean Satan has nothing at all to do with our temptations? We’ll answer that question next. Before we do, I need to make a point from the original language of the New Testament.

A concordance is a valuable tool to have in your study of the Bible. Strong’s concordance is probably the most widely-used concordance by students of the Bible today. It’s an impressive work. Every word in the Bible is listed alphabetically and by verse. Strong went a step further as he and his group compiled this work: they assigned a number to every Greek and Hebrew word used in the scriptures. These numbers can be extremely useful, and very enlightening, as one studies the scriptures. For example, it’s a well-known fact there are several Greek words translated “love” in the New Testament. One is agape, which was assigned the number 26 by Strong and his group. Another is phileo, number 5368 in his concordance. The words mean two entirely different things. When the Bible student sees the English word “love” and determines which Greek word is used in that verse, he or she gains a greater understanding of the message the Holy Spirit is sending to us. Without knowing which Greek word was used in a particular verse one could easily misunderstand what is being said.

There’s another source of potential confusion (or at least an incomplete understanding) in the English translations of the Bible that can be resolved by the use of the numbers in Strong’s concordance. The translators of these versions frequently used two or more different English words to translate the same Greek word. A student using an English translation could easily misunderstand the meaning of a passage, or fail to connect two related passages together, because in his or her mind the two different words have different meanings. In our current examination of the source of lust we have such a situation. With that point being made let’s return to our study of the source of lust.

As you recall, James states each man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust. The Greek word translated “lust” is epithumia. In the King James Version of the Bible, epithumia is used 38 times and is translated using five different words: lust, lusts, concupiscence, desire and desired. Let’s look at a verse using one of these other words as we seek to understand the source of lust.

“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.” (Romans 7:7-8) In these two verses we have a prime example of the incomplete understanding that can easily result when one uses the KJV by itself. (This is not limited to the KJV. Each version has its own examples of similar translation issues.) Epithumia is used twice in these two verses, and is translated using two different words: lust and concupiscence! If one was not diligent in their effort to understand the meaning of “concupiscence” one could easily miss the full meaning of Paul’s statement. In Romans 7:8 Paul tells us the source of lust, but one could easily miss it if one didn’t understand that concupiscence and lust are the same thing. The source of lust is sin.

There’s another word we need to consider in Romans 7:8. That word is “occasion”. In the original language the word is aphorme. Aphorme means “a starting point”, and was used to denote “a base of operations in war.” Paul goes on to say sin was dead before the commandment came. When the commandment came, sin sprang to life, established a base of operations in the war against his soul, and began issuing orders from this base of operations. The orders sin issued were in the form of lust. In Romans 7:7 Paul uses the example of covetousness. He says we know lust (covetousness) because the law said “thou shalt not covet”. When God gave that commandment, sin sprang to life and put within our hearts the lust for things of this world.

Next, let’s go back to James 1 for a moment. Here again are verses 14 and 15: “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” According to James, lust has something to do with sin. But it’s not lust by itself: lust must conceive before sin is brought forth. The word translated “conceive” in the Greek means just what we’d think it means in English. Two different things join together to give birth to something new. Lust must join together with something else before sin is born. What is that second necessary thing? Action. Lust joined together with action gives birth to sin. When sin is finished, death results.

Let’s consider Satan’s temptation of Eve as we apply what we’ve learned so far. The tree of knowledge of good and evil was created on the third day of creation. It co-existed with Adam and Eve for an unknown period of time. Neither was aware this tree was any different than any other fruit-bearing tree in the garden. One day God gave Adam a commandment: you cannot eat the fruit of this tree without suffering the consequence of death. When that commandment came, sin sprang to life, set up a base of operations in the war against Eve’s soul, and began issuing orders from its command post. These orders were in the form of evil desires (lust): “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5) Eve was tempted by the desire to have her eyes opened, thereby knowing good and evil. She acted on her lust by eating the fruit, sin was conceived and she died. She took the fruit to her husband, he acted on his lust and died as well. Just as Paul said in Romans 7:9, before the commandment came they both were alive and sin was dead. When the commandment came, sin sprang to life and they both died. As we learned in James, their deaths were a result of acting on lust and giving birth to sin.

Part 3: Sin

Romans 7 and James 1

We now know from James 1:14 that the source of temptation is our own lust, and from Romans 7:8 the source of lust is sin. Since both James and Paul write about lust (epithumia), let’s put together what they each said about lust. Paul said sin produces (“worketh”) lust, and James said sin is born when lust and action have conceived. If you’re like I was the first time I thought about this you’re scratching your head in confusion about now. According to Paul, lust comes from sin. This must mean sin comes before lust. However, James teaches that sin isn’t born until lust and action have joined together to conceive sin. This must mean sin comes after lust. But how can something not yet conceived produce something necessary for its own conception? Let me ask a question that may make this easier to understand. Every day thousands of male children are born. Is it possible any one of those infants produced the sperm required for his own conception? It’s not possible, is it. If the sin spoken of by Paul and by James is the same thing, that’s exactly what must have happened. The sin not yet conceived must have produced the lust that was required for its own conception. It’s not possible. That must mean the sin Paul speaks of is different than the sin spoken of by James.

“Satan’s General”: The Force of Sin

The sin spoken of by Paul is a force, not an action. I call this force “Satan’s General”. As we learned earlier, when God gave the commandment the force of sin sprang to life in Paul’s life and began issuing orders from its military command post. The orders Satan’s General issued were in the form of evil desires (concupiscence, or lust). Paul eventually acted on one or more of these evil desires and died a spiritual death, just as Adam and Eve died when they ate of the forbidden fruit.

In verses ten and eleven of the seventh chapter of Romans Paul tells us something more about the force of sin: “And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” In verse eleven the inspired apostle continues his thoughts on the military command post established by the force of sin. In verse eight he tells us of the evil desires the force of sin ordered from its military headquarters. In verse eleven he tells us more about these evil desires: they deceived him. There’s that always-negative word we considered at the opening of this study. The Greek word exapatao is translated “deceive” in verse eleven, and is used four other times in the New Testament. Deceive, deceived and beguiled are the three English words used to translate exapatao. In one of these verses Paul uses Satan’s deception of Eve to make his point about the possibility of one being corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3) We’ll look at this verse in more detail as we apply what we’ve learned later in this study.

The apostle is not yet finished with Satan’s General. So far we know the force of sin was dead until God gave His commandment. After springing to life it began issuing orders from its military command post. These evil desires deceived Paul and resulted in his spiritual death. Consider again Paul’s teaching in Romans 7:11: “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” (emphasis mine) Paul blames the force of sin for his spiritual death! But it wasn’t enough for Satan’s General to kill Paul, it used the commandment given by God to kill him! Not only is the force of sin a spiritual murderer, it uses the very word of God as its instrument of death.

One might mistakenly think it would have been better for mankind had God never given him any commandments to obey. After all, Satan’s General springs to life when the commandment comes, then uses that very commandment to kill us. If there was never a commandment there would never be spiritual death. But we cannot ignore what Paul said about the commandment in Romans 7:10: “And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.” In verse twelve of the same chapter he says, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” The commandment of God is not evil. The abuse of His commandment is evil! The Bible tells us precisely why God gave His commandment: “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” (Galatians 3:19) Before God gave His commandment people were acting contrary to His will. But, they didn’t know any better. Because of these transgressions God gave His commandment, telling us how He expects us to behave. God did not hold men accountable for the sins (actions contrary to the will of God) they committed prior to the time He gave His commandment: “For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” (Romans 5:13) However, once His commandment was given He expected men to abide by it. When they didn’t, He held them accountable.

It would have been bad had Satan’s General used an evil instrument to kill us. But it didn’t. It used something holy, just and good as its instrument of our death. In Romans 7 Paul doesn’t ignore this point. “Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” (Romans 7:13) “That which is good” spoken of by Paul is the commandment of God. When he asks “Was then that which is good made death unto me?” he answers his own question with the emphatic statement “May it never be!” (translated “God forbid”). May we never consider the commandment of God as death unto us simply because Satan’s General uses it to deceive us and kill us. The commandment is holy, just and good. Satan’s abuse of it is wicked.

Think carefully about Paul’s next statement in verse thirteen: “But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good”. We can identify Satan’s General at work. All we have to do is compare the word of God to the words being spoken by men. When we see a change in the consequence of disobedience to the commandment of God, or an explanation for why God doesn’t mean what it appears He means, we are seeing the force of sin working death in us by that which is good. When we choose to be deceived by these words, Satan’s General succeeds in causing our spiritual death by the commandment of God.

Let’s close this section on the force of sin by considering the final phrase in Romans 7:13: “that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” As we’ve already determined it would have been bad if Satan’s General chose to use something evil to kill us. But it didn’t: it uses the commandment of God, that which is holy, just and good. Because of this, Satan’s General isn’t just sinful, it’s exceeding sinful. For Satan’s General, it wasn’t good enough to use something bad as the instrument of our death. Its choice of something good reveals it as being sinful beyond measure.

I realize this section has been a long one. But I felt it was necessary to go into some detail as to how the force of sin works in our lives. God’s holy, just and good commandment is abused by Satan’s General. However, we are responsible for identifying its abuse and rejecting the deception of the force of sin. When we succumb to its deception it has succeeded in murdering our souls. The blame for our deaths lies with the force of sin, but we are not innocent. We chose to be deceived and are guilty of the act of sin.

James 1: The Act of Sin

The sin spoken of by James is the product of lust joined with action. When this sin is conceived it leads to death. This is what we commonly think of when we think of sin. Adam and Eve died a spiritual death when this sin was conceived. From the time God commanded them not to eat until the moment they actually ate, the force of sin was alive and working within them but they had not yet died. The act of sin was conceived the instant they acted on their evil desire and ate the fruit. At that moment they died a spiritual death.

Is Satan Involved in our Temptation?

We now can answer our question. Satan has much to do with our temptations. The force of sin serves Satan. That’s why I call it “Satan's General”. This force works within us, producing lust. The lust within each of us is the source of our temptations. Therefore, Satan is the ultimate source of the temptations each of us experiences. The force of sin isn’t Satan himself. This force is dead until God’s commandment comes, but Satan wasn’t dead prior to God’s commandment to Adam. The force of sin serves Satan once it springs to life, which doesn’t happen prior to the coming of God’s commandments.

It’s very important we understand the differences between the force of sin and the act of sin. I’ll close this study with several examples, which I believe will help clarify the relationship between them.

Ourselves: Summary

You now know the vulnerability within you that Satan attacks in his war for your soul. Once you were old enough to understand God’s commandments the force of sin sprang to life and began planting evil desires in your heart. These evil desires serve as the source of your temptations. When you give in to temptation and join your lust with action you commit the act of sin and die a spiritual death. Next, let’s consider Satan’s temptation of Jesus, specifically looking for his use of these deceptive tactics we’ve studied.


 

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