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Christian Network

"My identity is in Christ, not in my temptations."

-Unknown

When fighting temptation it is vital for us to believe our deepest self is hidden in God. Many believers fear that the desire to do evil is indicative of an unredeemed heart. It is true that if someone consciously desires to sin and actively pursues opportunities to do so without any sense of remorse it is very questionable whether they are a Christian at all. But this is not the condition of which I speak. I refer to the desire for wrong things that every believer must grapple with and overcome on a daily basis. Scripture is clear that temptations will come to all of us who walk in the path of Christ. We need to have right knowledge about who we truly are if we are to avoid the trap of identifying ourselves with our temptations.

There are times in the life of a Christian when a certain sin pulls us so powerfully it feels as if that sin is the most important thing in the world. Even if resistance is successful in the moment there is a dismaying sense that we have somehow become ultimately identified by sin in question. This is particularly true if the transgression is one we fall into again and again, a so-called "besetting sin", and if it is related to a legitimate desire that our Lord has not willed to fulfill at this time in our lives. Sometimes the desire is so great for the thing in question that it seems to define who we are. At the same time the enticement to wrongly "dig our own wells" also seems to have less to do with what we want and more to do with who we are. But this is not true for the child of God, even one who seems to be fighting a losing battle against temptation.

If we have truly come to know and love the Lamb of God we are no longer sinners in the sense that our sin is all we are. On the contrary "There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." We have been washed clean by the blood of Christ and each time we fall we can return to Him and ask for His blood to cleanse us once more. When our Lord was asked how many times we should forgive one another He told His disciples seven times seventy-seven times, which was symbolic of an infinite number of times. God does not expect us to do for others what He, Himself, is unwilling to do for us. Repentance in the life of a believer is an ongoing process. Positionally, we become perfect in Christ at the instant of our conversion. This is then worked out temporally in the process of sanctification. Part of this process is the gradual weeding out of sin in the believer’s life over time.

During this time temptation, even temptation that seems unbearably strong in the moment will continue to be an inescapable reality for even the greatest Christian. Further, we will at times give in to that temptation. For some of us the battle with temptation might seem like a losing one at times in our lives when we give in more than we feel God can stand. It is then vital to remember the promises in Scripture about His ongoing willingness to forgive us if we confess our sins and ask for His forgiveness through the blood of Christ. It is those very promises that can help us to get back on track to overcome the most stubborn strongholds in our lives.

This does not mean that we will not reap consequences for giving into temptation. King David was completely forgiven by the Lord for the adultery and murder he committed, but lost a child and war came to his house for the rest of his life. To the extent that we give in to the "Bathsheba’s" in our own lives the same will be true for us. The vital thing to remember is that our flesh need not rule us as it did when we did not know God. In the resurrection power of Christ believers can progressively root out sin in their lives. Part of the ability to know such power lies in the realization that in the daily struggle against sin which remains present in our earthly lives the blood of Christ ultimately defines who we are, not our temptations.