What not to do
Eve (and Adam) could both say no to temptation, but both give in to it. Take Eve, for example. She does the following:
Eve listens to the temptation. Instead of going away from the temptation, she stays and listens to the serpent. That initial decision is the first in a series of poor choices that ultimately lead to her sin. The Apostle Paul urges people to “flee temptation” (1 Timothy 6:11, 2 Timothy 2:22), to run away from it, because people are often so weak that staying and listening will easily lead to sinning.
Eve talks about it. Not only does she listen, but she also begins to be an active participant in the conversation. She puts up a slight defence, but it seems weak and half-hearted. She essentially buys into the conversation, allowing Satan to continue his temptation.
When I read the exchange between Satan and Eve, I think about a typical visit to a car dealership. A car salesman starts off with chitchat when someone enters the lot as a way to get him to buy in to the whole experience, to get his listening ear, and to ultimately convince the shopper to buy a car.
Eve deliberately disobeys. When she finally buys into Satan’s sales pitch, she takes the bait and eats it. She toyed with temptation before, but this is the actual act of deliberate disobedience toward God.
Eve convinces Adam to sin as well. Although you can only speculate on her exact motivation, the fact is that after sinning, Eve doesn’t just realize her mistake and repent of it. Instead, she commits a second sin – getting Adam to sin by giving him fruit and telling him to eat it, too.
What to do
Paul gives the best and surest advise on what to do when tempted: Get the heck outta there (see 1 Corinthians 6:18, 2 Timothy 2:22)! If you run away from the temptation, then you certainly won’t be lulled into sin.
However, it’s not always possible to get away from a tempting situation. Therefore, your next tactic is to do what Jesus did when he faced temptation in the desert (see the “Think different: The sequel” sidebar earlier in the chapter). Although Jesus couldn’t exactly flee in this situation, he was wholly prepared to do battle with Satan when he was tempted. Satan gave his “Think Different” speech three different times in three different ways, but each time Jesus responded with conviction using the Bible, God’s truth, as ammunition against Satan’s tactics. Satan even tried to twist the meaning of a Bible passage to meet his needs, but Jesus would have none of it. He knew the Bible well enough to counter Satan’s attempts to fuzzy things up.
What’s more, hearing Christian speakers or reading Christian books is no substitute for knowing what the Bible says. Christian authors, speakers, and preachers aren’t perfect, and their teaching may not always line up with God’s truth. However, the more you know God’s truth, the more you’re able to discern teaching that doesn’t synch up with it.
Sinning After You’re “Saved”
Being a Christian doesn’t mean living a sin-free life, but it means living a life that is freed from the power of sin. Christianity holds that without Jesus, you are a slave to sin. However, with Christ, you have been freed of these shackles. As Paul writes:
Those who belong to Christ have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
-Galatians 5:24
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
-Romans 6:6-7
God gives Christians the strength to overcome sin. After all, a Christian is regenerated (Titus 3:6) and receives a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17, Colossians 3:10), as discussed in Chapter 13. With that backdrop, Jesus’ famous statement, “The truth shall set you free” (John 8:32), makes much more sense. What he’s saying is that a Christian is transformed on the inside and freed from this bondage of sin.
However, this newfound freedom doesn’t mean that Christians no longer sin or no longer have a desire to sin. But it does mean that a process toward perfection has begun in each Christian. To illustrate, consider that when you’re born, you start off with a body of sin cells. The moment you become a Christian and surrender more and more of your life to Christ, these sin cells are overridden by the godly nature you acquire. Through the years, as Christians grow in their faith, their sin nature becomes lesser and lesser part of them as the godly nature is implemented in their lives.
When this transformation starts, a Christian begins to become aware of sins that he or she never saw before. God is definitely a patient God, as he allows Christians to deal with what they can handle at a time. Dealing with sin in my life reminds me of peeling an onion – shedding one sin layer at a time.
For a discussion on how God deals with sin in people’s lives, check out Chapter 3.
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