(Pastor Chen)
Temptation is common to all men. One of the temptations that every Christian must face is the lust of the flesh. Many new believers begin to doubt their salvation because their flesh still has the same worldly desires. In order to understand the nature of the flesh, we must first understand God's redemption.
Without going into much detail, salvation begins in our spirit. Our soul (mind, will, and emotion) and our body do not undergo any changes. It is up to us to do something about our mind and our body while we are here. Our spirit is recreated at the new birth; our mind is being renewed as we continue in the Word, and our body will be glorified at the coming of Christ. God does not do anything to change our mind because He has given us free will. God wants us to freely choose Him, and follow Him through His Word and His Spirit. God does not do anything to change our body because our body gives us the right and authority to operate on earth.
Our body is our license to be here. Because our body is an instrument for expression, the devil will do all that he can to prevent us from expressing righteousness and the nature of God that is in us. The enemy does so by enticing us to sin. As long as we are here on earth, we will be tempted. Thank God that in the midst of all temptation He has given us victory. COL 1:13 states that God "has delivered us from the power (authority) of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." This tells us that the devil has absolutely no power or authority over us. The only way he can get to us is if we give him place because sin has no dominion over us. Sin is powerless against us. The old line, "the devil made me do it" is a lie; the enemy cannot make a believer do ANYTHING!
In order to overcome temptation, we must first understand how we are tempted and then take necessary actions to overcome them. JAMES 1:14-15 states, "but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when a desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin: and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death." (NKJV) Here we see that we are tempted when we are drawn away by the lusts of our flesh (the lusts of the flesh are any desires contrary to the Word of God as listed in GAL 5:19-21). So temptations can occur when we are drawn away (from God) by our personal (self-pleasing) desires and then enticed.
Where there is no desire, there can be no temptation. I was in a convenient store recently and noticed that cigarettes are located at the checkout stands. I personally have no desire for cigarettes; therefore I was not at all tempted to buy them. Right across from the cigarette counter was a candy counter. I love candy bars, and was tempted to buy some. So we can see that our desires are subject to temptation. The stronger the desire we have, the greater the impact of the temptation. Temptation is therefore simply an appeal to our desires.
Before we go on we must understand that temptation itself is not sin. Jesus was at ALL points tempted as we are, yet without sin (HEB 4:15). Sin occurs when the desire is conceived (fulfilled or acted out). If sin is not dealt with (according to 1JOHN 1:9), it will mature (brings bondage and strongholds) and brings forth death (products of spiritual death). We must also understand that it is not sin to fulfill desires within God's provision. God does not want to put us in bondage (GAL 5:1). He wants to fulfill our desires, and He places within us His desires to be fulfilled (PS 37:4-5). However, desires fulfilled outside of His provision are sin and will put us in bondage.
Every temptation will always carry a decision whether to give in or not to give in to the enticement. We are constantly making decisions, and our walk with the Lord is affected by those decisions. Again, temptation is not sin when we do not yield to it. While we cannot prevent the presentation of temptation, we can prevent the participation of the temptation. We can also affect the temptation's degree of impact by disciplining our body through the grace of God. The grace of God comes through Jesus Christ. Only Jesus can give us the power to overcome temptation and sin. If you have not received Him as your personal Lord and Savior, you can do so now by simply inviting Him into your heart. In the next few lessons we will go more in depth on overcoming temptations.