| The Lord's Prayer, Part 11: The Sixth Petition, "And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, September 19 2011 00:00 |
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This petition gives us pause: does God tempt men to do evil? James says clearly that He tempts no one neither can He be tempted to do evil. Can the word mean something else? Indeed it can. It also can be translated as test, which better fits this context as well as the context of the entire Bible. But they are closely related terms, as we shall see. God tested Adam in the garden, and he failed the test. God tested the second Adam, His Son, Jesus, and He passed the test. God tested Job, Abraham, and even Moses. It would seem that it is a pattern of God’s dealing with His children that He put them to the test. The test may take the form of a trial, and, as Peter, Paul and James all explain in their letters, the trying of our faith works patience and proves the genuineness of our faith with an outcome of eternal joy. Thus we may conclude that testing and trying are methods of sanctification that God uses in our lives. But do these writers not suggest that we should welcome trials and testing of our faith? Indeed they do. So there must be something deeper here in the mind of Jesus. Remember that Adam, Jesus, and Job were exposed to a particularly deep level of trial and testing in which Satan was directly involved. It is one thing to be exposed to fiery trials; it is something more intense and scary to be exposed to the direct assaults of the evil one. (The Greek word here is personalized: evil one not evil.) Remember that Paul wrote to the Ephesians that they should put on the whole armor of God including the shield of faith whereby they could resist the fiery darts of the wicked one. Being exposed to the direct attacks of the devil is not to be taken lightly. Jesus teaches us to pray that the Father will mercifully place a shield around us that will protect us from these devilish assaults. The devil cannot destroy us or rob us of our faith or salvation, but he can wreak much harm and suffering. The devil is real; he is not to be taken lightly. But greater is He who is us than he who is in the world. Luther called these attacks of the devil, which he felt leveled at him, as Anfectung. I think if I were the evil one, I would certainly try as hard as I could to stop Martin Luther! Satan tries to paralyze the believer with questions of doubt about unresolved guilt and fill his/her heart with fear and anguish. He tries to persuade us that God is not faithful, and that we shall ultimately fail. He tries to convince us that God has not forgiven us and our salvation is not secure in Christ. Thus we must cling resolutely to the promises of God in Christ as we pray that God will not lead us into this place of unprotected exposure to the darts of the enemy but place a hedge around us! |
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