John Owen’s writings, though challenging, are full of rich spiritual insights. In this unabridged volume, editors Justin Taylor and Kelly Kapic have made updates to the author’s language, translated the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and footnoted difficult or unknown phrases, all without sacrificing any of Owen’s original message. These three treatises on temptation, sin, and repentance are theologically robust and insightful while also being accessible to modern readers. Overcoming Sin and Temptation will help a new generation benefit from the writings of this remarkable Puritan. Now redesigned with a new cover.

Immediately after His baptism, Jesus is driven into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. We are reminded here not only of Israel's testing in the wilderness, but of the original test—the temptation of Adam. In this lecture, Dr. R.C. Sproul compares and contrasts the temptations of the first Adam and the second Adam, explaining how the results of each rested on whether trust was placed in the Word of God.

Does God tempt His people? This question is not new and the Bible is not without an answer. Beginning this series on the book of James, Dr. Sproul starts off by exploring the nature of temptation and sin, as well as what God does and doesn't do during those trials that come our way.

consequences to fall upon us fully. As William Cowper put it in his hymn, “God Moves in Mysterious Ways”:

The second lesson from this sorry tale has to do with the consequence of temptation and the culture of blame that ensues. Just like Eden (where Eve blames the serpent, and Adam blames Eve) this tale, too, is a tennis match of counter culpability. Sarai, who had first suggested the idea, is filled with envy when Hagar becomes pregnant and thrashes out at Abram (Gen. 16:5). She feels wronged. Abram responds by washing his hands of all responsibility by telling Sarai to do whatever she wanted with Hagar (Gen. 16:6). This marriage is under stress and now engaging in the game of blaming one another. It is all so very predictable.

Who is to blame, Sarai or Abram? It would take a dozen counselors to sort this mess out, but evidently neither emerges without some fault or another. Abram failed to exercise his role as the spiritual leader in the home by trusting in God’s promise. Sarai failed by allowing envy (“she looked with contempt on her mistress,” Gen. 16:4) to enter her heart. A culture of blame characterizes our contemporary world. No one is willing to say, “I did it. And I’m sorry.” And its roots lie deep in original sin. Grace is meant to transform, and the Hagar story is evidence that Abram, though justified, is still capable of falling back into a reliance on the flesh when the future looks dark. Paul’s question to the Galatians now seems appropriate to ask here: “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3).

Hagar was an Egyptian, and Moses, in telling us this story, is providing us with a underlying sub-plot that will haunt the patriarchial period for years to come. God blesses Israel’s enemies and thereby tests the faith of His people. And the temptation in such circumstances is always to question the promises of God. Christians do it all the time, and this story is a reminder to us that God may take longer to fulfill His promise than we think reasonable. But God’s reason and our reason are different commodities.

As Paul approaches the end of his directions to the Corinthians about their participation in pagan worship meals, it becomes increasingly clear that their actions were sinful not only because they caused other “weaker” believers to fall into idolatry but also because the participation itself was idolatry. After all, the Apostle could not use the idolatrous wilderness generation of Israel as an example of what the Corinthians should not do unless there was a correspondence between eating meals in pagan temples and worshiping false gods (1 Cor. 10:1–11).

You will remember that one of the main problems with the Corinthians’ eating in pagan temples was that they thought it was a display of their own spiritual strength. Because they knew other gods do not exist as gods and because the act of eating was indifferent in itself, they believed that they could not possibly be guilty of idolatry if they ate alongside pagan worshipers in pagan temples (ch. 8). But as Paul notes in today’s passage, such confidence in their own spiritual strength was misplaced. When Paul says that those who think they stand should take heed lest they fall, he is basically saying: “Don’t think that you are so strong that you will not be guilty of idolatry if you do not stop eating in pagan temples. The Israelites thought they would be fine when they associated themselves with paganism, but they fell into apostasy.”

We see, then, that although God glorifies everyone whom He justifies (Rom. 8:29–30), we have a part to play in persevering in saving faith. We must not think ourselves so strong that we cannot fall into grievous or impenitent sin, but we must take heed of ourselves lest we fall. Christ will be faithful to complete the good work of salvation in everyone whom He regenerates (Phil. 1:6), but He does this by working in and through us so that we work out our salvation in fear and trembling, continuing to trust Jesus and repenting of our sin until the day we die (2:12–13). There is no contradiction between God’s guaranteeing the salvation of all those who have true faith and the need of the truly converted to keep watch on their hearts. Charles Hodge comments, “Those whom God has promised to save, he has promised to render watchful.”

We need not fear that the Lord will not enable us. As Paul concludes in 1 Corinthians 10:13, God will always give His people a way out of succumbing to temptation.

It’s a verse that challenges me. It encourages me. In the midst of temptation it gives me hope. First Corinthians 10:13 has been repeated so often in the fight against sin that sometimes I forget to pause and reflect upon each of the words.

While this verse is challenging, encouraging, and hopeful, most of all, I find this verse incredibly humbling. There’s one phrase in the verse that stops me in my tracks and makes me want to let out a long, deep sigh. It’s the part about whatever temptation I’m fighting being “common to man.”

Most days, I don’t view my temptations as common. In fact, I want people to understand how terribly uncommon my struggle is so that they’ll sympathize with me when I don’t take the way out provided. Secretly, I want to tell them my tale of woe as a means to escape the guilt of my own sinful choices.

I want people to understand just how incredibly difficult that friend is so I feel justified when I tell them that little tidbit of gossip. I must explain just how crazy busy my life is so that they’ll understand why I am always running late. I give them glimpses into the sin patterns of my husband and children so that they’ll sympathize with me when I tell them that in a fit I yelled at them all. I repeat again and again the difficult circumstances I’m facing to hide my grumbling and complaining under the guise of being authentic and real. The only thing I don’t want to tell people about my struggle is that it’s common.

The notion that whatever temptation comes knocking at my door is typical silences my inner justifications. My temptation isn’t special. My circumstances are not cause for disobedience. Others have faced this very thing and by the Spirit have faithfully endured. My pride protests, “Anyone facing this circumstance would give in!” But the Spirit faithfully reminds me that there’s a way of escape. By God’s grace, obedience is possible.

Whatever temptation you face, the power of Jesus is available to help. His Spirit is alive in you. God knows exactly what you can bear, and He’s actively arranging all the details of your life to provide a way out so you may endure. Whatever you face today is a common struggle. The grace He provides in the midst of the struggle will strengthen and protect you.

His commands are not burdens but blessings. We can delight in the perfect law that gives freedom, knowing God’s Word is a lamp for our feet and a light to our path. Choose today to walk in His ways, trusting in His power to give you all you need to obey in every way.

Potiphar’s wife does not abandon her desire to seduce Joseph after first making the brazen demand for Joseph to sleep with her (Gen. 39:6b–9). Instead, she softens her request in an attempt to get around Joseph’s forthright refusal to be with her. “Day after day” she speaks to Jacob’s favorite son, begging him to “lie beside her” or “be with her,” a seemingly innocent request that he spend time with her without doing anything improper. However, Joseph is smart enough to know better (v. 10). He knows that to put himself where he might find temptation is to play with fire, and so he wisely determines not to listen to the “smooth words” of this adulteress (Prov. 7:4–5).

Nevertheless, as today’s passage indicates, this woman will get her way, or else! No one is around one day when Joseph goes to work in the house, and Potiphar’s wife seizes him by his garment in her lust to have him (Gen. 39:11–12a). Joseph would have been wearing the typical garments of the day: a long-sleeved shirt and shorts that come down to the mid-calf. For him to flee and leave these behind would mean Joseph engaged in a forceful struggle with the woman to escape — since the clothes could not normally be removed so quickly (vv. 12b–13). Joseph is honorable and would rather leave a valued piece of clothing behind than to sin against the Lord. His flight from evil is a response all believers do well to imitate (1 Tim. 6:11).

God promises to bless those who obey Him and resist transgression (Deut. 28:1–14; Matt. 5:10), yet this episode in Joseph’s life reveals that the reward is not always immediate. In fact, faithfulness often brings persecution. Joseph’s rapid exit would raise many questions, and so Potiphar’s wife acts quickly to avoid any blame. She appeals to the basest instincts of the other servants and emphasizes Joseph’s foreign heritage to cast him as an outsider and as a threat to the household (Gen. 39:14). Moreover, she lies outright, accusing Joseph of her actions by saying “he left” his garment (vv. 15–18), terminology that implies he willingly disrobed instead of struggling to escape her. Potiphar’s wife shows how sinners attempt to corrupt the way others see us when they cannot entice us to follow their schemes.

Joseph could not see it at the time, but his service in Potiphar’s house was actually good training for his future vocation. The authority he held under Potiphar (Gen. 39:1–6a) would, in effect, be excellent schooling for the high position of stewardship we know he will be given under Pharaoh (41:37–57). Joseph’s life, Matthew Henry comments, proves that “what God intends men for he will be sure, some way or other, to qualify them for.”

Our Lord also prepares us spiritually, as befits our calling as His holy people (Ps. 144:1; 2 Tim. 1:8–9), and this is true in Joseph’s life as well, as today’s passage illustrates. One way our Father equips us for ministry is by allowing temptations into our lives so that in suffering under and resisting against them He can establish us all the more firmly in the truth (1 Peter 5:6–11). Joseph endured such a trial by fire when he was serving Potiphar.

Genesis 39:6b tells us Joseph was “handsome in form and appearance” — in other words, a good-looking fellow. Apparently, Potiphar’s wife could not contain herself around him and had a strong desire to sleep with him (v. 7). As David and Solomon warn us, those whom the Lord appoints as leaders are often led astray by their lusts (2 Sam. 11; 1 Kings 11), but Joseph did not fall into this trap. He loved his master and did not want to hurt him (Gen. 39:8–9a), proving that his beauty was not skin deep; it characterized his very soul. Ambrose of Milan comments: “True beauty…will do harm to none but [will rather] win praise for itself” (On Joseph, 5.22).

Most importantly, Joseph does not want to offend God (Gen. 39:9b). He grounds his resistance to Potiphar’s wife not only in love for Potiphar but also in truth and his knowledge that this sin would not escape the Creator’s notice. This foundation enables him to resist the seductress’ repeated advances. John Chrysostom writes: “Even if we succeed in escaping the notice of everyone, we will not be able to escape the notice of the unsleeping eye. That is the only one you need to fear, to be concerned and tremble about so as not to commit anything unlawful under his scrutiny” (Homilies on Genesis, 62.18).

Last week we noted that in his epistle James is eager to show how those with authentic faith will deal with the various afflictions and trials of life. Those with true faith will count it all joy when they meet trials because such trials produce steadfastness (1:2–3). We too must look eagerly for such steadfastness, because without it we will not inherit the promised crown of life (v. 12).

We should not be surprised when God allows things to come into our lives to test our faith. After all, He tested Abraham by commanding him to offer up Isaac (Gen. 22). Job is well-known for the testing of his faith through many difficult circumstances. Even the Lord Jesus Himself was tested by the Devil in the wilderness (Mark 1:12–13).

Because we are sinners, we may not face testing all that well. Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that God might be tempting us to sin in the midst of adversity. When God allows a period of financial difficulty into our lives, we might think He is tempting us to seek ill-gotten gains. Difficulties in our marriage might make us feel that God is tempting us to seek an unscriptural divorce.

However, today’s passage argues that such is never the case. God does allow our faith to be tested, but if we are tempted to do evil as a result, then He is never the source. A person who exhibits authentic faith looks at his circumstances, and, in the midst of temptation, recognizes that though God may have allowed trials to come, the desire to break His law is not from Him. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and He tempts no one to sin (James 1:13).

A misunderstanding of the Reformed position on God’s sovereignty can make this hard to accept. Some hyper-Calvinists, for example, say that God is responsible for evil and tempts people to sin.

God’s precise relationship to sin is mysterious. God has ordained all that ever happens, including evil. Yet today’s passage reminds us that God is not the originator of evil or even the temptations that lead to evil. We must never blame God for our sin or temptations. Rather, as verses 14–15 so aptly note, our temptation to sin comes from our own evil nature and never from the Lord.

for everyone when we hear that translation. Part of the issue with the way it’s translated into English and the way we understand that portion of the Lord’s Prayer is that it’s a bit of a Hebraism. It’s a way of speaking. It’s a manner of getting a point across to say: “When we are tempted, Lord, lead us away from it. Get us out of it. Help us to flee it.” I know that sounds like the opposite of what it is saying, but that is the way the Hebrews thought and spoke. We see Hebraisms throughout the Gospels, and I think that’s what it’s getting at.

Jesus knows how fierce our battle with temptation can be. Today, Sinclair Ferguson contemplates how the Lord’s Prayer equips us, in light of Christ’s triumph, to withstand the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Satan approached Jesus with the same temptation he had posed to Adam, questioning the reliability of God’s Word. Today, R.C. Sproul shows that it was at the point where the first Adam failed that the last Adam triumphed.

Adam succumbed to Satan’s temptation in the lush garden of Eden, but Jesus withstood the devil’s assaults in the arid wilderness of Judea. In this sermon, R.C. Sproul helps us understand how Christ’s temptation played a crucial role in our redemption.

A sermon by R.C. Sproul on matthew 18:7–9

A sermon by R.C. Sproul on matthew 6:13

A sermon by R.C. Sproul on matthew 4:1–11

A sermon by R.C. Sproul on matthew 4:1–11

Why did Jesus need to be baptized and tempted in the wilderness? In this sermon, R.C. Sproul continues his exposition of Mark to examine the crucial significance of these events for our redemption.

The last two centuries have borne witness to widespread attacks on the trustworthiness of God’s Word. Yet this is nothing new. Since the temptation of our first parents in the garden of Eden, the question “Did God actually say?” has been at the heart of Satan’s attacks. In this lesson, Dr. Sproul examines the nature of Satan’s temptation of our first parents. The veracity of God’s Word lies at the very heart of our faith. It is not enough to believe in God. We must believe God and take Him at His Word.

Since Jesus was without sin, why did He need to be baptized? And was it really possible for the sinless Savior to be tempted by the devil? To understand these events at the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry, we must remember who Jesus is: the second Adam and the representative of a new humanity. In this message, Dr. R.C. Sproul explains why it is so significant that Jesus relied upon God’s Word and fulfilled it for our sake.

Since Jesus was without sin, why did He need to be baptized? And was it really possible for the sinless Savior to be tempted by the devil? To understand these events at the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry, we must remember who Jesus is: the second Adam and the representative of a new humanity. In this message, Dr. R.C. Sproul explains why it is so significant that Jesus relied upon God’s Word and fulfilled it for our sake.

From the very beginning of the earthly life of Jesus, He never failed to obey His Father and thus He qualified Himself to be our High Priest (Heb. 5:8–10). All of His days, Jesus kept the commandments of God, yet there are particular episodes of obedience in His life that are especially instructive for us. One of the most important of these is the temptation of our Lord by Satan.

Paul tells us explicitly that Christ is the new Adam (Rom. 5:12–21), the progenitor of a new humanity that will love and serve the Creator. He tells us directly that to be in Christ is to be in the last Adam and to be part of His redeemed people who will be all that God intended humanity to be. But other New Testament authors teach us this concept as well, though they do so indirectly. By focusing much attention on the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—teach us that Jesus is the last Adam. By telling the temptation story, they make this point more implicitly than Paul does, but they make it just the same.

Just consider this: What was the fundamental temptation that Adam faced in the garden of Eden? It was whether He was going to trust God and live by His Word even when the alternative offered by Satan—to become as God—might seem better on the surface. The devil tempted Jesus in a similar way. After forty days of no food and living in a harsh wilderness, the temptations Satan offered to turn stones to bread and to rule in comfort over all the world’s kingdoms certainly would have looked appealing to most people. But Jesus chose to trust God and live by His Word, and so He resisted Satan successfully (Luke 4:1–13).

Satan tempted Adam by twisting what God had said, not correcting Eve when she added to what the Lord had told her (Gen. 3:1–6). In a similar way, the devil tempted Jesus, quoting Scripture selectively and not balancing it with the rest of the Old Testament’s teachings on subjects such as putting God to the test, true worship, and how the Lord sustains His people. And how did Jesus defeat Satan?

By knowing God’s Word in all its fullness and not setting one portion against another (Luke 4:1–13). He interpreted Scripture by Scripture, thus knowing and using Scripture’s true meaning against the enemy. By overcoming Satan’s temptation, Jesus succeeded where Adam failed in Eden, and our salvation was made possible. (It was actualized in Christ’s death and resurrection.) He also gave an example for us. To resist temptation, we must know and live by God’s Word

Due to the important work of men such as Athanasius of Alexandria and Anselm of Canterbury in probing the depths of the Scripture's teaching on the incarnation, Christians have long confessed that Jesus had to become incarnate and live as a man in order to do the work necessary to save us. Yesterday, we saw how the baptism of Christ points to the necessity of the Son of God offering atonement as a human being for the sins of human beings (Matt. 3:13–17). Today we will consider how Satan's temptation of Jesus also shows us that our Savior's work as a man redeems us from the curse of sin and death.

Paul tells us explicitly that there is a connection between the first man, Adam, and the second or last man, Jesus. Romans 5:12–21 compares the disobedience of Adam to the obedience of Christ, indicating that it is the obedience of Christ that constitutes for us a righteous status in the eyes of the Lord. The Apostle clearly teaches that in order for us to be saved, Jesus had to succeed where Adam failed. Where Adam as a man broke God's covenant, Jesus as a man had to keep God's covenant if we were to be redeemed.

The gospel accounts of the temptation of Jesus present the same truth more implicitly. At Jesus' baptism, the Holy Spirit commissioned Him for ministry (Matt. 3:16–17). What was Christ's first act? Matthew 4:1 gives us the answer: "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." Of all the things that our Lord could have done after His baptism, He undertook a grueling temptation by Satan in the wilderness. Anyone who is the least bit familiar with the biblical storyline cannot help but think of Adam's temptation in the garden when they read of our Lord's encounter with the devil.

Jesus underwent a test that was similar to Adam's, but it was actually far more difficult. Adam met Satan in paradise, where life was easy. Jesus met Satan in the desert wilderness where the environment was hardly friendly. Adam enjoyed the company of his wife, Eve. Jesus was alone. Adam was well fed from the trees of Eden. Jesus was fasting. In short, Adam failed even though he had everything going for him, but Jesus succeeded even though, humanly speaking, the odds were stacked against Him (Gen. 3; Matt. 4:1–11).

Like Adam, Jesus was tempted to disbelieve God's Word, to pit one part of it against another and to think that the Father was not telling Him the whole story. Being fully confident of the Lord's truth, however, Jesus never gave in to Satan's lies.