A Way To Stand

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

               A WAY TO STAND

1 Cor 10:11-13

11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! 13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

NIV

Paul continues to warn them and it also serves as a warning to us that we can use the Old Testament events of the Israelites as an example of how life can, with all its entrapments, happen to us. We have to always be aware, and that is not too difficult, that we are human and frail. When we get into the attitude of pride, thinking that we are so holy and righteous and that sin has absolutely no temptation on us, we are in grave danger. Paul warns us that we should be careful if we think we are standing firm. If we think we are being should good Christians, doing everything right and doing nothing wrong, we only deceive ourselves and dishonor our confession of faith. We are not able to stand up against all temptation in our own strength. It is just not possible in our frail human condition. When Paul says that when we are tempted, that God will provide a way out so that we can stand up under that temptation, he is not saying that God will give us a way to not sin, or not fail to temptation on occasion, for that would mean that we could live a life absolutely free of sin and if that is the case, we have no need whatsoever for Jesus to have died in that cross for us. If we can rely on God to make us able to resist all sin, then God could have and would have done so all along for all mankind and there would never have been a need for Jesus to leave heaven. That is not what Paul is saying at all. Rather, that point is that we do have Jesus. God has provided Jesus so that we can stand up under the temptations that so easy entangle us. That is those moments of our failure, of our not resisting every temptation that is common to all mankind, we can rest assured that Jesus took that into account on Calvary. How could we possibly think that when we become a Christian that we never sin anymore? How can we be so prideful? Ah yes, pride does come before the fall. Yes, we are not to fall back into that sinful life we once lived. Of course, we have heard some Christians say there have been a Christian all their lives from the moment of their birth into a Christian home and they never ever lived a life of sin and thus never had a moment in time they can point to when they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, for they did evidently did so in their mother’s womb. It seems inconceivable to us to think that before they could talk, that they confessed with their mouth and believed in their heart that Jesus died for their sins and thus were saved. The point is that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. How can we boast in our flesh? We can only boast in Jesus, it is not by the works of our flesh that we are saved, but by faith in Jesus. That is we cannot boast in the works, in the living without sinning at all. We cannot boast that we are free of all sin, or that we never fall into temptation. We can only boast that we have faith in Jesus and that we have been redeemed and forgiven in Christ. It is true that if we leave Jesus behind then we are in real danger, and we will receive that penalty of death. But as long as we remain in Christ then we are saved and have that provision of God and thus a way to stand.