Answer. “AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL;” that is, since we are so weak in ourselves that we cannot stand a moment: and besides this, since our mortal enemies, the devil, the world, and our own flesh, cease not to assault us, do thou, therefore, preserve and strengthen us by the power of thy Holy Spirit, that we may not be overcome in this spiritual warfare, but constantly and strenuously may resist our foes, until at last we obtain a complete victory.
Exposition
There are some who here make one petition; while others make two. We should not, however, strive or contend, in reference to the matter as long as the doctrine which is here taught is fully retained. To us the words seem rather to constitute two parts of one and the same petition. Lead us not into temptation, is a petition for deliverance from future evil; but deliver us from evil, is a petition for deliverance from present evil.
The things which we are here to consider are the following:
I. What is temptation?
II. What is it to lead into temptation?
III. What is it to deliver from evil?
IV. Why is this petition necessary?
I. What Is Temptation?
There are two kinds of temptation. The one is from God, the other is from the devil. The former is a trial of our faith, piety, repentance and obedience, which is from God, through the various oppositions and hinderances of our salvation; as by all evils, by the devil, the flesh, lusts, the world, afflictions, calamities, the cross, &c., that our faith, patience, hope and constancy may be made manifest both to ourselves and others. It is in this sense that God is said to have tempted Abraham, Joseph, Job and David. “The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut. 13:4. See also Gen. 22:1. Ps. 139:1.) So God is also said to tempt his people by false prophets and by the cross. The temptation of the devil, or that by which the devil, the flesh and the wicked tempt us, is every solicitation to do wrong, which solicitation itself is sin. It was in this way that the devil tempted Job, that he might draw him from God, whom he loved and worshipped, although the final issue of the temptation was different from what the devil designed, and anticipated. So he also provoked David to number the children of Israel. (1 Chron. 21:1.)
Obj. But it is said in the Epistle of James 1:13, “Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted, when he s drawn away of his own lust and enticed.” Ans. God tempts no one by soliciting and enticing him to sin or evil: but he tempts by trying us. But the devil, the world and the flesh tempt us so as to entice and solicit us to sin for the purpose of drawing us from God. In this sense of the term God tempts no man. Hence, when it is said that he tempted Abraham, Job and David, we are to understand it to mean nothing more than a trial of their faith and constancy by afflictions and the cross. So he, also, by the use of the same means tries our faith, hope, patience, love and constancy, whether we will also worship and serve him in afflictions.
From what has now been said we may easily perceive, since temptation is attributed to the devil, and to the disordered inclinations of men, in what sense God is said to tempt and not to tempt men. Satan tempts men, both by offering occasions to sin from without, and also by instigating them from within to sin, that he may thus plunge them into destruction, and cast reproach upon God. Disordered inclinations tempt men; because they tend to such actions as God prohibits. God, however, tempts, not to destroy us, nor to lead us into sin; but to try and exercise us, when he either sends calamities upon us, or permits the devil, or men, or our flesh to provoke and invite us to sin, hiding for a time his grace and power in preserving and ruling us, that our faith and constancy, by these exercises and trials, may be more clearly manifested, not indeed to God, who knows from everlasting what and how great our faith is, and how great it will hereafter be by his blessing; but to ourselves and others, that so by these examples of our deliverance there may be confirmed in us a confidence of the divine presence and protection—that a desire of imitating us may be awakened in others, by seeing our perseverance, and that true gratitude may be kindled in all of us towards God, who has delivered us from our temptations. It was in this way that God tempted Abraham when he commanded him to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Gen. 22. So he is said to have tempted his people by withholding water from them. Ex. 15. This petition, therefore, Lead us not into temptation, which Christ commands us to address to God, does not simply speak of the trials and proofs of our faith and piety, to which David willingly offers himself, when he says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts;” but also of the cunning devices and assaults of the devil and of our flesh, and of desertion in external and internal conflicts. Nor does the Apostle James speak of our being tried, but of our being enticed to sin, when he says, “Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:13–16.)
Hence it is also apparent, how God punishes the wicked, and chastises and tempts the godly by evil spirits, whilst he is, nevertheless, not the cause of the sins which are committed by the devil, nor is a partaker with him in his wickedness. For that the wicked are punished by the wicked, and the good chastised and exercised, is the just and holy work of the divine will; but that the wicked execute the judgment of God by sinning, is not the fault of God, but comes to pass by the corruption of the wicked, which they have brought upon themselves, God neither willing, nor approving, nor accomplishing, nor furthering their sins, but only permitting them in his just judgment, when accomplishing his work and purpose through them, he either does not reveal his will to them, or does not influence their wills to regard his revealed will as the end and rule of their actions. This distinction between the works of God, and those of the devil, and of God’s accomplishing his just work through the devil, and of his permitting the sin of the devil, is evidently confirmed by the history of Job, whom God designed to try, whilst the devil attempted to destroy him. The same thing is also proven by the history of Ahab, and by the prophecy respecting antichrist, where the devil deceives men that he may destroy them, whilst God permits them to be deceived that he may in this way punish them, and suffers the devil to execute his will and purpose. (1 Kings 23. 2 Thes. 2.)