W. Kent Levis
What do you do about temptation that just won’t go away? I guess we shouldn’t be surprised . We live in a time and place in this world, where anything goes, and in fact that which is considered to be sin by the Christian faith is celebrated by a world gone mad with license.
I don’t know about you, but I am faced with temptation all the time. So what can we do? Counseling, accountability groups, bible studies, are all good, and necessary. But, it doesn’t seem to stop the enemy from nagging us. I don’t think that he will ever give up trying us, telling us lies, and tempting us. The strength that I need to deal with this onslaught on a daily basis requires that I start my day in a quiet place where I can ask for protection and listen for God’s voice.
As I was listening the other morning I heard something that I had never thought of before. God showed me that as Jesus died on the cross, the last word that he spoke was “tetelestai”,. I had always heard the explanation that this word signified that Jesus work of redemption was completed, and this is undoubtedly true. But I realized that it also meant for me, and for you, that as I left my sin at the foot of the cross, the hook that Jesus had in my life was over. The enemy had no power to keep resurrecting that sin in my life. It was over. Satan still tempts me, of course, but it is now much easier to ignore his lies. It is over. not the temptation, but the lie that I will walk in that sin forever. It is done; “tetelestai”, for you and for me.
