Session #018 is devoted to Chapter 12: The True Christian’s Faith and Experience Concerning Temptation.
God does not tempt any man. The light, grace and manifestation of the Holy Spirit is from God. This gift of God does not tempt any man, but enables the righteous to endure temptation. All who do not know this gift are not able to endure temptation, but rather are led away by their cravings and thus fall into temptation because of lack of faith in the gift and power of God (which is as near them as the temptation), if they would only pay attention to that gift and power of God and obey it.
The ground of all temptations is within, the cravings that lead one away are within. However, the light that reveals them, and the grace, and the spirit which puts them to death must also be known to be within, where the temptations are. The temptations cannot prevail until the light and grace and spirit are ignored.
It is not a sin to be tempted. Rather, entering into the temptation is sin. Christ Jesus was boldly tempted, but did not give in to sin. This is the glory of Jesus, the second Adam, that though he was tempted to fall, he did not give in to the lies of the evil one. The serpent engendered in the first Adam the hope of enjoying a better state than that in which God had placed him. In a similar way, temptation prevails over all men who are not born again by the promised Seed. That Seed breaks the head of the serpent and liberates the true Christian from under the serpent’s power, to instead allow him to grow up in the second Adam who could not be prevailed upon with the serpent’s lies.
The second Adam, Christ Jesus, is the founding pioneer of the true Christian’s salvation, Christ having left himself as an example to follow. The true Christian must still abide in the light of Christ against further temptations and allurements. The evil one does not need to deceive further those who are already dwelling in his darkness, but it is against the children of light that he uses all his cunning and schemes to attempt to deceive and corrupt those who have come to a dwelling place in Paradise. The serpent deceived Adam and Eve in Paradise and will likewise deceive men again, if he is not resisted in the power of the second Adam, Christ Jesus.
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