July 14: Taking Opportunity

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. James 1:13-14

Our adversary cannot actually force us to sin. He merely works to create an atmosphere of temptation and sets up the opportunity to sin, presenting it as attractive and desirable. Simultaneously, he portrays Yahweh as a withholder of good things. This framework is presented in Genesis 3:1-5. The devil’s “sales-pitch” is all about creating a desire that conflicts with God’s word, misrepresenting Him as a withholder (not the Giver that He truly is), then stepping back and watching his victims stray from the path marked out by the Lord.

If Satan can succeed at convincing someone that the Giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17) is keeping something from her that would make her happy, then she, being deceived, will just take it, effectively switching loyalties from God to Satan. Then Satan, known as the accuser, can say to God, “See: she made her own decision. She chose me.”

God’s word informs us of the subtle and deceptive ways of our wily adversary who presents a constant lineup of opportunities to cast aside the precepts of God; he cloaks his substitute, counterfeit ideas in persuasive, often religious, garb. A key phrase for Satan’s operations: taking opportunity (or occasion) by the commandment (Romans 7:8,11). With stealth and cunning he entices the multitudes—one-by-one—away from Yahweh, the true and personal God, and His word.

This departure from the paths of righteousness (Psalm 23:3) is sometimes translated as “falling away.” Another, more direct translation is “divorce” (apostasy) which points to a prior favorable relationship. The covenant relationship that God designed for a man and his wife is a metaphor for the covenant relationship that He designed and desires between Himself and His people. Such a relationship is characterized by unconditional love, fierce loyalty, and fidelity to the end.

Paul paints a vivid picture in Romans chapter 7, using the legalities of earthly marriage. He speaks of the law binding a woman to her husband as long as he lives. The enemies of God—by being “married” to Satan—are under bondage—bound—to him (see 6:16). But his utter doom is sure (prophesied by Ezekiel in 28:18-19). All who desire to sever the relationship with the devil can be set free in Christ to walk according to the Spirit…

… that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter…that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 7:4-6, 8:4