Every temptation is an invitation to sin. We must never forget that Jesus paid the price for our freedom from sin with His blood. No temptation has a sign, “Beware! Temptation Ahead” because satan uses deception.

1 Corinthians 10:13 says that our temptations are not unique to us. They are totally normal to mankind. Listen now to God’s escape plan. The verse says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Picture this lesson from nature. I have read that a bird who eats dead animals will peck at their eyes first. They want to make sure there is no reaction. Dead things have no response. Our temptations are just satan ‘pecking’ to see if we will respond to his deception.

Romans 6:11 says, “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Verse 2 was the answer to Paul’s question. It says, “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

Verse 4 is a picture of what takes place at salvation. We die with Christ. It says, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

We turn our temptation to sin into triumph by remembering what Jesus did. In the face of a temptation, we stand firm in our salvation. We remember that we are DEAD to sin, and therefore have no response to it. Just as Jesus triumphed over satan, we too will triumph when we take up our cross. We crucify out flesh when e deny the temptation to sin that would dishonor the Lord. We are created to glorify Him in all that we do and say.