A WAY TO ESCAPE
‘God … will with the temptation also make a way to escape.’
The promise is not that we shall be not tempted, nor that our natural strength shall be the measure of the temptation permitted. We have no power of ourselves to help ourselves.
I. What God promises is the adaptation of the tempting power to the supernatural strength given; and the making with the temptation ‘a way to escape.’ This word is very remarkable; literally it means ‘the exit,’ ‘the way out.’ God promises that with the temptation, which He Himself does not make but merely controls, He will also make ‘a way out.’ It is His promise to the believer in Christ; and if He did not make this ‘exit’ He would not be true.
II. The promise is literally true.—There is a moment in every temptation, a pause between the suggestion and the execution of every wrong thing, when God provides this exit, this ‘way of escape.’ An angry retort, a profane jest, a cruel stab is upon your tongue, but it need not become articulate. A passionate impulse, a sinful desire is in your heart, but if you seek His aid you can resist that last volition which constitutes the actual doing of the sin itself. When lust conceives, it bringth forth sin. The conception and the birth are separate from each other.
III. Away then with all excuses for being what we are.—You do not stand alone in the ranks of fallen beings, that you can make your temptations a pretext for weakness, for worldliness, for self-indulgence, for lack of influence. Despise yourself till, with St. Paul, you are able to confess ‘No temptation has taken me but that which is common to man.’ But, if God adapts the temptation to the strength, you must pray. There is no promise for the strength of grace but to the praying man; and finally, when the temptation is upon you, look out for God’s way to escape.
IV. God has made the way to escape.—Take heed that you miss it not. Each act of sin is a sort of lifetime, with beginning, middle, and end. There is no room here for debate, for weighing, for judging; there is just room for a prayer. This is God’s Will—your sanctification; this is God’s will—that you should be saved. Trifle not, but buy up the opportunity, which is the life of time.
Dean Vaughan.
Illustration
‘A German picture called “Cloud-land” hangs at the end of a long gallery; and at first sight looks like a huge, repulsive daub of confused colour. As you walk towards it, it begins to take shape, and proves to be a mass of little cherub faces, like those in Raphael’s “Madonna san Sisto.” Close to the picture, you see only an innumerable company of little angels and cherubim. How often, frightened by temptation, we see nothing but a confused and repulsive mass of broken expectations and crushed hopes. But if, instead of fleeing away into unbelief and despair, we would only draw near to God, we should soon discover that the cloud was full of angels of mercy.’