And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:13a

In this life, believers are still quite subject to temptation. Jesus teaches us to pray the Lord not to lead us into temptation. James makes it clear that God does tempt His people to sin.

James 1:13 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 we know that Jesus was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan.

Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

How do we reconcile this apparent discrepancy? There are two closely related concepts: testing and tempting. God tests us and Satan tempts us. Various trials put our faith to the test. Our response determines whether we have passed a test, or succumbed to temptation.

Proverbs tells us that the heat of trials are like a furnace that tests precious metals, and in so doing purifies them.

Proverbs 17:3 The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests the hearts.

When the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, Satan did what he could to tempt Jesus to sin. Because Jesus did not break under Satan’s temptation; He passed God’s test. Granted, Jesus never sinned and needed no purification. His test proved nothing to Him or to His Father, but His passing the test proved much about Him to us!

In our case, the devil wants to use every trial to tempt us to sin. When by God’s grace we resist temptation, we are purified like gold in the furnace.