Given a Way Out

By Rev. Mark Buetow

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.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV)

When you’re at a party, the alcohol starts flowing, and you know you shouldn’t be there, what do you do? Call Mom or Dad to come get you. What if you’ve been doing the drinking? Let a sober friend drive you home. What if you’re surfing the Web, and you find yourself just a few clicks away from the porn? What do you do? Shut down your browser? What about when your parents are driving you crazy? You’re on the brink. Do you explode and begin yelling at them, or do you take a breath, count to ten, and walk away before you say something you’ll regret?

Many people read the words of St. Paul above as a promise that when you’re in a bad situation, there will be a way out, a choice to make that will keep you out of trouble. That’s well and good. You should make the right choice. In fact, you should avoid any situation in which you will have to make that kind of choice at all. If only life were so easy for us sinners! If only we could always just do the right thing or make good choices, then we could be proud that we’re good Christians and that God gave us a way of escape, a way out of temptation.

But that’s not what St. Paul means. Paul is talking about the Israelites of the Old Testament, wandering around in the wilderness, complaining against the Lord, making golden calves, worshiping the false gods of the pagans, despising His Word and preachers, and just generally being ungrateful and bitter people. Paul even makes a reference to the snakes God sent to punish them, biting them and killing them. But then St. Paul says that the Lord gives them a way out. When the snakes bit them, what was the way out? How did they survive? Moses made a bronze snake on a pole, held it up, and whoever looked at it would live.

When St. Paul talks about the way out that the Lord gives, he doesn’t mean some boost of your willpower to suddenly do the right thing. He means that when we fall into temptation and sin, the way out is His Son, lifted up on the cross. That’s the way out.You know that long before you come to the point where you’re supposed to make that right choice, you’ll have already fallen into sin. You already lashed out at your parents, already clicked on what you shouldn’t, already done what you ought not to have done. When that happens, our guilt and the devil say, “Well, where was the way out? See? You failed the test. You gave in to temptation. You’re no Christian.”

When that temptation to doubt comes, then look up to the cross. Jesus said that He would be lifted up just like the snake was lifted up (John 3:14). People were attacked by snakes and saved by a bronze snake on a pole. Now, when you are attacked by sins, you are saved by the Savior who was lifted up on the cross for you to look at and be saved. See Him there, covered in your sins, dying for them, pierced for them, so that you will not die for your sins but instead be forgiven of them.

Now when Paul says that the Lord will provide this way out, he doesn’t mean we can look to the cross on a shelf or hanging in the church or on our necklace though those can all be reminders of what Jesus did for you. Rather, to look up at the cross now means to take comfort in the places where that cross and its forgiveness are delivered to you: your Baptism, the absolution and preaching of the cross by your pastor, and the body and blood of Jesus given to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins.

Should you avoid situations where you might be tempted to sin? Absolutely. If you find yourself in such a situation, should you make the right choice? Of course! But when you find yourself falling into temptation, when you find that your willpower has failed and that the Old Adam has gotten the upper hand and led you into temptation and sin, the answer isn’t in you. The way out isn’t in your own effort. That way out is always Christ, lifted up on the cross to die for a sinner like you. That Christ who, by hanging on the cross, wipes away all your sins and failures and in whom you have the truest protection from the devil, the world, and your sinful nature. The Lord is indeed faithful. There is no temptation you’ll have that someone else hasn’t. After all, Jesus was tempted as we are but without sin. And His victory over temptation, sin, and death are your victory over temptation, sin, and death. It is in Jesus that we escape all sin and evil. He really is the Way. . . and the way out from temptation.

Rev. Mark Buetow is pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church in DuQuoin, Illinois, on the Higher Things Executive Council, and can be reached at buetowmt@gmail.com.

Giunta Pisano, Crucifix of San Ranierino, 1229-54. Pisa, Museo Nationale di San Matteo