Greetings,
thank you for the replies.
So, does everyone get tempted?
I ask again, because what use is there to tempt someone who is already in bondage?
I suppose keeping one in darkness might be a motive? But if one is lost in the dark, where can they see light to make any useful move to exit the darkness?
Hence my question.
Jesus was tempted, yes. Adam was, too. Children of God are tempted. But does everyone born get tempted or only those who have been born again?
Those who were born to woman and never received the Life which Jesus brought are tempted according to man and man's definitions, but in the eyes of God they remain dead so their actions or inactions may not seem to matter... But they do matter as they affect others around them who have received Life or any who still have real Hope of encountering Life. A dead person won't get any deader, but he may move away from the Hope which remains to him. His example and action may influence others negatively.
Who does not have Hope of encountering Life when first he is born to his natural mother? He is effectively dead, but he has Hope that before his limited time as a man of flesh he will encounter real Life.
While we're at it, what was the purpose of the temptation in the Garden. Was it only to disobey (rebel against the kindness and love of God, Who is Holy and Just) or ignore or second-guess God?
What I see is that God wants people to choose to love Him when they do have real alternatives. Our alternatives in this world of men [planet Earth] are before us and many men have chosen from those alternatives. Those alternatives are really only one: not choosing God. For me this is what men call free will: to choose God or not
God has special blessings for those who really choose His Way instead of the other way. Those who do so are the reason, as I understand it, why God created men in the first place.
Those who do not choose God in the end do have their reward in whatever pleasure or satisfaction they are able to get from the short period of time they are given here before the dirt is shoveled onto their faces. The two choices are seen in the words of Jesus here:
"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you,
They have their reward." Matt 6:1-2
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They have their reward". He spoke of the hypocrites, but also of all who not really choose Him. Their reward in the verses quoted was specifically the "glory of men", the approval of men, the carnal reward of men... but when their carnal existence ended so did their reward or if there was more for them in the hereafter, it was not "good" for only God is good.
Those who on the other hand chose God for real, would never die and their reward was that [unending Life] and whatever else God might add to them.
"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10
