Safe in the Arms of the One Who Defeated Temptation

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

— John 12:27–32

Several years ago my wife, Kathy, took our sons, then ages three and five, on a trip to “Big Cat Country” at the St. Louis Zoo. Instead of being in cages, the lions and tigers roam about in large enclosed habitats, and visitors observe them from elevated skyways. Momentarily distracted by something, Kathy looked up to see that the boys had innocently walked through a child-sized gap in the fencing and climbed up on the rocks about 25 feet above the lion pen. They had been told they would be able to look down on the lions, and that’s exactly what they were doing. They had no idea how much danger they were in.

Kathy saw immediately, but knew that if she screamed she might startle the boys and anger the creatures below. The gap in the fence was too small for her to get through. So she knelt down, spread out her arms and said, “Boys, come get a hug.” They came running for the love that saved them from danger greater than they could perceive.

With similar love our Savior beckons us from temptation that would devour us. He knelt down into this world of spiritual jeopardy, spread his arms upon a cross, and beckoned us to an embrace of eternal love that even now calls us from danger. To gaze upon that act of sacrifice is to measure again the matchless love of Jesus and, by its magnitude, to be drawn from the dangers of temptation into the security of his arms.

Faith in the love that paid the penalty for our sin provides powerful motivation to flee temptation. Because God has given us this escape, we have reason to go to him in prayer to ask his forgiveness and seek his aid. The assurance of pardon we receive provides the peace of heart that is the Spirit’s ultimate weapon against temptation. After all, when I am perfectly satisfied, what can tempt me? When I am perfectly loved, what else do I desire? When I am eternally secure, what can threaten me?

Let us rest in the arms of the One who defeated sin and death eternally, and who gives us the grace—and the strength—to resist temptation now.



This material is adapted from chapter 4 of Bryan Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace: Delighting in the Joy That is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001).