Have you noticed that God continually is blamed for horrible things that happen in the world? I imagine that when Israel was taken into captivity during their history, that they blamed God for not being available for them. Or, they blamed Him for not paying attention. Or, they blamed Him for no protecting them. The reality was that every time Israel was taken captive by a foreign nation, it was as a result of their own disobedience. It happened after years of warning, by multitudes of prophets. It is interesting to me today that we are still in the same place when it comes to blaming God.
We live in a world where people do crazy things, and then say that God told them to do it. We are living among people who claim to be Christians and do acts of hatred because they claim God moved them to do it. Even among well-meaning Christians, we sometimes do things that we want to do, and then blame God for our actions, when He had no part of what we have done.
Today I want to share a simple verse from James 1:13. James wrote, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.” James made it clear that God has nothing to do with temptation that draws a person toward an evil action. He cannot! That is totally opposite of His character! God could no more tempt a person than the devil could encourage a person to do good. The character of a person determines their actions.
God cannot tempt a person to evil, because evil and God do not intersect! The reason Jesus Christ had to die upon the cross was because this statement is true. The righteous character of God demanded a perfect sacrifice for sin. The cross is the closest God ever came to intersecting with evil. Our sin was placed on our sinless Savior, but He never sinned. Even there, God turned His face from His Son when our sin was upon Him. God with this kind of character, cannot tempt, or be tempted.
I am so glad that I serve a God without any blemishes! I am thankful that my redemption is not dependent upon a flawed God, but that I am fully trusting in this perfect, unchanging God for my salvation. James made it clear that if we are doing evil works, we cannot blame God for our failure. This means that a relationship with God gives us an opportunity to reverse the normal trend of sinning without hope. It means that we, who are prone to sin, now have the opportunity to yield to our Heavenly Father, and we can walk in righteousness. So, today, as we go through this day, we can walk in righteousness. If we do not, we cannot blame God!