Is it a sin to be tempted on this edition of Truth and Love?

I'm Heath Lambert and you're listening to Truth and Love, a podcast of the Association of Certified

Biblical Counselors, where we seek to provide biblical solutions for the problems

that people face. This week on the podcast, we are answering a crucial question, and that is,

are our temptations sinful? Is it sinful to be tempted? This is a crucial question for us to answer on the podcast because there is

really a debate raging in larger evangelicalism about whether that's the case or not, particularly

as it relates to the issue of homosexuality. And the debate is, is it wrong merely to commit homosexual acts or to be tempted

to commit homosexual acts? The reason this is so important is because there are some people

who want to argue for a homosexual orientation that want to put this orientation in the category of

temptation and say that the presence of a homosexual desire is not a sin but is a temptation.

And since it's a temptation, it's not a sin and therefore not wrong.

Another reason why this is such a crucial question for us to answer does not have

merely to do with what's raging out there in an evangelical debate, but with what's raging in

our own hearts. I have talked with, I don't even know how many people just in the last week

in the context of doing my ministry that are wondering about what's going on in their

own lives. And when they are tempted by something, it could be homosexuality, it could be

general sexual desire, or it could be anything else. And they wonder, when I am tempted,

do I need to repent? And so this is an issue that has implications for the larger

conversations that evangelicals are having, and it's a conversation that has an impact on the

lives we're living as we walk before the face of God. And so we want to talk about whether it is

a sin to be tempted. To answer the question, I want to look at

Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15, and there the Bible says, we do not have a high priest who cannot

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