I am requested by L. C. Wilson to reconcile this petition in the Lord's Prayer with the statement in Jas. 1:13, that God tempts no man. The harmony between the two depends on the difference between tempting a man [311] and leading him into temptation. God, by his Holy Spirit, led Jesus into temptation, as it is said, "Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." The expressed purpose of the leading into the wilderness was that he might be tempted. It was the devil, however, and not God, who did the tempting. Now, we are taught to pray God not to deal with us as he did in this instance with his Son; for we are so weak that we should ever be afraid of temptation, and should pray not to be led into it lest we fall before it. If we thus pray we may trust that we shall not be led into such temptations as we can not successfully resist; and with this agrees the promise that we shall not be tempted above what we are able to bear.

[SEBC 311-312]