“American Idol” contestant charged with killing his wife

Caleb Flynn competed on American Idol in 2013, noting that his wife, Ashley, encouraged him to audition. “I love my wife more than anything,” he said on the show. He earned a “Golden Ticket” to Hollywood Week but did not advance further.

Now he is on trial, accused of fatally shooting Ashley in the back of the head inside their home on February 16 and then staging the scene to look like an intruder had broken in. He has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges.

Here’s the part of the tragic story that caught my eye: a woman named Alleigha Botner testified in the trial that she had an affair with Flynn for roughly a year and a half and gave him an ultimatum about their relationship just weeks before the killing. She recalled Flynn later telling her, “If I could kill her and not go to jail, I would.”

She admitted knowing Flynn was married when their relationship became sexual, and acknowledged that she knew what they were doing was wrong. “I never morally justified it,” she testified. “I just did it. Even while I knew it was wrong.”

No one can crucify themselves without help

Jewish theology counts 613 different laws of their faith. The US Congress has enacted more than thirty thousand statutes since 1789. But even if we boiled all morality down to the Ten Commandments, they would still be more laws than we can keep.

This is because knowing what is right and doing what is right are not always or often the same thing.

Even Paul the apostle, the greatest theologian, apologist, evangelist, and missionary in Christian history, admitted, “I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18–19).

Here was the root of his problem: “If I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (v. 20).

Every fallen human possesses a sin nature that is endemic to the human condition, which is why “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Even Christians, born again as the children of God, must still wrestle with the “old self” which we must “put off” daily (Ephesians 4:22).

However, this is something we cannot do for ourselves, by ourselves.

Paul testified, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). Here’s the catch: no one can crucify themselves without help. You could nail one hand or wrist to the cross, but how would you nail the other one? This is why Paul used the passive tense, “I have been crucified,” rather than the active, “I have crucified myself.”

Like Paul, you and I need the help of God’s Spirit if we are to be conformed to the character of God’s Son (Romans 8:29). Otherwise, with every sin we commit today, we will later say, “I just did it. Even while I knew it was wrong.”

“The essence of temptation”

Of course, Satan doesn’t want us to do what I’m suggesting.

He knows the temptations we can defeat in our strength, so he doesn’t waste his time with them. He knows, for instance, that I have never and will never use cocaine, so I don’t expect to be confronted by a drug dealer today. However, there are other sins I won’t tell you about that I am much more likely to commit.

As a result, we can know that every temptation we face is one we cannot defeat in our capacity. But Satan also knows that every temptation we face is one we can defeat in the strength of the Lord. Our enemy is familiar with this promise: “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

So the devil tempts us to commit sins while assuring us that we can defeat this temptation if we just try hard enough for long enough. At its heart, his appeal is always the same: to be your own god (Genesis 3:5), to live life on your own terms and resist temptation in your own capacity.

As Neil T. Anderson warned, “The essence of temptation is the invitation to live independently of God.”

This way, when we inevitably fail, not only does the devil win the battle at the moment, but he might persuade us to stop waging the war. If we lose every time, why keep fighting?

“Temptation may be a blessing to a man”

FB Meyer noted, “Temptation may be a blessing to a man when it reveals to him his weakness and drives him to the Almighty Savior. Do not be surprised, then, dear child of God, if you are tempted at every step of your earthly journey.”

The key is to turn every temptation immediately into a prayer, to admit that we cannot defeat this attack in our strength, or we would not be facing it, and to claim the power of God by which to defeat the Enemy. In this way, we use Satan’s attacks against him.

As Erasmus observed, the devil hates nothing so much as for evil to be used for good.

Will the devil hate your response to the next temptation you face?