Good Goals, Evils Means, and the True Nature of Sin
Dan Doriani is the Interim Pastor at Briarwood Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Birmingham, Alabama. He is also a Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Covenant Theological (PCA) Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.
In the summer of 2024, I was working on an article on Jesus’ temptations for The Master’s Seminary Journal when, in the hope that it would be a good source, I read Doriani’s commentary on Matthew.
Discussing Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4:1-11, he wrote:
“Almost all temptation offers something intrinsically good, whether it be food, wealth, security, authority, or knowledge. Adultery is not a sin because sex is wicked but because the adulterer takes another person’s spouse. The evil lies in taking at the expense of another or taking what belongs to another. Fornication is not sin because sex is evil but because the unmarried take a privilege of marriage in the wrong place, at the wrong time—before they are married. Almost by definition, temptation offers something good, whether it be pleasure, comfort, or security.
Where nothing good is offered, no temptation exists. For example, because I do not like them, I cannot be tempted to eat canned peas; they hold no appeal. A normal person cannot be tempted to eat spiders, since normal people detest them. Temptations to eat occur only if something tastes good, or if someone is starving. If eating pizza were a sin, then most everyone would be tempted. If God prohibited pizza, we would try to find a way around the prohibition. We would change the recipe a bit and call it Bozzoli so we could indulge our desires.
There is something attractive or desirable in every temptation. If there were no attraction, how could it tempt us? This must hold even for Jesus; to say otherwise is to deny His full humanity and the Scripture that says He was “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (Heb 4:15). So then, temptation does not usually involve a demonic voice whispering that we should lie, steal, or strike.
Even the evil of terrorism rests on the pursuit—the perverted pursuit, to be sure—of something good. Terrorists pervert justice but also pursue it. They think someone has done an evil that must be punished. They pervert the idea of sacrificing one’s life for a cause, but terrorism does demand a willingness to sacrifice oneself for a cause, and if properly directed, that willingness is good.”1
At first, Doriani seems to argue that almost every form of temptation includes an element in it that the person tempted calls “good,” even though what they’re pursuing is not truly good. But by the time you get to the end of the quote, it seems that he’s arguing that all temptations include an offer for something that is objectively good, with only the pursuit of this objective good being perverted.
In other words, he seems to be arguing that all temptations are a desire for a good thing through an evil means.
Since I was unsure of what he was arguing, I continued investigating. I found that he recently preached on temptations at Briarwood Presbyterian Church. In this sermon on Matthew 4:1-11, he taught:
“…temptation actually is always invited to do something that has an element of good in it. That’s how it tempts us.”
“…all temptation, I said it briefly a moment ago, invites something that is good in itself…”
“…You love your spouse, heart, soul, mind and strength. It is with your body. So sex is good. The temptation does not exist because sex is bad, but because we’re tempted to take another person physically when they’re not yours to take them. It’s not the right place, not the right time. You don’t have a right when you unite physically, but don’t unite in your heart and your will. You’re going through a life uniting act without a life uniting intent. And so it’s intrinsically deceitful. But the problem isn’t was [SIC] sex. Sex is good, God created sex. And so it is with all temptations.”
“…We see parallels to our temptations. It’s always something good in and of itself.”
Repeatedly, Doriani argued that all temptations include an offer for something that is good “in and of itself.” Because of this error in understanding temptation, he argues that adultery, terrorism, and perhaps every other heinous sin has an element of good in it that tempts the sinner.
However, that’s not what the Bible teaches about temptation and sin.
There are two glaring errors in Doriani’s argument. First, he taught that there is only one form of temptation, where we are offered good things through evil means. Second, he argued that you can have a good goal with an evil means and still pursue it.
There are Two Forms of Temptation
First, contrary to Doriani, the Bible says that there are two forms of temptation: 1) temptation for a good thing offered through an evil means and 2) temptation for an evil thing. Jesus was tempted by good things—food, angel protection, and to be the King of kings—that were offered by an evil means, the devil (Matt 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13).
Each of the devil’s offers would be given to Jesus by God, His Father, during His earthly ministry or after the cross. That’s why the devil quoted Scripture to Jesus, because he was offering Jesus good things that only belonged to God. But Christ rejected the devil, rejected the evil means entirely, though He desired these good gifts from His Father.
If Jesus had submitted to the devil, not only would the means to the good objects be distorted, but the good objects would also be distorted. God not only designed the good objects that the devil offered Jesus, He designed the means through which Jesus would attain them. If Jesus had changed the means, He would change the good objects as well.
And that’s why the devil tried to get Jesus to take a route designed by him, not God, to get to the good objects; because if you twist God’s design, the means, you twist God’s ends, the good objects, as well. In other words, if Jesus had desired to obey the devil, He no longer would have desired the good things from His Father. Good objects desired from or received from the devil are evil, not good.
The second form of temptation, a temptation for an evil object, is described in James 1:13-15: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
James says God cannot tempt and that sinners are lured and enticed by their own lusts from within. We tempt ourselves with sin and death, not with good things. That does not describe Jesus’ temptations, only the temptation of sinners.
When our flesh, our lusts, desire evil from within our hearts, we’ve already begun to sin at the first evil inclination or desire. Paul tells us to walk by the Spirit so we will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16).
And Paul calls His flesh and fleshly desire “sin” multiple times in Romans 7:
- “But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness” (v. 8).
- “…sin came alive and I died” (v.9).
- “For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me” (v. 11).
- “It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure” (v. 13).
- “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (v. 18).
- “…with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (v. 25).
Because the flesh and all that it produces is sin, we must turn from it and walk in the Spirit instead. When we turn from the lusts of the flesh and walk in the Spirit, we should rejoice. We should also repent for having had desires for sin in our hearts. The goal is to let the flesh burn to no purpose and, thus, to burn itself out. The more we reject it and the more we walk in the Spirit, the more our fleshly desires are mortified.
You Cannot Have a Good Goal With An Evil Means
Second, Doriani does not understand the biblical principle that you cannot have a good motive or goal with an evil means or an evil motive or goal with a good means. If your motive is good, your means must be good as well, and vice versa. God designed both the good ends in life and the good means to receive them.
This is why the apostle Paul speaks of the flesh and the Spirit as opposed to one another in Galatians 5:16-17. This is also why Paul says that one can walk in the flesh or the Spirit, not both in the same instance (Gal 5:16-25). A thought is not both flesh and Spirit. It is either of the flesh or of the Spirit. The same is true for an action.
Additionally, James speaks of sin and death being brought by our lusts, luring and enticing us (James 1:13-15). He says that something God cannot do, which is tempt us to sin, is how sin always begins in our hearts: our lusts tempt us, conceive actual sin, and always grow into death. He does not say that holiness or goodness ever produces or leads to sin or that lust in our hearts is ever aimed at anything good.
Our internal lusts are always lusts and are always aimed at sin and death, not goodness. Only the Spirit within Christians can be aimed at good. Thus, we can never say to God, “I had a good motive for the evil I did.” Or, to use the implications of Doriani, “I was pursuing good when I had that affair,” or, “I was pursuing good when I committed that act of terrorism.”
Conclusion
In conclusion, my hope is that Doriani, and any Christian who has adopted his errors, will reconsider. Sin is never the pursuit of a good goal through an evil means. Rather, sin is always the pursuit of an evil goal through an evil means.
Because the moment you desire an evil means, you desire an evil goal.
- Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew, vol. 1 in Reformed Expository Commentary Series (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 2008), 70-73. ↩︎
