For a number of years now I have pastored college churches. Teaching one class at the college each semester has helped me to keep in touch with the student population. And it continues to remind me of the foolishness of the grading system!

Students learn early to play games as an escape from studying the very subjects they supposedly came to study! They try to analyze the teacher and his techniques. They coast along most of the semester and then try to cram just enough at the last minute to make it through with a passing grade.

My students try to outwit my attempts to teach them something, so I have begun to try to outwit them! In the process I’ve come up with “contract grading.” I guarantee every student who will attend class regularly and faithfully do the homework day by day a passing grade–no matter how poorly he may do on the tests and quizzes.

The amazing thing (and the amusing thing) is that after years of teaching and hundreds of students, not once has a student who attended class regularly and handed in the daily work, failed to make a passing grade anyway. By the time he sits through the lectures and does the homework, he has no trouble passing the tests and quizzes!

But my promise still stands. Those who do faithful work day by day will be delivered at exam time!

God has promised to deliver the godly from temptation. You can read it in 2 Peter 2:9.

“the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:”

But who are the “godly”? Have you ever had the idea that if you were “godly,” you wouldn’t need any help handling temptation? Psalm 1:6 says,

“The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

So the godly are the righteous–and the ungodly are the unrighteous. Those who are godly, or righteous, are the ones who are not depending on themselves, or their own righteousness, but on the righteousness of Christ. These are the ones the Lord knows how to deliver out of temptation.

Those who are ungodly, or unrighteous, are the ones who depend upon their own righteousness and their own power. But they have none! Even God is unable to deliver from temptation those who insist on trusting in themselves.

Would it be safe to say that the Lord is not able to deliver the ungodly out of temptation? How often have you been defeated in your attempts to live the Christian life because, in a crisis, you try to draw on reserve power that you don’t have? It’s like trying to pass an examination for which you’ve made no preparation. Or writing a check when you have no money in the bank to cover it.

The Ministry of Healing, page 510, tells us that

“when we permit our communion with God to be broken, our defense is departed from us. Not all your good purposes and good intention will enable you to withstand evil. You must be men and women of prayer.”

As you seek the Lord day by day and are changed by beholding Him, you learn the futility of depending upon your own feeble strength. When you stop trying to fight sin and the devil yourself, then the Lord is finally able to bring deliverance. He has all power in heaven and in earth, and when you rely upon His power, victory is assured.