In the Lord’s Prayer, what does Christ have in mind when he says, “lead us not into temptation”?

He has in mind exactly what the words say — he is telling us to petition God to not lead us into temptation. The contrast immediately follows: “but deliver us from evil” or the evil one. Temptations are completely under God’s control, and of course he leads people to temptations, as the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. As James 1:13 says, he does not tempt, neither can he be tempted; however, he initiates, sustains, and directs temptations through Satan and other created “things” (such as our lusts). The distinction is clear: God is not Satan, and God is not our lusts, but he causes and controls both in order to tempt people to sin.

Just as we know that God decrees many negatives things, such as sicknesses and disasters, and God’s precepts teach us to face the negative things that he decrees (to pray to be healed, to endure, to comfort others, etc.), God also leads people into temptation, but his precept is for us to desire not to be tempted, and when tempted, to fight the temptation. This is analogous to the fact that it is God who decrees persecution against Christians, but it does not follow that we should surrender or compromise because of persecution. Rather, it is God’s precept that we stand firm under it.

Is God the author of sin? Yes. Is God the tempter to sin? No. These are two different roles, but the Bible clearly makes him the leader-into-temptation. This does not really distance God from temptation, so if this is what someone is looking for, he will not find it. However, it is still a distinction that the Bible makes, but it is not an attempt to metaphysically distance God from evil.

What does it take for God himself to be the tempter? He could say to a person, “Go kill that person.” What would be the problem with this? If he says that to a person, it would not be a temptation, but it would be a precept or a command, so that by definition it would be morally right and even obligatory for the person to perform it. Consider the command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. If God tells one person to kill another, it would not be murder.

So the distinction between the leader-into-temptation and the tempter is not intended to distance God from evil — we are not interested in that at all. It is a necessary distinction because whatever God tells a person to do is, by definition, right and obligatory. Therefore, he cannot be the tempter, since temptation is persuasion or enticement to deviate from or transgress something that God has said. If God himself does it, it would not be temptation, but a moral precept and command.