Luke 4:6-8
and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’”
Tag: Satan Lies to Us in His Temptation of Us
The sins we encounter and succumb to that are a result of Satan’s temptation come as a result of his deception of us. Satan is a liar:
John 8:44
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
In the above passage we read about Satan tempting Christ. Christ was brought to the desert, in the Spirit of God, to be tempted. Satan tempts Him three ways and the approach is to offer the world to Jesus. Jesus, of course, with God, in the beginning, made the world. Yet, Satan tells Jesus (boasts toward Jesus) that he was offering Jesus “all this authority an their glory, for it has been delivered to me and I give it to whom I will.” It is hear that Satan uses his masterful use of distorted truth to tempt Jesus. Satan has, indeed, been given some authority in this world. Jesus own words confirm that:
John 12:31
Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.
Satan is the “ruler of this world.” However, the offer Satan makes goes contrary to God’s plan and Christ’s redemptive purpose. The world will be Christ’s world and He will be the authority of it. But, He first must suffer and raise again. It is God who will give Him the authority over the all things. After His resurrection, note what Christ said to the disciples:
Matthew 28:18
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
As Jesus ministers on the earth, note the impact His teaching had on the multitudes who heard Him:
Luke 4:36
And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”
Christ had authority before the earth was created, but through the redemptive act it would be redeemed from the hand of the power of this world. Once sin came into the world, Satan was able to claim victory over this world. Christ, however, redeemed the world, as well as us, through his death, burial and resurrection. Satan lied to Jesus just enough to tempt Him to forgo the death and simply take the reign. If Christ would have fallen to the temptation our redemption would not have been completed. We have to remember that Satan’s approach is to twist the truth just enough to keep us from the truth and to believe his manufactured lies. What lies are you believing that Satan is telling you?
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