Since We Are Sons of God

"He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."  John 8:44

This entire world system wheezes and struggles to draw even the most faint of breaths, for it languishes in the iron, merciless grip of a diabolical, sinister, blackhearted tyrant who lives only to accuse and steal, kill, and destroy.  This enemy has hatefully and joyously endorsed all of man's would-be saviors, all of humandkind's supposed super-men who through any means sought to bring their own utopia on this planet.  Every Antiochus Epiphanes, Nero, Hitler, Mao, Amin-- all of them combined-- in ferocity and brutality and viciousness all pale in comparison to man's common, unsleeping enemy.  I speak not metaphorically of cancer, AIDS, or some other seemingly undefatigable plague; I speak not in general terms of man's inhumanity to man, nor of geopolitical corruption.  No, I speak of a foe man has no hope of even gaining a single advantage, no chance of winning one battle in the war against him.  I speak of none other than Satan himself.  And no, I refer not to some frail buffoon in a ridiculously shiny, skin-tight red suit with an inanimate styrofoam tail attached, who awkwardly brandishes a plastic pitchfork.  I speak not of a mythical finger-tall imp who sits on the left shoulder of us all whispering mishievous schemes for us to perform.  I speak emphatically, based on the Word of God of an enemy who is like a ravenous, powerful lion which stalks from the brush unsuspecting prey.  (And actually, the lion knows its power and needs not disguise its plans, and fears no creature of the wild.)  This enemy's tongue is lethal and seductive.  This enemy is a great, red, fearsome dragon.  Satan, my friend, is more powerful than all man's alleged wisdom, technological capability, creativity, etc., because when we're done with that list, all of man's ammunition is ultimately chained to the reality of the physical.  Add to that that man is by nature depraved and loves his hedonistic, selfish world of his wicked flesh and does much of Satan's work for him.  Satan operates in the spiritual realm, powerfully impacting the physical universe.  Alone against him, man is woefully, miserably lost.  

Satan's sole purpose can be summed up in one word: corruption.  He lives to corrupt man himself, his resources, whichever he needs or chooses, his mind, but most of all his relationship or status with Almighty God, keeping him spiritually dead.  Satan eagerly wishes to keep man in opposition to God, and while he is powerless against the Holy Spirit's use of God's word to convict man of sin, righteousness, and judgment, he uses every tool at his and man's desposal to keep man's mind on the things of the flesh.  Again, he is powerless against God's Word and even more, (and to many Christians this may sound shocking but) Satan knows the Scriptures better than most of us do.  Let us be clear on this.  Satan has no ability to respond to the gospel message and he cannot be saved from his final fate.  He does, however, have an intellectual knowledge of God's Word.  He has a memory and mind that is not subject to common human frailties like disease, dementia, fatigue, or age.  He (and his minions) are present when God's Word is discussed, talked about, read aloud.  Besides all of that, he has had to know what is in the Scriptures as he has worked tirelessly to produce powerfully deceptive counterfeits.  When one wants to defraud a currency one must study it harder than even the printers of the currency.  Satan is not original, saints.  What we do in sin has its origin with him.  Satan knows, therefore, his fate and how the depths of hell shall mock and scorn him as the lost say “is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; is this the man that made the nations tremble” (Isaiah 14:16)?  Satan is bent on bringing as many down into the pit with him as possible.  Furthermore, let us dispense with then terribly incorrect and unscriptural notion that Satan is ruling his kingdom based in fiery hell.  The Bible is clear that Satan is free and mobile in the world of men as he “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8) and fears no man.  We must therefore, have access, and that unlimited, to weaponry that to him is completely irresistible.  We need the Holy Spirit.  

In this fast paced American society, our attentiveness to the cultivation of our relationship with Jesus Christ can sometimes suffer as our business with things that aren't necessarily sinful or harmful consume ever more increasing portions of our time and energy.  We, in our foolish thinking believe that “we'll be okay,” not even remembering that Satan desires to sift us as wheat.  The satanic bombardment is constant in our society.  Mindless television shows and movies, pointless athletic contests, pornography and reality shows clawing away at our decency all wear away at us, along with the normal toil of work and family responsibility.  We would do well to study closely how the Lord Jesus Christ approached the labor of his ministry and temptation.  

In Matthew chapter 4, Christ shows His people how to properly resist and overcome Satan and his tried and true methods to corrupt.  But first, we must have a truly proper understanding of all that was at stake here.  Satan knew exactly who Jesus was.  He was there when He was born; he was in the near background throughout Christ's childhood, biding his time, waiting for the optimum opportunity to corrupt his mortal enemy.  I believe that Satan knew from the Scriptures that the Messiah would one day come, hence his voracious, hateful pogroms against Israel throughout history, and I believe that he also knew that one of, if not the most essential missions on the agenda of the Messiah would be to wrest man out of his bondage.  He knew who Jesus was.  As Lucifer, Satan stood in the very presence of the Triune God and led the hosts of Heaven in worship; he knew.  And just as the underdog team in a playoff series dares to dream of pulling off the great upset of the highest-seeded team with the best players and record, I believe that Satan, in his inconceivable pride and folly actually thought that defeating Christ in the wilderness was actually possible.  After all, hadn't he corrupted man at Eden?  Hadn't he spurred man into such sin that Jehovah's judgment in the flood destroyed man, save eight?  Hadn't he oppressed and slaughtered the children of Israel over the centuries?  Hadn't he slithered his way into the very fabric of Jewish society with Baal, Asherah, and Moloch worship?  I believe Satan, just as the underdog when making a slew of critical, momentum-changing plays during the championship game, believed that he had a legitimate shot at unseating God from His Heavenly throne during those critical forty days.  

Close examination of the Scriptures shows us clearly as crystal that nothing-- absolutely nothing-- can take God by surprise.  God sees every outcome, every possibility, every impossibility all at once and not only does He know all, sees all, He has all power to act with no one in existence able to stay His mighty hand.  Jesus Christ was and is the only God-man, and while walking the roads of Judea those many years ago He divested Himself of the right to freely excercise His divine power as King of the universe, humbling Himself by becoming a servant-- the servant we could never be.  Christ limited Himself in His humanity but He never stopped being God incarnate.  He limited His own knowledge of certain things, choosing to trust the Father.  We know this from Mark 13:32, when the Lord says that not even He knew the day in which He would return to the earth.  In the humility of His earthly mission, He submitted to the Father's will exclusively.  This is important because in the most critical times of His life, aside from the crucifixion, Christ would be at His weakest physically, and in total isolation from the world.  Christ knew that He had to be tested.  His communion with the Father most assuredly revealed that, but never had Christ been subject to the unfettered temptation of Satan like He had been during His forty day fast in the wilderness.  All that has been said of Satan in the previous paragraphs, God knows to an infinite degree; He knew exactly what Christ was about to encounter yet the Holy Spirit didn't just lead Him into the wilderness, the Holy Spirit drove Him there, head-on against the sworn nemesis of all that is holy and righteous and good.  

Satan truly believed, I think, that this was the time when He could corrupt Jesus Christ.  Satan saw the physical weakness of the fast and he knew full well what fasting did to men.  Therefore, he attacked Jesus with what he knew appealed to selfish needs, motives, and desires.  While fasting is not the topic of this essay, this period of fasting fully crystalized the mission and focus of our Lord.  The key was His dependence on the guidance of the Holy Spirit even though the Holy Spirit brought Him to the furnace of trial.  Christ was ready though.  

The Lord said to His disciples of the Holy Spirit in John chapter 14, verse 26 that He would bring everything that He had said to them to their rememberance as part of the Spirit's work in their lives.  How would they know?  They had been immersed in Christ's teaching for three and a half years and it would be those things the Spirit would bring back as needed.  Why is this important?  It's important because the Holy Spirit did it for Jesus as well.  What was Jesus doing until age 30?  The Holy Spirit was preparing Him for these forty days.  Christ was studying God's Word, feasting on it, meditating on it, doing all the things He commanded His disciples to do with it.  If Christ Himself had to depend on the Holy Spirit and God's Word, how much more do we!  I believe that the temptation was a declaration of war on the kingdom of Satan and that his days were then numbered.

Christ, full of the Holy Spirit, having studied the Scriptures for decades was ready to both keep His desire for food in subjection and to place Satan into subjection.  Each temptation appealed to some aspect of selfish desire.  

Each temptation was to try to get Jesus to operate outside of God's will as Adam had done.  The first temptation appealed to His human need for the nourishment and satiating effects of food; the second temptation twisted God's word; the third temptation used the allure of power and the kingdoms of the world (which were Christ's by divine right).  All of them had one thing in common in that they all sought to motivate the Lord Jesus into making decisions outside the parameters set by His Father, the limits that He bound Himself to operate within.  Eating bread isn't evil; breaking a Holy Spirit-ordered fast is.  Trusting in God to protect (from injury and enemies) is actually a command; acting foolishly by intentionally placing oneself into danger is just that- foolish.  Ambition and desiring to possess that which belongs to you isn't wicked; taking possession of those things before God says so is.  It cannot be overstated the response of the Lord Jesus against our enemy.  Led by the Holy Spirit, He wielded God's Truth.  Satan wielded God's Truth, but he was not led by the Holy Spirit, nor could he be.  

In each temptation, the Word of God says that Satan said each time, “If you are,” “If you are,” “If you are.”  That's important as we come to the main point of this essay.  It was mentioned earlier that Satan knew exactly who Jesus was.  Jesus saw Satan expelled like lightning from Heaven at his rebellion.  Satan knew he could force Jesus to do nothing, so his only hope was to try to find weakness in the humanity of Christ; there was, of course none.  However, when Satan said “If” that could actually be “Since.”  He knew the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, but his being ultimately foolhardy led him to think that God had not planned for every contingency, reinforced every front of attack, foresaw all tactics he would use to attempt to gain an advantage.  I attest that the temptation of Christ was not to see if Jesus could stand against the power of Satan, but to prove that not only could He resist him, but that the power of God is unfathomably greater than the devil's little might and that there was absolutely no sin in Christ that could be used against Him.  For those of us who are blood-washed by Christ Jesus, the opening statements are the same by Satan and his demonic forces against us.  What God has wrought, he has no hope of undoing.  For those born-again, the Holy Spirit resides within us and his ability to corrupt us is limited by God's permissive will.  Furthermore, the Book of Job leads us to believe that Satan needs permission to attack the saints of God.  We are free from the bondage of sin and he cannot force us to do anything.

That leads us to the title of this piece.  Let us not behave as if we are sons of God, but let us behave righteously since we are sons of God; let us go boldly to the throne of grace since we are sons of God; let us love, worship, and serve Jehovah our God since we belong to Him.  Too much and too long have be behaved so un-Christlike, as if we're unsure of who and what we are in Christ.  Too many times we go outside the instruction of the Holy Spirit Who lives inside of us, grieving Him, placing ourselves in the jeopardy of divine chastisement.  Men-!  Since we are sons of God, let us pray like it, study God's Truth like it, stand without compromise in this last hour like it!

Satan knows who we are in Christ.  The problem, too often, is that we don't...

Until Jesus comes!