One of the Most Important Tasks of Jesus

Perhaps the most important task Jesus did in creating the “WAY” while He was a man was to defeat Satan (the Devil) so that all other man can also defeat Satan simply by following Jesus as the Leader (John 14:6).

Obviously, it was an order and arrangement made by God when Jesus was being led by the Holy Spirit to the Wilderness (there to be tempted by Satan), not led by Satan. Let us see how Jesus defeated Satan (the Devil):

“Then Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted there by the Devil. For forty days and forty nights he ate nothing and became very hungry. Then the Devil came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, change these stones into loaves of bread.’

But Jesus told him, ‘No! The Scriptures say, “People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every word of God.”’

Then the Devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, ‘if you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, “He orders his angels to protect you. And they will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.”’

Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘Do not test the Lord your God.’

Next the Devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him the nations of the world and all their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will only kneel down and worship me.”

“Get out of here, Satan.” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, “You must worship the Lord your God; serve only him.”’ (Matthew 4:1-10 NLT)

In the above case, Satan tried to tempt Jesus from three different aspects:

1) Satan tried to tempt Jesus through His ‘physical needs’. Jesus was very hungry because He had not eaten any food for forty days.

2) Satan challenged the ‘pride’ (or ego) of Jesus and tried to provoke Jesus to do something according to his human ambition.

3) Satan tried to offer ‘lust’ as a bait, aiming to take Jesus as his slave, as he had done to Eve.

Satan is the Father of Lies. Besides lying, he always behave like a fisherman using ‘ambiguous ideas’, ‘material’ and/or ‘physical temptations’ as his bait. Once man followed Satan and became his slave, Satan will then torture or apply more and more pressure to his followers. Satan is not gentle, he has been trying very hard to pull the followers of God by grabbing their sleeves, belt, feet or hair (not the proper way or polite way) if he failed in using his baits. Satan wants his followers (slaves) to accompany him all the way to the ‘lake of fire’ with both physical and spiritual sufferings.

If we love the world (everything we can see and feel in this world, including the loved ones) more than we love God, we may find it extremely difficult in following the ‘WAY’. However, we must understand that God promises Eternal Life. God did not promise His believers that they would live in this world healthily forever. Frankly, this world has been contaminated by Satan. Besides everyone must die, this world will be cremated completely one day as well.

No one should take Satan’s ‘baits’ or his ‘tortures’ lightly. The winners are those who visit Jesus (the Words of God, who is also the Spirit and the Life – John 6:63) frequently and repent frequently. Only God can give us guidance and sufficient power to defeat Satan (the Devil), overcome this world and looking forward to His rewards as well as Eternal Life.

Jesus said: “The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of WATER and the SPIRIT.” (John 3:5 NLT) Amen.