In 1 John 3:8, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” Not destroy the devil; just his “work.” So the devil lives on, but his work, of controlling us through our sinful nature (Romans 7:5), has been broken. It means, then, that we can “overcome the evil one.”
Which is staggering in itself, that we can now “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). A good example of which was Jesus himself, who was “led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” With God’s full approval, then, the devil was let loose on Jesus, with Jesus in a highly fragile state physically too. Echoes of Satan being let loose on Job come to mind, when Job was in a highly fragile state too (Job 2:7).
The devil also used the same tactic on Jesus as he did on Job. In Job’s case the devil challenged God’s definition of Job as “blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil,” Job 1:8. “Is that so?” the devil says to God – “Then let me loose on Job so I can destroy everything he holds dear and I bet he’ll curse you to your face” (1:11, 2:5).
Could anything have been more unfair, more unjust, and more crushing of one’s confidence and trust in God than that? Job was struck to the heart: “What I dreaded most has happened to me. I have no peace, quietness or rest, only turmoil” (3:25-26). It looked like the end of him.
The devil then tried the same tactic on Jesus, challenging God’s definition of Jesus as “my Son, whom I love” (Matthew 3:17). “So prove you’re the Son of God then,” the devil says to Jesus in Matthew 4:3. And there’ll be no peace for Jesus either, unless he can turn stones into bread, throw himself off the temple for angels to catch him, and acknowledge the devil’s superiority (5-6, 8-9).
How tempting it must have been for Jesus to prove he was the Son of God in a show of power, being protected by angels, and putting this vicious, sneering little pipsqueak and his narcissistic God complex in his place.
But that’s not how Jesus overcame the evil one. Nor Job either. They overcame the devil, yes, and in Job’s case the devil only lasted two chapters and that’s the last we hear of him. And in Jesus’ case, “the devil left him” after only three attempts to destroy him (Matthew 4:11). From their examples, then, “What is it the devil has no power over?”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 