Truth Trumps Lies

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

TRUTH TRUMPS LIES

Mark 1:12-13

12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, 13 and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

NIV

Mark simply does not give us the details of those forty days other than giving us three points. One, it was the Spirit who sent him out into the desert, and two, it was Satan himself who tempted Jesus, and three, He was attended to by angels. Well, actually Mark also tells us Jesus was with the wild animals. From the other gospel accounts, we know Satan tempted him with at least three areas and that Jesus always answered those temptations with the word. What we are not reminded of is that Satan was once Lucifer the angel and at one time was in the presence of God, where Jesus was before the foundation of the world. So what we have to know is that these two have history, in fact, Jesus is God, or one of the three in one was involved in the casting of Lucifer, as his rebellion, to earth. Satan thinks he can trick Jesus now that He is in the form of man, but Satan is wrong, for Jesus did not yield, but stood His ground. Jesus knew all that Satan was saying was a lie, for that is all he can do, lying in his native language. But, here is where we need to pay close attention to. We too have a history with Satan, for he was once our ruler. Perhaps we did not actively proclaim him as our ruler, but if we were not proclaiming Jesus as our Lord, we were living in sin, then Satan was in charge of our lives. We were living a lie, as we were not living as God had intended us to when he created man. God created us in His own image, which means we were created to be holy and blameless, as He is. We were not created to be a god, but to be like Him, in His image, three in one. We are a spirit, with a soul, who lives in a body. It is this human nature we have that fell to the temptations of Satan and we lived under his influence for a number of years. So, in that sense, we have a history with Satan, we know his ways, his lies, and his deception. However, as we now know Christ, and have rejected Satan by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we will be under attack with temptations to draw us back away from Christ. Just as he tried to trick Jesus, he will try to trick us. But he can only speak lies. He cannot tell us any truth at all, but we know the truth, we know Jesus, who is the truth and the way and the life. When we stand firm, take our stand against his schemes, we too are attended to by angels. Perhaps not in the same sense Jesus was, but we can be assured that we are attended to after having a battle with Satan. When we overcome his temptation, we feel a sense of calm, a sense of the Spirit soothing us, comforting us, assuring us, that the battle was his, that He always overcomes Satan. Jesus quoted the word and the word is truth, so truth always trumps lies.