When Jesus was on the earth, no truth was attacked more than the truth that Jesus is the Son of God. Satan attacked Jesus by tempting Him with His identity as the Son of God. Satan tried to cause doubt within Jesus and cause Him to use His power for selfish gain (Luke 4:3, 6). It wasn’t that the enemy didn’t know who Jesus was, for he knew exactly who He was because in the previous chapter unclean spirits cried out, “Thou art the Son of God” (Mark 3:11). The reason Jesus was tempted in this way is because God knew that we too would be tempted in the same manner (Hebrews 4:15).
Today, Satan still attacks the eternal sonship of Jesus Christ (Nelson, p.19) by attacking the mind and faith of Christians (Nelson, p. 19). One of his greatest lies is convincing the Church that Jesus is a man of sorrows, a man who is acquainted with grief, bearing our sicknesses, carrying our sorrows, and living in poverty and that we need to be like Him (Isaiah 53:3, Luke 9:58).
It’s this half-truth lie and others like it that many religions, denominations, and divisions have been built. Did anyone ever stop to ask why Jesus bore so much? This lie of the devil robs the people of God of the life each has in and through Christ’s resurrection because they are forever viewing Him upon the cross, beaten.
Be Free
God disciplined the early church for its lack of truth. One example is when Peter confronted Ananias and Sapphira: “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? (Acts 5:3)” God wanted the church to know Satan the deceiver can ruin us if he can get us to believe and live a lie (Anderson). We’re told not be carried away by different and strange doctrines, and that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13: 8-9). He doesn’t change and will not change. He is eternal and He is the Son of God. It’s important that the Church to not just know of Jesus, but to know His word- for He is the Truth, and the truth will set us free and we shall be free indeed (John 8:32-36). We can’t depend upon others to believe for us, to read the word for us, to get to know God for us. Jesus said, “He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh to the Father but by me” (John 14:6). We are to “study to show ourselves approved by God, a workman not to be ashamed; rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
This Same Jesus
The disciples knew who Jesus was for Jesus asked them, “But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:15-16). It was a different story, when Christ was crucified; Simon Peter denied Jesus three times and the bible states he wept bitterly because of it (Luke 22:62). One can see the attacks upon their minds for they were doubting Jesus was the Christ (Luke 24:21). It was for the reason of doubt Jesus appeared to them on more than forty occasions (Luke 24:25, Acts 1:3). Jesus wanted to leave the disciples with a clear image of who He is:
… while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:10-11)
“This same Jesus…” who had just defeated sin and death appeared to His disciples stating that they would receive power “after the Holy Ghost” has come upon them to “be witnesses unto me…”(Acts 1:8). This is the view Jesus left us with; a Christ victorious, the Conqueror of death itself, having put all things under His feet, Satan was finally stripped of His authority of over us (1 Corinthians 15:27, Ephesians 1:22, Hebrews 2:8). Christ is now seated as Lord of Lords, and King of Kings in Heaven.
“This same Jesus…” who said:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” (Luke 4:18).
“This same Jesus…” who the disciples preached and witnessed to unto death, winning thousands to the Kingdom of God, demonstrating the power of God in truth and righteousness with signs and wonders following (Acts 5:16).
He is the Son of the Living God, the same as He has always been, Lord of Lords and King of Kings.