Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”
- The Gospel According to Luke
This was part of one of the readings on Sunday morning. The part where the devil claims that all earthly government is in his gift really stood out for me. Note that Jesus does not dispute this claim, but declines to worship the devil. How are we to interpret this? I don’t reckon that there is any inducement the devil could offer to entice Jesus to worship him, but it would be a feeble temptation indeed if the devil were lying about his ownership of earthly government. I reckon that the devil spoke truly in this instance and that this represented what would have been a great temptation. So, I conclude that political power derives from the devil, and those who seek it must somehow please the devil to gain it.
2 comments:
I think I know why Jesus didn't dispute the claim. In the Garden before the Fall, Adam was given rulership of the whole world (under God of course). Read Genesis 1:26-28. So Adam was the ruler under God. When tempted by the serpent (Satan), Adam traded authorities from God to Satan to supposedly become his own god. Satan was now the authority over Adam's rule, so even if what Adam did was illegitimate, the devil now had de facto authority over all the world and its system. Since Adam didn't have children yet, every offspring from then on out would be under the bondage and control of sin and the devil, because that had all already been given over to him. If your dad entrusted you with his baseball card collection to give to your offspring, but you bacame a smack addict and hawked the collection to the pawn shop to get your fix, the pawn shop could still claim a rightful kind of ownership, even if you messed up.
When Christ came, He had to live perfectly under God's law, never abdicating authority to the devil via sin. Since he did this perfectly, and since He was God Himself, He regained the ability to control God's creation. He could now, by breaking the power of the devil and sin in all His people (this is where redemption comes in - redemption is "buying back"), reclaim the earth and restore the rightful rulership of the world to His own people. Jesus was rightful heir, but had to undergo death to show that He had power over even death. The devil was offering Him an advance on His claim, which was the same temptation as Adam had. Two and a half years ago, we bought a house with a yard, and now we exercise "dominion" over that piece of land according to God's rules, not the devil's. We, by lawful transaction, "took it back."
So, when people exercise political control of others (the devil's idea) instead of self-control of their own property (God's idea), they are in a very real sense, just like you concluded, deriving their power from the devil. Politicians really do sell their soul to the devil in order to control others. That's why they're called snakes.
Also notice in Genesis that Adam (and mankind) was given authority over the earth and the beasts and plants, but NOT other people.
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