Gospel Reflections #811: Only Through Jesus

Luke 4:8 "Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only," it is written.

This is one of the words spoken when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, His response to Satan's second temptation.

Satan said, "If you will worship me, I will give you all these kingdoms and their glory." But Jesus declared that worship and service belong only to God.

Satan knew that once God's plan of salvation was fulfilled, his power would be limited and ultimately taken away. Therefore, Satan tried to make a deal with Jesus.

Satan knew that if Jesus died to redeem humanity, his power would be severed and he would be destroyed.

Therefore, Satan used every means to tempt Jesus and devoted his strength to hindering the great work of salvation.

Yet Jesus remained undistracted by Satan's verbal temptations, faithfully carrying out God's plan for humanity's salvation.

It was this faithfulness of Jesus that led us to salvation.

We possess neither the strength nor the wisdom to overcome every temptation in this world.

Yet we have been granted the privilege of drawing near to Jesus and are guided to live by depending on Him.

God continually reveals to us what He is like.

We are led to discover this, receive it, savor it, and be filled with joy and peace.

The command to worship God as Lord and serve Him alone is an expression of God's trust in us. He believes that after fulfilling our needs and preparing the grace necessary for our journey ahead, we could never conceive of another god besides Him. He entrusts us with the choice, confident that we will worship and serve Him.

The more we come to know God, the more we desire to be with Him and joyfully serve Him.

AUTHOR'S BIO: This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San, who resides in Hiroshima, Japan. Masae is a dedicated student of the Bible with a deep passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on Gospel perspectives to reach out to others and spread the message of God's true love through a Christ-centered approach. We are sharing her insights here so that you, too, can experience the joy that comes from knowing and understanding the true Gospel and the love of God through Jesus Christ.