Is Jesus Your Everything?

by Nick Fox

Is Jesus your everything? Or do you put your confidence in your past and all the things that you have done thinking that that will please God?

Paul was one man that had the ability to boast in his past. Paul had done so many great things in the eyes of men. Paul had obeyed all the ritual traditions as a Jew. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews and a Pharisee. He persecuted the church and kept the Law fully. In all these things though Paul counted all this as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.

He uses the idea of loss and gain in terms of banking. All those things that Paul thought had value in his life were actually worthless compared to Christ. Really if you want to think about it, it wasn’t just worthless, but it had negative value. Paul lost all things that were close to him in order for him to gain Christ. He wanted to be close to God and to know God.

Paul describes his past as “rubbish”. This is the only time this word occurs in the New Testament and it has the idea of worthlessness or filth. Paul wanted to distant himself from his past knowing that he can gain Christ. He can be close to Christ. He can be like Christ.

Righteousness cannot come from the Law. The Law condemns us of our sin. Many Christians start to think in their mind that God is righteous towards them because of what they have done. We have done nothing that can make us righteous in God’s eyes. Our righteousness can only come through faith in Christ.

Do you know Christ? I sure don’t. Paul wanted to know Christ. I need to know Christ. The power of his resurrection is that God uses the very same power that he used to raise Christ from the dead is now being used in our lives daily. All of the problems that you are going through that you have no power to control...Christ has power to control it.

We have the ability to suffer with Christ. This seems like a crazy idea for us in our western culture. Did you know that Paul had joy in his sufferings? He was in prison while writing this book and this book has a huge theme of joy. We can share in Christ’s sufferings.

Do you consider all of your glories to be loss and the knowledge of Christ as gain? Is Jesus your everything?