What you cannot lose

I wanted to elaborate on what I had mentioned in an earlier post-- the idea that Jesus + nothing = everything. It is essential to Christian doctrine, and somehow, lost on us, especially in America. 

We do not believe that Jesus himself can satisfy, fulfill, and amaze us as much as stuff can. Our Christianity becomes about what God can do for us. We begin to play this bizarre game where we barter with the Almighty: “I’ll attend church, not cuss, and be nice to my spouse if you’ll keep me healthy, wealthy, and driving a nice car.” As if he owed us anything. As if we could give to Him--the maker of all things-- that we might be repaid. When we do this, we cheapen the gospel. We cut ourselves short of the joy available to us in Jesus. We also miss the freedom offered in Christ. 

If you’ve bought into the “Wealth, Health and Prosperity Gospel” before, or if you’ve been flipping channels and some greasy-haired televangelist gave you the impression this is what the faith is all about, I’d encourage you to actually read the Bible. John the Baptist—who Jesus called him “the best man born of woman,” was beheaded by a King mesmerized by a stripping teenager. Paul, who wrote the majority of the new testament, endured persecution for his entire ministry. He often wrote his letters from prison, and was ultimately beheaded in Rome. In the end, they give their lives, but what they gained was something more permanent.

I touched on this before; the idea that if our hope is in Christ, the circumstances of life have no power over us. If our joy is tethered to ephemeral things, we live in danger of being crushed. And all things, apart from things unseen, pass away. Guaranteed. Jesus will not. He cannot be taken from you.

This has been said before, and said better, by men much wiser than me. Jim Elliot was a missionary killed for spreading the gospel in Ecuador. He said this:

 

What you cannot keep: your life.

What you cannot lose: Jesus, and his promise.

Even as I write these words, I feel small. This is beyond me. It’s something I still have to press and pray to fully believe. But as much as it fills me with conviction, it fills me with happiness: the idea that he’s inviting me to experience joy in him that can’t be stolen! That will outlast everything else in my life, good or bad! What sweet comfort this should be to me, and to all who believe.