Jesus Is My Treasure
Is Christianity about what we can get out of it?
I hope the preceding question is thought provoking for you. It is for me. Gospel presentations often focus on God blessing us, giving us an abundant life, helping our marriage, taking care of our problems, making our life better, etc. The prosperity “gospel” takes this to an entirely different level by making the gospel the means to divine health, wealth, being able to write your own ticket in life, etc. Is this what the gospel is? Is this what Christianity is about? My answer would be a qualified no. None of these things are the gospel. Some of them can be by-products of the gospel. God is a good God. He is gracious and does bless us. However, a gospel presentation that only focuses on what we can get out of being saved is not a true gospel presentation. There is a lot more to Christianity than what we can get out of it. The gospel is that we have rebelled against our Creator, who is a holy God. Despite our sin, He still loves us unconditionally and came to die for us in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus lived the perfect life we failed to live and died the death we deserve to die. He paid the price for our sins on the cross in order to satisfy the righteous wrath of God. He rose again three days later to give us new life. When we repent of sin and trust Jesus, the great exchange of our sin for Jesus’ righteousness takes place and God justifies us and makes us His children. That is the gospel.
The Good News is the person and work of Jesus. He is so much better than outward blessings. He gives things that money cannot buy. Outward things do not last, but Jesus is always there for us.
Philippians 3:7-10 says, “7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Louie Giglio’s Passion ministry has written something called the 268 Declaration that is basically a vision statement for the ministry. The first declaration is, “Because I was created by God and for His glory, I will magnify Him as I respond to His great love. My desire is to make knowing and enjoying God the passionate pursuit of my life.”
I reject the prosperity gospel, but I (and probably all of us) need to focus more consistently on simply enjoying Jesus instead of trying to do something for Him or getting something from Him. He is enough. He is my great treasure, and I need to live like it.
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