All for Christ or nothing at all

All for Christ or nothing at all.

No, that is not the gospel. Jesus doesn’t tell us to give away everything we have before coming to him, or even after coming to him. Once we are Christ’s everything we have is his, and everything he has is given, or will be given, to us. But, when it comes to the heart, Jesus doesn’t want anything but the seat of honor at our heart’s table.

“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters — yes, even their own life — such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” — Luke 14:25-27

Those who ridicule the faith handed down to us by Christ will say that is a contradiction as Christ and the apostles tell us to love one another, even our enemies. It is true; we are commanded to love one another, so the question begs, “What was Jesus talking about here?”

From scripture we learn that Abraham was a man of great faith. God even asked Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac, to show his faith to God, on Mount Moriah. Abraham obeyed. He took his son, made the trek to what is now Jerusalem, scaled the mountain, bound his son and prepared to plunge a dagger into his chest, but God stopped him, and provided Abraham a substitution sacrifice in the form of a ram. What we see in Abraham is a willingness to abandon everything for God.

This is the same for Jesus and us.

R.A. Torrey wrote, “the affection and devotion to His glory, which Jesus demands, are such as can be properly yielded only to God. As we are to trust Christ for everything, so we are to give up everything for Him, should He demand the sacrifice. This was a doctrine which the Lord repeatedly taught… See at once how uncompromising is the Savior’s demand. Father, mother, son, daughter, wife and even life itself are to be sacrificed, if devotion to Christ necessitates the surrender. All creatures, and all things, and our very lives are to be to us as nothing when compared to Christ. God Himself demands no less of us, and no more.”

So, are we living by faith if we are not willing to give up everything for the sake of Christ? Absolutely not, we are living in denial, and most ashamedly we are not living for the glory of Christ.

Those of us here in America have become spoiled. None of us have been asked to give up everything for Jesus, other than enduring an occasional snicker from a rogue soul there isn’t much we suffer inside this great nation.

Still, we should all be ready for all of that to go away. In fact, it is imperative that we desire the outside world and its corrupting influences to leave us alone so that we can devote every thought, every desire, every wish, every hurt and every ounce of joy to our beloved Jesus, who did give up all of those things in order that we may bask in and share in his glory, bought for us at the cross of Calvary.

So, we come back to our opening line, all for Christ or nothing at all. As Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 5: 14,15, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all were dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”

Many of us live for many things, and not just worldly and unholy things. Many live for their families, many live to serve others and to offer their assistance if needed anywhere. These motives are beautiful, but the sad truth is, without Christ, they are just empty gestures. It is a good thing to feed a man who is hungry, but if no prayers are offered for him, if the gospel is not shared, his hunger will come back and his soul will be just as hollow as ever.

But, with Christ, the man who desires food spirit will no longer crave for something because it will be filled with the Spirit of Christ.

When and only when we abandon ourselves, as noted last week, will we be able to be utilized by God.

Christians, we are strangers in this land, and with each passing day and minute, our status as one being counted in the fold of Christ, makes us more unwelcome in this wretched world. Knowing this, what makes us hold to it and its wicked enticements? We should seek to throw it all away, even that which is closest to us, in order to serve Christ more fully.

In this day and age of “anything goes,” people the world over say Jesus was a teacher of love, he wanted us to love everybody all the time and spread that love. A whole social gospel has risen up in the terrible wake of this flawed teaching.

Yes, Jesus Christ is the embodiment of God’s love for us. Through Christ’s love, displayed at the cross, we have been reconciled to God. Yes, Christ and the apostles taught us to love one another, but we are taught another lesson, we are to never let anything, even our father, mother, wife and children come between us and Christ.

Jesus was unambiguous — it’s all or nothing.

Hopefully, this is a message we all are hearing, and one that is still being preached to us in pulpits and by the Holy Spirit. Nothing else should matter to us but Christ, and we should be willing to climb the steep heights of Moriah and put it all to death for our Savior, which is mirrored in our salvation when we put to death our sinful selves and become a new creature in Christ.

That is our destiny, and may it come quickly Lord Jesus.