Jesus + Nothing = Everything

I stopped into our wonderful Communication Director’s office the other day and noticed that written on her white board was the “formula” above. What do you think about this? I really love it! If we have Jesus--or, more accurately, if Jesus has us--we have everything.

The Bible says that God is the maker of all things and that nothing would exist unless God created it (1 Chronicles 29:11, Isaiah 44:24, Matthew 11:27, John 1:1-2, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:15-20). We know that Jesus is God in the flesh. So as we connect with Jesus, we gain all things since all things exist and have their being and purpose in Christ.

But the reverse is also true. Jesus + Anything = Nothing. When I try to make my life about Jesus + something else, I can end up negating the very gift of who Jesus is. The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:8-9, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

So often we look to Jesus not to have Jesus but to have what we think we can get from or through Him. The danger is that we can miss Jesus altogether. When I try to “add” Jesus to my desires for success or fame or peace, I find that I end up losing both. People who marry for money often find that they gain neither love nor money, only heartache and trouble.

Some of us have come to the conclusion that we are in desperate need of God’s grace offered to us in Jesus, but once we find the righteousness that comes by grace through faith, we often try to live relationally with God through good works. We try to “add” something to Jesus. We are now and always will be at the mercy of grace, but once we grasp that, we are totally free.