What is Christ to you?

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"If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied" (1 Corinthians 15:19).

In a world that is so noisy and loud - presenting numerous ideas that are fighting for my attention and almost infinite cares demanding my worry - I find myself and I observe other Christians losing sight of the gospel. I’ll speak personally: my desires for economic stability and success drive me to valuing things more than God; my desires for safety and security drive me to valuing my preparedness more than God; my desires for freedoms drives me to political heroes more than God. But all of these places I'm driven to, apart from God, make for shaky ground on which to stand, on which to build my life.In a world that is noisy and loud, we need to be captured again and again by the beauty and fullness of the unchanging Lord Jesus Christ, who has been revealed crystal clear in his gospel! “Jesus Calls Us” is a hymn (written in 1852) by Cecil Alexander that captures the necessity we have for Christ well:

Jesus calls us o’er the tumult
Of our life’s wild, restless, sea;
Day by day His sweet voice soundeth,
Saying, “Christian, follow Me!”

Jesus calls us from the worship
Of the vain world’s golden store,
From each idol that would keep us,
Saying, “Christian, love Me more!”

In our joys and in our sorrows,
Days of toil and hours of ease,
Still He calls, in cares and pleasures,
“Christian, love Me more than these!”

Jesus calls us! By Thy mercies,
Savior, may we hear Thy call,
Give our hearts to Thine obedience,
Serve and love Thee best of all.

In 1 Corinthians 15:19, the apostle Paul has made it about halfway through his argument about the resurrection. In verse nineteen he says that Christian's without Christ are to be most pitied! Charles Hodge, an 18th century Presbyterian theologian, says it like this in his commentary on 1 Corinthians:

“Christians are unspeakably happier than other men. All that Paul means to say is, that if you take Christ from Christians, you take their all. He is the source not only of their future, but of their present happiness. Without him they are yet in their sins, under the curse of the law, unreconciled to God, having no hope, and without God in the world; and yet subject to all the peculiar trials incident to a Christian profession, which in the apostolic age often included the loss of all things" (emphasis added).

What cutting words, especially for this hour! In a world that is so alluring - its possibilities of riches, its promises of security - you and I need to be reminded of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord!

How are you valuing the Lord today? Are you treasuring Christ? Ask yourself:

If Christ were taken from you, would you have lost all?

If Christ were taken from you…

but Trump was President... 

but cure from sickness was promised... 

but social justice was achieved... 

but all political freedoms were secured...

If Christ were taken from you, would you have lost all?

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8).