The Goodness of Jesus Safeguards Our Faith

April 19, 2016

The Goodness of Jesus Safeguards Our Faith

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.

Philippians 3:8

Imagine you have an old piece of costume jewelry. It’s a little gaudy, a bit tarnished and a few of the plastic rhinestones are chipped, but every now and then it’s fun to wear. Now, suppose you receive an inheritance which includes a beautiful diamond. Would you take the glimmering diamond to your jeweler and ask him to set your diamond in the middle of your old costume jewelry? For Paul, trying to combine the life in Christ with our old life in our flesh was just as silly.

To help me grasp this truth, Paul is suggesting that I can make a list of everything that I believe brings value to my life, and divide it into two columns. One column is labeled ‘Knowing Christ’ and the other column is labeled, ‘Everything Else.’ Paul is also teaching me that it is my mission in life to make the life in Christ my way of life. The path to that goal is leaving Everything Else behind and then pressing on to make the Christ Life my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

God is at work in the life of every follower of Jesus, transforming and equipping his children for service in his Kingdom. Being a child of God means being willing to go to the end of the line and allow others to go first; being willing to make sacrifices for the good of other people, and for the Kingdom of God; and as a follower of Jesus, affirming that nothing in this world is as important as knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Paul doesn’t promise the followers of Christ a rose garden. There are difficult personal choices to be made, because it is impossible to hold on to Christ and at the same time hold on to the ways of the world. The Good News is that Jesus has us firmly in his grip while we are struggling to let go of the value system of the world. And the Good News is that “we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control” (Philippians 3:20-21).

We rejoice in this Good News. We never stop rejoicing in this Good News, because rejoicing in the goodness of Jesus safeguards our faith.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.