Jesus Math

"But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ." - Philippians 3:7 (HCSB)

All that I have, that I have gained over my time here on earth, is a loss because of Christ. Video games, friends, family, desires, material things, wealth... its all a loss. Why consider such things (even the 'good' things) loss, when they provide so much?

I think Lecrae sums it up pretty well. In one of my favorite lyrics of all time, He says, "And the right math is: You plus nothing is everything, You're MY everything, sing!" See, our God is EVERYTHING. He is our strength, our refuge, and our Savior. I spent a good twenty minutes once filling a page with applicable, yet completely unique, facets of God. And that was only a few minutes of thought; imagine the infinite nature of our God, and how many attributes we could list off! Most of them we don't even know, much less understand! Our God is everything; oxygen for our weary souls, water for our parched lips, life for those who are dry bones. 

See, if our God is everything, what does that make us? If all of the things are found in Jesus, what is found in wealth? Or family? Or even ourselves? Why do we hold so tightly to the fading things of this world, when they are NOTHING? If Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - the triune nature of God - are everything, that means that nothing else can have value besides God. So, where DOES the value we find in other things come from?

Simple. The One that is everything gives value to those things that are nothing. Remember we are made in God's image! This means that we have similar hopes and desires that He does. We hope for love, we hope for communion, and we hope for respect... three of the things God Himself seeks out. But since we are made in His image, AND have fallen, our hopes and desires have become slightly skewed. Now sex is a desire, not love; surface level friendship that will benefit YOU is a desire, not communion; acceptance from peers, no matter whether it is obtained honorably or dishonorably, is a desire, rather than respect. Once pure and holy things have become distorted by sin.

But we still value love, and we value communion, and we value respect! If we are nothing - if our love, our communion, and our respect are nothing - where does this value come from? God, being everything, assigns value to the things He chooses! This is why He delights in us, why He finds us beautiful; we are not worthy of God's love, for He is everything and we are nothing, but He gives value to us because He finds US valuable! How amazing! 

And here's the catch: now that we have value (having been assigned it by God), we can now assign this value to other things. If we value love like Jesus does, we'll love like Him. If we value communion like Jesus does, we'll draw near and intimate to Him like He does for us. If we value respect like Jesus does, we'll respect others and our God the way He respects His Father. All these things are ways to live like Jesus. However, once we start adding to Jesus, we start losing sight of His character. For example, many people assign value to wealth. God isn't concerned with money, nor does He promise to prosper us. By adding to Jesus what He isn't, we lose a part of Him. 

"You plus NOTHING is EVERYTHING." - Lecrae

God is everything!! We are nothing; the only reason we have value to both hold and place is because God has given us that value already! He loves us so so much, and values us above all else! He did not ONLY die on that cross to save those that would believe in Him, but He alsp died on that cross for those that wouldn't believe in Him. But He valued them so much that He would make the greatest act of love towards them history has ever seen, even if they would never acknowledge His existence. 

Now we can see why all is loss because of Christ! Nothing matters but Him! OUR money, OUR things, even OUR families are nothing because they are of us. We are nothing. But God's love in us, God's communion with us, God's respect for us; those are lasting! When we act in Christ, all is gain; but all that we previously held dear is loss because of Christ's death and resurrection! Because He is everything, we no longer need to hold onto anything but Christ! As we hold onto Him, we'll discover a love for our family that He gives us; He does not want us to neglect them! Same goes with friends and wealth and things. However, a Christ-centered view and objectivity is everything while a world-centered view is nothing; it's loss because of Christ!

Hopefully this made sense. To recap, God is everything, and we are nothing. God assigns us value, which we can assign to other things, but as soon as we assign value to things that God does not assign value to, we are adding to Him and we lose sight of His character. We need to abandon such things to gain all of Christ; hold onto such things and we lose all of Christ. For He is everything, and we are nothing! When we add to God, He becomes less than what He was before; which is why God plus nothing is indeed everything. He always is everything, always will be! And by pursuing Him and the things He values, we can #LiveItLikeJesus!