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Jesus Is All I Need |
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Jesus Is All I Need |
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Ruth Stewart wrote:
If there is one thing I have learned in the years I have been saved and serving the Lord, it is that Jesus is all I need. When I think of all Jesus, I think of One of Whom:
Who is Jesus?
When I look at Christ I see that:
When I talk about Jesus, I speak of One Whom:
The greatest lesson that I have learned in life is that Jesus is all I need.
Jesus is:
Jesus is our all in all and all we need. I ask you:
We all need Jesus and Jesus is all we need. As we look at our text verse we are reminded that Jesus is all we need. Paul states that Jesus is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. I agree with Warren Wiersbe who says, "Actually, the emphasis here is that God shows His wisdom by means of the righteousness, sanctification, and redemption we have in Christ." G. Campbell Morgan says that "everything is summarized in the word 'wisdom'." In other words, God's wisdom is revealed in Christ our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. But we not only see God's wisdom as it is revealed in what Christ is to every believer, but we also see that in Christ we have all that we need. Notice these 3 words. 1. WE SEE A PAST WORK OF CHRIST IMPUTED! Notice the word "righteousness." If we shorten the word to "right" we began to understand what is meant. This righteousness refers to being right with God. Verse 30, tells us that Christ is made unto us "righteousness" or to put it another way, in Christ we were "made right with God." The first act of the Lord Jesus Christ in bringing us into a relationship with God was that of making us right with God. It is a work that happens immediately when one puts their faith in Christ as Saviour. Therefore, if you are saved, it is a past work in your heart and life. Notice Romans 4:22-25, "And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." We are told that Abraham's faith was imputed to him for righteousness. In other words, righteousness is that which is "imputed" unto us. The word "impute" means "to reckon, to set or charge to one's account." Now when we talk about the doctrine of "imputation" there is the ideal that we did not have any righteousness of our own. The Bible plainly speaks of our utter bankruptcy before God. We read in Isaiah 64:6, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Isaiah declared that we were all unclean. Even at our best, what righteousness we possessed was as filthy rags. The word "filthy" speaks of that which is soiled. The word "rags" speaks of a covering. Even at our best we were as a filthy, dirty, soiled, garment. As Warren Wiersbe said, "If our righteousness is filthy, what must our sins look like in His sight!" In short, we had no righteousness of our own to declare before God. What righteousness we had fell far short of the standard and level a Holy God demanded. We are all familiar with Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." The word "sinned" means "to miss the mark." I think of an archer. He pulls back his bow, aims, and releases only to miss his mark. But when he misses, it is not a matter of shooting wide to the right or left, or missing the mark because he shot high or low. He missed because he came short. The words "come short" mean "to fall short, be deficient." He missed the mark because his arrow fell far short of reaching the mark. Now there may be many "right" things about a persons life. Yet, what is right, what righteousness we do possess, falls far short of what God demands. Now understanding all this, to put it simply, we were all in a pickle. To be right with God we had to be righteous, but yet even at our best, it was not enough to be right with God. Even at our best, we still fell short of God's standard. Notice Romans 4:6, "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works." We are told that righteousness is imputed to us. Remember what I said the word "impute" means. It means "to reckon, to set or charge to someone's account." I Corinthians 1:30 tells us that Christ is our righteousness. That means that the righteousness of Jesus has been charged to our account. We do not stand before God in our own righteousness. We stand before God in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Notice again Romans 4:24-25, "But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." Notice the word "justification." The word simply means "to be declared righteous." We have been declared righteous because the righteousness of Christ has been charged to our account. I think of the story of Onesimus found in the book of Philemon. Apparently he was a runaway slave that had wronged his master Philemon. Paul wrote to Philemon on his behalf and said, "If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account" (Philemon 1:18). H.A. Ironside was in Texas visiting a sheep ranch. He saw the strangest thing he had ever seen. It looked like a lamb that had four front feet and four back feet. Ironside said it was a freakish looking thing. He asked about the lamb and the sheep rancher told him this story. The rancher said, "We had a sheep bear a lamb and the lamb died. At the same time, we had a sheep bear a lamb and the sheep died. So we thought we would take the lamb that had no mother and put it with the sheep that had lost her lamb. We thought it was a perfect situation." "But when we put the lamb with the mother sheep, she put her head down and pushed it aside. She would have nothing to do with the lamb. It was if she were saying, it was not hers and she did not want it." "Then someone suggested, 'I know how you can get that mother to adopt that little lamb. You skin that dead lamb and drape it over the little lamb's body and then put it back in the pen and see what happens.' That is exactly what we did. We clothed that lamb in the skin of the lamb that had died. We then placed it in with the mother sheep and that sheep began to love it and care for it. She is raising that lamb because it is clothed in the garments of her own." 5 We are accepted by God because we are clothed in the righteousness of God's own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus is our righteousness. His righteousness has been imputed to our account. He is all I need to be right with God. 2. WE SEE A PRESENT WORK OF CHRIST IMPARTED! We also see in verse 30, that Christ is not only our "righteousness" but He is also our "sanctification." Christ our righteousness saves us from the penalty of sin. But Christ our sanctification saves us from the power of sin. The word "sanctification" speaks of the process of being made holy which results in a changed life for the believer. Our English word for sanctification comes from a Latin word which speaks of the act of consecrating. In essence, sanctification is the act whereby we separate ourselves from that which is unholy and separate ourselves unto that which is holy. It is the process of becoming holy. One Sunday on their way home from church, a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, the preacher's sermon this morning confused me." The mother said, "Oh? Why is that?" The little girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?" The mother replied, "Yes, that's true, honey." "And he also said that God lives in us? Is that true, mommy?" Again the mother replied, "Yes." "Well," said the little girl, "If God is bigger than us and he lives in us, wouldn't He show through?" If I can put it this way, sanctification is the process whereby the God that lives within shows through our lives. Michelangelo, the great sculptor and painter, was pushing a heavy rock up a small incline to his work area so that he could do some sculpting. A neighbor watched him for over an hour as he worked to get this rock in place. Finally he asked, "Michelangelo, why do you labor so hard over that ugly, heavy piece of rock?" Michelangelo said, "Because there is an angel inside that wants to come out." God wants to "come out" in our lives and sanctification is the process by which He comes out. We read in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour." The work of Christ imputed as our righteousness occurred in the past and was something that happened immediately. The work of Christ imparted as our sanctification is something that is happening in the present and happens progressively. "Righteousness" is a work that has taken place and "sanctification" is a work that is taking place. Now if you are deeply interested and serious about the work of sanctification in your life and becoming holy, then you have experienced the frustration of failure and shortcomings. It seems that the harder we try to be holy, the more we seem to come short. I think of the testimony of Charles G. Trumbull in his book, "Victory In Christ." He describes how there were great fluctuations in his spiritual life. Sometimes he would be on the heights and sometimes he would be in the depths. There would be times when God seemed so close and his spiritual life deep, but he confesses that it would not last. He also admits that one of the things that troubled him was in the matter of failure before besetting sins. There would be victories in his life at times, but the victories were interspersed with crushing and humiliating defeats. Most believers, if honest, would have to confess to the same. We are to be holy, but oftentimes there is very little holiness about our life. Furthermore, becoming holy seems to be a process that is marked by failure and futility. But here is why our life is often marked by failure. Sanctification is not a process I bring to pass, it is a process the Lord brings to pass. Christ is our sanctification. A.J. Gordon was walking through the World's Fair and in the distance saw a man vigorously pumping water. Water was spewing all over the place. As he got closer, he discovered that what he thought was a man was really a wooden figure and the water spewing out was an artesian well. It was not a man pumping the water, it was the water pumping the man. Christ is our sanctification. It is His life in us that enables us to become and be all we should be. It is the very life of Christ imparted. Oswald Chambers said: "God does not give us power to imitate Him; He gives us His very self…Sanctification is not something our Lord does in me; sanctification is Himself in me." Charles Trumbull, whom I mentioned earlier, finally learned this great truth and wrote: "The resources of the Christian life, my friends, are just - Jesus Christ." As I yield myself to the very life of Christ in me, He sanctifies me and makes me what He wants me to be. Jesus is all I need to pleasing and holy before God. 3. WE SEE A PROSPECTIVE WORK OF CHRIST IMPLANTED! We also see that not only is Christ our righteousness and sanctification, but He is also our "redemption." The word "redemption" as used here is very interesting. The word itself speaks of a "final escape from all bondage." This particular word is found 10 times in the New Testament and always refers to the future, not to the past or present. In other words, this redemption is not referring to what has happened, but what will happened. To put it another way, Christ our righteousness speaks of being saved from the penalty of sin. Christ our sanctification speaks of being saved from the power of sin. Christ our redemption speaks of being saved from the presence of sin. Christ our righteousness was a work that happened immediately. Christ our sanctification is a work that happens progressively. Christ our redemption is a work that will happen prospectively. Jesus spoke of this future work when He declared in Luke 21:28, "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Paul also had this work in mind in Ephesians 1:14, "Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory," and in Ephesians 4:30, "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." What is this future redemption that is referred to? Listen to Romans 8:23, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" One of these days Jesus will return and every believer will be redeemed, delivered from all bondage. We read in 1 Corinthians 15:52, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." The phrase, "at the last trump" was a Roman military term. In those days, Romans used trumpet sounds as their signals. One certain trumpet blast told the soldiers to strike their tents and pack their belongings. Another certain trumpet blast told them to get in line. The next trumpet blast, called the last trump, meant, "pull out and march." One of these day we will hear the "last trump." It will be "redemption" day for every believer. At that hour we shall be changed. We will say good-bye to all physical pain, limitations, and handicaps. We will be delivered from the earthly and physical bondage we have known. Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 15:53-55, "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" I think of the ballad called "The Little Boy From The Carpenter's Shop."
The grave has lost its sting because Jesus is our redemption. At that hour, we will be changed and Christ will be implanted. His likeness will be permanently and eternally implanted and we will for all eternity reveal His likeness. Jesus is our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. He is all I need, past, present, and future.
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