Jesus Only, Jesus Everything: Me-ward... My Testimony

It took me two years, from first realizing that I was separated from God, until the time I finally understood the Gospel message (The Gospel, I’ve come to see, is Jesus Himself). I searched for what I could do to get God to forgive my sins. I tried to feel sorry for my mistakes and sins. I tried to get upset enough so that God would forgive me. I went to church, I prayed, I read the Bible. But it just all didn’t seem good enough. The leaders of the church that I was attending told me to repent of my sins and believe in Jesus Christ. So I tried to repent. Repent means “to turn”, so I tried to turn from my sins. They said that if you repent and believe in Jesus then you will be saved. So I spent my time trying to get those two ingredients – repentance and faith. But no matter what I did I just didn’t feel like I had enough of those two ingredients.

That last paragraph might sound confusing and just plain weird, but here comes the good news. After two years of this nonsense, I came to a point of desperation. On Friday morning, August 21, 1998 I was kneeling by the bottom bunk bed, frustrated, confused, and just plain tired out. I came to a point of saying something like “I can’t do it! I can’t believe! I can’t repent! I can’t do it!” then I finally saw it. God had me where He wanted me. He opened my eyes. Of course I couldn’t do it! Jesus did it all; there’s nothing left to do. His payment on the cross took care of everything. There’s nothing good in me; He is the only one that is good. At that point I saw Jesus only, and He was everything for me. I don’t remember what I said after that, besides “Thank you!”. I accepted His free gift, and the gift was Himself. He died for me on the cross and now offers me His life. I finally realized that I was looking for the wrong thing this whole time. I was looking to “get saved” and I ended up “getting Christ.” Getting ‘saved’ came along with Him, but that wasn’t the main focus.

You see - Jesus Only, Jesus Everything. I had a consciousness of this. I John 5:11-12 – “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”. Life is Jesus Christ’s life in us.

This is where we mess up the gospel. Rom. 6:23 “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. What does the verse say? The focus is on Jesus Christ, He is the gift of God. It’s not a changed life but an exchanged life. The new birth is not a change of the natural life, but an engrafting of the one and only true life, Jesus Christ. There is only one fruitful life in the world, and that life is Jesus Christ. The new birth is receiving that life that I did not have before.

God does all the work so that He can have all the glory. Is it any different after salvation? Should not this example and testimony be the life of a Christian AFTER salvation also?