Jesus Is No More Enough

Recently, in the course of a conversation with my Pastor and His wife, Pastor Lanre Kosoko, she said something that struck a chord in me. She said ‘the way believers act today, it is almost as if we think Christ is not enough’ and it has stayed with me. Indeed, I feel like we think God was not smart enough in making Christ just the way He is – Jesus Christ. It is almost like Him just as He is, is no longer enough to be all that He is so that we feel a need to make up for the inadequacy we see. We try to make Him look the way we think He ought to be in these present times so that people can think of Him “highly enough” to accept Him. We forget that the ways of God would normally look foolish in the eyes of man and God is well aware of that yet He worked things like that. Can the created redefine ‘The creator’?  We often try so hard to make Him acceptable that we compromise several aspects of the word of God. People, around where I live, argue that if more people must come to Christ, then people have to be given a ‘soft landing’ to Christianity. Are we suggesting that this life is a burden? Any ‘soft landing’ that compromises the word of God probably leads people elsewhere and not to Christ our Saviour.  Unfortunately, the Word of God is greatly compromised in our times; our gospel is largely ours; put together by our intellect. Pastor Femi Monehin once said and I agree, that “God is not a product of my thinking or philosophy.” He is not a product of any one’s thinking or philosophy. He is God in Three Persons and He is enough for us.

 

1 Corinthians 1: 21a & 23a “For after in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God ... But we preach Christ crucified.”

 

It is the belief of many in these present times, that the intellect of man is more powerful than ever before which said argument is not my focus here, but even if it were true, God has never pretended like He planned to satisfy our intellect. He clearly says that the life that He gives is like a river that flows from within and flows forever. It does not directly feed the intellect. The true gospel is not powerless; it accomplishes its purpose because it is the word of God which is what the world needs. The world needs the healing that only Christ can provide – It is healing that reaches deep down to the soul and spirit of man. There is an insatiable quest for God; a hunger and deep yearning by people who may not even be aware of what they hunger for. Unfortunately, believers do not think highly of what He appears to be and in trying to make Him look better, we are preaching a gospel that is unable to satisfy the world’s yearning. Our intellect is unable to bring anyone to God through Christ; only Christ can do that. Sadly, not even our looks can bring people to Christ. It takes the quickening of one’s spirit-man for Him to become a believer and only the word of God has that quickening power. And until a man’s spirit comes alive, He is not born again. God is a Spirit who can only be worshipped in the Spirit. That hunger can only be quenched by His Spirit.

 

John 14: 6 “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the to the Father except through me”

 

Isaiah 55: 11 “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it.”

 

It is indeed vain for any man to think that they can describe God in an improved way. The mere thought that any man can better articulate who He is than He has done Himself is vain. Moreover, it is my firm belief that the world is tired of an empty Christianity. The world wants more than the glamour that we seem to only give these days. The glamour is good, but the world knows that they need much more than that. The flesh is unable to meet the need; for it profits nothing. Until we ourselves realize that Jesus Christ is enough, we will never make Him Lord in our lives which is His desire. Until He is Lord in your life, how can you effectively tell another to make Him Lord in their own lives? It is time to get real that we may preach Christ. He is the Redeemer and none other. Sometimes, it is merely the desire to have other people follow us that leads to a little shifting from the Truth. Unlike John the Baptist, we struggle to point people to ourselves because somewhere deep down, we need them to follow us. Unwittingly, a number of us have made more followers for ourselves than we have The Master. As we point people to Jesus and they receive life, Jesus works in us to prepare us for leadership His way. As we follow Him, people will look to us to show them to follow Him. There is only one Lord and His name is Jesus Christ.

Ecclesiastes 3: 14 “And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him.”