Give It All to Gain it All

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. John 6:53-69 (KJV)

Jesus had just taught a powerful word, and some of the people left. They stopped following Him. They didn’t want to learn any more from Him and they stopped being discipled by Him. They failed to learn the same lesson that a lot of people don’t learn; that we must give it all to gain Christ. We must lose our own way of thinking and living to find Christ’s way of thinking and living.

The rich young ruler didn’t get it either. Jesus called him to be a disciple, but instead, he loved his stuff more than Jesus. Some will follow Jesus- if it doesn’t cost them too much. When faced with the possibility of having to give their all, they turn away. Jesus was giving this young ruler the opportunity to gain more than he had, but he refused.

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Philippians 3:8-11 (KJV)

The Apostle Paul, on the other hand, considered everything he had gained as garbage compared to knowing Christ. We can have it all, but not know Christ. We can have nothing, but have Christ and thus have everything. Christ is all and needs to be our All in all. Whatever we need is found in Christ. Christ will take care of us- when we choose to come under His care. Giving it all for Jesus is always a win-win situation.