An athletic coach advised his team, “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!” In sports the main thing is sticking to the game plan to win. In the Christian life we need also to continually refocus on the basics.
In discipleship we discover that the main thing is not a thing, nor a concept, but a person–the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was concerned that the Corinthians would be sidetracked from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Cor. 11:3) and he affirmed in his epistle to the Philippians, “For to me, to live is Christ… “(Phil. 1:21). The apostle John defined salvation as having Christ in one’s life: “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11,12).
Roy and Revel Hession commented in their sequel to Calvary Road,
“… We do not need to itemize the Christian life; it is enough to see Jesus. Seeing Him we are convicted of sin, broken, cleansed, filled with the Spirit, set free from bondage, and revived. Each aspect of the Christian life is made real by seeing Him.”[1]
By “seeing Jesus” they refer to total surrender to Him and full dependence upon Him. This may be discovered in a crisis experience, but new insights into Christ’s sufficiency for our needs will enrich us on the path toward spiritual maturity.
The Hessions commented on this process of growth.
“To see Jesus is to apprehend Him as the supply of our present needs, and believingly lay hold of Him as such. The Lord Jesus is always seen through the eye of need… The acknowledgement of need and the confession of sin, therefore, is ever the first step in seeing Jesus. Then where there is acknowledged need, the Holy Spirit delights to show to the heart the Lord Jesus as the supply of just that need… Then as the soul believingly appropriates for himself what the Spirit shows of Jesus, striving, strain, a consciousness of guilt, fear, and sorrow flee away.”[2]
A.B. Simpson learned this precious truth of the centrality and sufficiency of Christ and penned the following lines:
HIMSELF
Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling, now it is His Word.
Once His gifts I wanted, now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.
Once ’twas painful trying, now ’tis perfect trust;
Once a half salvation, now the uttermost.
Once ’twas ceaseless holding, now He holds me fast;
Once ’twas constant drifting, now my anchor’s cast.
Once ’twas busy planning, now ’tis trustful prayer;
Once ’twas anxious caring, now He has the care.
Once ’twas what I wanted, now what Jesus says;
Once ’twas constant asking, now ’tis ceaseless praise.
Once it was my working, His it hence shall be;
Once I tried to use Him, now He uses me.
Once the power I wanted, now the mighty One;
Once for self I labored, now for Him alone.
Once I hoped in Jesus, now I know He’s mine;
Once my lamps were dying, now they brightly shine.
Once for death I waited, now His coming hail;
And my hopes are anchored, safe within the veil.
Has your Christian life become cluttered with a preoccupation of “do’s and don’ts”? Remember this a relationship, not just a religion. Mary of Bethany learned this lesson: abiding with Jesus is the one thing that’s needful (Luke 10:42).
As the praise song puts it,
“I’m coming back to the heart of worship
and it’s all about you,
it’s all about you, Jesus…”[4]
[1] We Would See Jesus, p. 5.
[2] We Would See Jesus, p. 23
[3] A. B. Simpson (1843-1919)
[4] Heart Of Worship by Michael W. Smith
Copyright by John B. Woodward, 1998. Revised 2015. Permission is granted to reprint for noncommercial use if credit is given to the author and GraceNotebook.com. Biblical quotations are from the NKJV.