A Cuppa Jesus

“The value of each human soul considered simply in itself,

out of relation to God, is zero.”

 –C.S. Lewis

 

As Christians, I think we’d agree that the purpose of life and our faith is to know Christ. In Philippians, Paul says that he wants to “know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” While this is biblical and we would agree wholeheartedly, is this truly how we live?

 

As Hillsong students, we were recently presented with the drastic difference between serving God this year and knowing Him. While we will be busy and thrown into the heart of church life and ministry, there is still the potential of getting to the end of the year having missed the point. The same goes for the bigger picture of life. The key to avoiding this is not allowing our focus to be shifted from Jesus to us.

 

Without Jesus in the equation, you find a people who measure their self-worth and value on the things they have accomplished, their talents, gifts, and anything else that they can check off about themselves. Think about times when you feel either cocky or insecure; both of these attitudes are measured by works of the flesh. This means that our sense of value is based on the things we can check off about ourselves. This is the game that the world plays, but too often we as Christians lose sight of Jesus and find ourselves playing the game. In Philippians three, Paul says that all works of the flesh are a loss for the sake of Christ and the surpassing greatness of knowing Him.

 

To even play the game is being in denial about who we are. Imagine for a moment, that you are a coffee cup. Without Jesus, you are filled with crud and coffee residue. Nothing you can accomplish will make you clean or attract Jesus to you. No amount of striving will make you worthy. If you insist on trying to identify things about yourself to work out your value, you can’t know Jesus. We can either play the game OR we can know Christ.

 

 Once you stop playing the game and recognize how much your cup needs cleaning, through Christ you will receive a sense of value, identity and significance. Our cup is in desperate need of cleaning and filling. A job only Jesus can do. What’s important is not that you’re dirty, but that you’re HIS. The value is not in the cup, but in who the cup belongs to. Your value, my value, and the value of anyone claiming to be a Christian, comes from who we belong to. We are His cup. When we understand this we are liberated from all our insecurities and find true security in Christ. It is then that we are able to hold His coffee in our clean cup and share it with others.