Eternal Significance is in Only Christ

Nothing nullifies and invalidates our witness more than attempting to be what only Christ can be. If I want to live ineffective and defeated, it is simple: All I have to do is try to be what only Christ can be—Life. In the reality of Christ, even the weakest among us can be powerhouses of the Kingdom, while the strongest and most capable are often shown to be shams. One Life and only One Life achieves eternal glory and Kingdom purpose, and that Life belongs to Jesus.

Trying to Be

I can’t tell you the years of effort I have exerted attempting to perform what only Christ can. It was a valiant try, but thankfully the grace of God came and lit up the Way. While it took a bit to adjust, sometimes even tears, the grace of receiving this Truth brings abundant peace. The pressure is off me to perform. I can live in perfection because Christ’s Life is perfect.

If this is the truth of life, why would anyone choose not to live in it? Because it costs me “my glory!” I won’t have a part I can hold up as a trophy. My life will be a trophy of God’s grace as He lives His Life through me. Jesus gets all the glory, all the honor, and all the accolades. I am a mere vessel surrendered to His living presence.

But what about my fulfillment and happiness? Do I just become a simple conduit with no reward? Certainly not! I am not a PVC pipe. My reward is receiving all the benefits of the Life that I let live through me. Everywhere I let Christ live through me gains me the benefits of that Life. It is astounding to have nothing yet become rich, both in this life and the life to come.

Only Christ Does the Work

As I have said before, all my actions, even simple daily tasks, can have eternal significance if it is He not me doing them. Everything Christ does is eternal. From saving a soul to building a table, everything He does gains favor of the Father and is eternal. This is so mind blowing, but it gives me an urgent need to live in this reality. Imagine, cooking dinner for your family has eternal significance if it is Jesus doing the cooking! If I cook a meal in my self-life, I have a temporal meal that is ingested and then passes through my body. But with the Life of Christ, it would have eternal significance and gain eternal reward.

Does this sound like an over simplification? Even so, it is that black and white and the reality stands. Everything Christ does has eternal significance, from the minuscule to the magnanimous—EVERYTHING. So why would I choose to forgo that great exchange and trek it out on my own? I don’t. Do I do this perfectly? No, my goal is to live as the Apostle Paul, whose determined purpose was to experience the overflowing power of Christ’s resurrection working in him.

Seen in Scripture

“Yet all of the accomplishments that I once took credit for, I’ve now forsaken them and I regard it all as nothing compared to the delight of experiencing Jesus Christ as my Lord! To truly know Him meant letting go of everything from my past and throwing all my boasting on the garbage heap. It’s all like a pile of manure to me now, so that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embrace Him as Lord in all of His greatness. My passion is to be consumed with Him and not clinging to my own “righteousness” based in keeping the written Law. My “righteousness” will be His, based on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ—the very righteousness that comes from God.”

“And I continually long to know the wonders of Jesus more fully and to experience the overflowing power of His resurrection working in me. I will be one with Him in His sufferings and I will be one with Him in His death. Only then will I be able to experience complete oneness with Him in His resurrection from the realm of death. I admit that I haven’t yet acquired the absolute fullness that I’m pursuing, but I run with passion into His abundance so that I may reach the purpose that Jesus Christ has called me to fulfill and wants me to discover. I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead.”
Philippians 3:7-13 TPT