CHRIST ALONE — THE HOLY FOCUS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
The Christian life loses its fire the moment it loses its focus—its gaze—its holy obsession with Jesus Himself. Doctrine matters, truth matters, theology matters, but none of it replaces the Person who stands at the center of our faith.
The Scriptures refuse to let us treat Jesus as an accessory to Christianity; they insist He is our very life (Colossians 3:4). Paul said without hesitation, “For to me, to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). Not doctrine. Not ideas. Not comforting concepts. Christ. The living, breathing, redeeming Savior in whom all fullness dwells (Colossians 1:19).
Christianity is not first about what we believe—it is about Whom we behold.
Paul’s heartbeat sounds again in another passage: “I also count all things loss…that I may know Him” (Philippians 3:8-10). Not merely know about Him—know Him. This is the blazing center of Christian experience, the pursuit that makes all others pale.
He is the One who loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20), the One who intercedes for us (Hebrews 7:25), the One in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (Colossians 2:3). And Paul, that giant of doctrine, confesses that the highest mountain he ever climbed was simply the desire to “know Christ.”
The gospel we preach is not a philosophy; it is a Person. Paul said, “Him we preach” (Colossians 1:28). Not systems, not speculations, not the novelty of new insights—Him.
When Philip went down to Samaria, the Scripture does not say he preached morality, or culture, or unity; “he preached Christ to them” (Acts 8:5). The early church did not spread because they were clever; they spread because they could not stop speaking the name that had saved them, healed them, forgiven them, and filled them. Jesus was not their topic—He was their life (John 14:6).
And what of that glorious phrase: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27)? This is not an idea to admire; this is a reality to live in.
The indwelling Christ—forming us, shaping us, guiding us, holding us—is the pulse of the believer’s existence. Our hope is not in our wisdom, but in His presence; not in our understanding, but in His nearness.
Every command of Scripture becomes joy when we see the One who walks beside us and lives within us (Galatians 2:20). He is the Vine; we are the branches (John 15:5). Without Him, we can do nothing—and with Him, we have everything.
This is why Paul resolved “to know nothing… except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). That was not a rejection of doctrine; it was a confession that all doctrine finds its meaning in Christ.
When our hearts drift, it is always because our focus shifts—from Christ to concepts, from Jesus to ideas, from the Person to the presentation. But the Scriptures pull us back with relentless clarity: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
Faith begins with Him and ends with Him. He is Alpha and Omega (Revelation 22:13). He is the center and the circumference. Everything else is light only because He is the sun.
So let the believer fix their thoughts on Christ (Hebrews 3:1), meditate on Christ, delight in Christ, follow Christ, worship Christ, treasure Christ. Let your theology be warm because He is near; let your doctrine be alive because He is its heart; let your mind be filled not simply with truth, but with the One who is “the truth” (John 14:6).
Christ is not merely part of the Christian life—Christ is the Christian life (Colossians 3:4). And when He is our focus, our joy, our hope, our passion, our meditation—then faith becomes fire, worship becomes wonder, and life becomes a holy walk with the Person who loved us first (1 John 4:19).
BDD
