Jesus + Nothing = Everything!

I’ve asked one of my wise and passionate friend’s, Jonathan Staton (now he is my husband!), to write a blog about what we truly need in our lives and this is what he had to share.

Jesus + ______ = Everything!

I love math, and by far this equation is my favorite. It rules over our lives, its truth cries out louder than any other equation and it is one that we must remind ourselves of daily. But first, we are missing part of the equation (perhaps something we can do, chase, bring to the table, or even believe), so let us try to figure out what the missing part might be!

1. Money

2. Good deeds

3. Faith

4. Health

5. Nothing

These are a few of the options, nowhere near an exhaustive list, we could choose from. Do you think you know the answer? Let’s find out.

1. Money—Can making your pursuit of Jesus and your pursuit of money lead you to the source of everything? Or will it just be a dead end? According to a Harris Poll , only 1 out of 3 Americans said they are happy.

Americans are also the wealthiest citizens of any country. Coincidence? I think not! Jesus talks about money and possessions more than hell, telling us to be wise in how we use it, but not to live our lives in the pursuit of possessions (Matthew 6:19-21). So with this being the case, although He talks about it so much, we will have to rule out money.

2. Good deeds—First we must define “good deeds” to even see if this is indeed an option. Let’s look at if any of our deeds can actually be considered good.

The Bible says in Isaiah 64:6 and Romans 3 that our righteous deeds are considered filthy rags (which are actually bloody tampons, but the translators decided to try to make it PG). All of our works are not pure, not holy.

But upon salvation we receive Jesus’ robe of righteousness! We receive His Spirit–this is the source of our good deeds, so we cannot even claim them as our own! It already comes with Jesus when He changes your heart, so let’s keep exploring other options.

3. Faith—Some of you may have chosen this as your answer. But even this really isn’t the correct one! Everybody is a person of faith, whether they want to admit it or not. Everybody has to believe in something that they haven’t witnessed for themselves. Don’t believe me? Ask anybody where the world came from.

We see in Job 38:4 that God asks Job where Job was when He laid the foundations of the world. Turns out Job didn’t exist yet, and neither did any person. So we all have to place our faith somewhere—the important part is where. Even if the answer was “faith in Jesus” I still wouldn’t say it is the “x” in the equation.

We cannot bring our faith in Jesus to the table. Why? Because Jesus is the one who gave us the faith in the first place! We cannot incline our hearts toward God, ever. If this were the case, why did we need the Holy Spirit? Couldn’t we just keep directing our hearts to pursue Him? Which came first—your new heart or your faith in Jesus?

We need the Holy Spirit to give us NEW hearts so we can believe in Him since we were born into the bondage of sin and cannot escape its grasp by our own power, or even by our own faith in Jesus. Jesus gave us a new heart as well as our faith in Him as a gift, so you cannot even bring this to the table because Jesus already did.

4. Health—I've met many people in my life with health issues. I believe some have a great perspective on their issues while others fail to fully grasp the reality of their situation. It is important to keep our body and mind healthy, but when people are aging or have an illness it can make them forget what living really is!

When Jesus came to give life, he didn’t say that we start living when we die, but rather we have eternal life. This means that we never have to stop living! So, yes, it will be glorious when we won’t have to struggle with a decaying body, but even though we are in one now that shouldn’t slow us down from our new life with Jesus.

From the day Jesus saves us, we are permanently healthy in the sense that our soul can never be destroyed, never plucked from the Father’s hand, we never have to die—we now have life, and His name is Jesus. Jesus doesn’t need our physical body to be healthy; He’s worked in amazing ways through people who aren’t. In regards to Jesus forgiving and then healing the paraplegic, He asks the Pharisees which is easier—to heal a man’s legs or to forgive his sins. Jesus gives us the ultimate health; He raises us up from the dead to walk.

5. Nothing- Is there anything that we can bring to the table? Can we find happiness in other areas? Or maybe is Jesus not enough and we just need to add this one other thing to make us happy?

Whatever it is, our flesh tries to convince us that we just need it along with Jesus. Or the flesh attempts to convince us that we need to offer something, whether that’s good works, our faith, our self-righteousness, our efforts or our altruistic morals.

But in all reality, the equation that governs the entire system is Jesus + Nothing = Everything. There is nothing that we can bring to the table (apart from our sin, which we do so consistently). There is nothing we need to add in. Jesus is Life, the Way, and the Truth.

Everything is dead without Him, lost without Him, and only true based on Him (by sheer definition of the words “truth” and “true”—things are true only when they agree with the truth). By Him, through Him, and for Him all things exist. That spells Jesus + Nothing = Everything if you ask me!