God has given you everything you could hope for in Jesus.

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7)”

“To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ… (Ephesians 3:8)”

You honestly don’t need anything other than Jesus. All Christians are tempted look for something more than Jesus. The newish Christian struggles to let go of things that made life worthwhile before he discovered that Jesus exceeded his hopes for true joy. The weary Christian becomes jaded because she was looking to other things like fellowship, church, ministry, relationships, courses etc. to increase the joy she first found in Jesus. These things have their place but none can replace Jesus.

The immature Christian thinks the gospel of Christ is for beginners and mature Christians need something more ‘meaty’. But the same Jesus we first received, is the Jesus we must remain both rooted in (never moving from), and built up in (growing in.)

Michael Horton has assembled a bunch of lines from Calvin about the sufficiency of the gospel: “Without the gospel everything is useless and vain; without the gospel we are not Christians; without the gospel all riches is poverty, all wisdom, folly before God; strength is weakness, and all the justice of man is under condemnation of God.”

“But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made children of God, brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of Heaven, heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom the poor are made rich, the weak strong, the fools wise, the sinners justified, the desolate comforted, the doubting sure, and slaves free. It is the power of salvation for all who believe.”

“It follows that every good thing we could think of or desire is to be found in this same Jesus Christ alone. For, he was sold, to buy us back; captive, to deliver us; condemned, to absolve us; he was made a curse for our blessing, sin offering for our righteousness; marred that we may be made fair; he died for our life; so that by him fury is made gentle, wrath appeased, darkness turned into light, fear reassured, despisal despised, debt cancelled, labour lightened, sadness made merry, misfortune made fortunate, difficult easy, disorder ordered, division united, ignominy ennobled, rebellion subject, intimidation intimidated, ambush uncovered, assaults assailed, force forced back, combat combated, war warred against, vengeance avenged, torment tormented, damnation damned, the abyss sunk into the abyss, hell transfixed, death dead and mortality made immortal.”

“In short, mercy has swallowed up all misery, and goodness all misfortune. For all these things which were to be the weapons of the devil in his battle against us, and the sting of death to pierce us, are turned for us into exercises which we can turn to our profit… and we are comforted in tribulation, joyful in sorrow, glorying in vituperation, abounding in poverty, warmed in our nakedness, patient amongst evils, living in death.”

“This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in Him and are offered to us by Him from God the Father.”