1. Christ is the most SUPREME good. Put what you will in the balance with Christ — He infinitely outweighs it. Is life sweet? Christ is better. He is the life of the soul, Colossians 3:4. "His loving-kindness is better than life," Psalm 63:3. Are relations sweet? Christ is better. He is the friend who "sticks closer than a brother."
2. Christ is the most sufficient good. He who has Christ needs no more. He who has the ocean — needs not the cistern. If one had a manuscript which contained all knowledge in it, having all the arts and sciences — he need look in no other book. So he who has Christ needs look no further. Christ gives both grace and glory, Psalm 84:11; grace to cleanse us — and glory to crown us. As Jacob said, "It is enough, Joseph my son is yet alive," Genesis 14:28. So he who has Christ may say, "It is enough, Jesus is yet alive!"
3. Christ is the most SUITABLE good. In Him dwells all fullness, Colossians 1:19. Christ is whatever the soul can desire. Christ is beauty to adorn, gold to enrich, balm to heal, bread to strengthen, wine to comfort, and salvation to crown. If we are in danger, Christ is a shield; if we are disconsolate, He is a sun. He has enough in His wardrobe, to abundantly furnish the soul.
4. Christ is the most SANCTIFYING good. He makes every condition happy to us; He sweetens all our comforts — and sanctifies all our crosses.
Christ sweetens all our comforts. He turns them into blessings. Health is blessed; estate is blessed; relations are blessed. Christ's love is like pouring sweet water on flowers, which makes them give a more fragrant perfume. A wicked man cannot have that comfort in outward things which a godly man has. He may possess more — but he enjoys less. He who has Christ may say, "This mercy is given to me by the hand of my Savior; this is a love-token from Him, a pledge of glory!"
Christ sanctifies all our crosses. They shall be medicinal to the soul; they shall work sin out — and work grace in. God's stretching the strings of His violin — is to tune it and make the music better. Christ sees to it that His people lose nothing in the furnace, but their drossy impurities.
5. Christ is the most RARE blessing; there are but few who have Him. The best things, when they grow common, begin to he slighted. When silver was as common in Jerusalem as stone, 1 Kings 10:27, it was apt to be trod upon. Christ is a jewel that few are enriched with, which may both raise our esteem of Him and quicken our pursuit after Him. Those to whom God has given both the Indies, He has not given them Christ. They have the fat of the earth — but not the dew of heaven. And, among us Protestants, many hear of Christ but few have Him. Read Luke 4:25. There are many in this city who have Christ sounded in their ears—but few who have Christ formed in their hearts. Oh, how should we labor to be of this few! They who are Christians should be restless.
6. Christ is the most choice good. God shows more love in giving us Christ — than in giving us crowns and kingdoms. God may give a man many worldly things — and hate him; but in giving Christ to a man He gives him the blessings of the throne. What if others have a crutch to lean on — if you have a Christ to lean on? Abraham sent away the sons of the concubines with gifts but "he gave all he had to Isaac," Genesis 25. God may send away others with a little gold and silver — but if He gives you Christ, He gives you all that ever He had, for "Christ is all, and in all."
7. Without Christ, nothing else is good. Without Christ, health is not good; it is fuel for lust. Riches are not good; they are golden snares. Ordinances are not good; though they are good in themselves, yet not good to us. They do not profit. They are as breasts without milk, as bottles without wine. Nay, they are not only a dead letter — but a savor of death. Without Christ, they will damn us. For lack of Christ, millions go loaded to hell with ordinances.
8. Christ is the most ENDURING good. Other things are like the lamp which, while it shines, it spends itself. The heavens "shall wax old like a garment," Psalm 102:26. But Jesus Christ is a permanent good; with Him are durable riches, Proverbs 8:18. They last as long as eternity itself lasts.
9. Christ is a DIFFUSIVE, communicative good. He is full not only as a vessel — but as a spring. He is willing to give Himself to us. Now, then, if there is all this excellency in Jesus Christ, it may make us ambitiously desirous of an interest in Him.
Thomas Watson, Christ All In All
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