All Things Are Yours, in Christ (Monod)

In 1 Corinthians 3:21-22, Paul wrote, “…For everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God” (NET). What does it mean for you, as a Christian, that everything is yours? Adolphe Monod (d. 1856) answered that question well in one of his deathbed meditations. Here are some excerpts from that meditation. I hope these thoughts are a blessing for you today.

…Whatever the need to be satisfied in our souls and in our entire existence, earthly and eternal, we find it in Jesus Christ.

Is our need first of all the blotting out of our sins? He has blotted them out by his blood. There is only one thing in the world that blots out sins. It is not our acts of contrition, not our repentance, not our alms or our good works. It is not even our prayers. It is the blood of Jesus Christ: “the blood of Jesus Christ…cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). All sin that the blood of Jesus Christ has covered is forever annihilated before God… (…Jer. 50:20, Is. 38:17, Micah 7:19, 2 Cor. 5:21).

Is it a matter of being consoled in our troubles? We go to Jesus Christ, who has suffered as we have, more than we have, infinitely more than we could suffer, infinitely more than we could conceive of suffering. All of our pain and sorrow is nothing but a tiny brook removed from the river of his infinite pain. In the same way, it is from his cross that all consolation and all mercy flow. It is to the Man of sorrows that we go to seek consolation and peace, knowing that he is well acquainted with weariness and that by approaching him, we will not only find the easing of our pains, but we will even see real blessing in them. Thus our bitterest afflictions will be found, in the end, to be his most remarkable mercies.

Am I poor? All of the fortunes of this world are mine be- cause they belong to Christ, who belongs to God. He would certainly know how to give to me, with him and in addition to him, all the fortunes of the world if they would be useful to me. If, in place of riches, he gives me poverty, it is because this is better for me and the result of God’s choice. The entire world with all its glory and power belongs to me because they belong to my Father, who will give them to me tomorrow and who could give them to me today if that were good, because he dispenses them according to his pleasure.

Am I sick? Health is mine, strength is mine, well-being is mine, a perfect enjoyment of all the good things of life is mine, because all that is Christ’s, who is God’s and who dispenses them according to his pleasure. And to whom would he dispense them if not to me, his child? If then he refuses them to me today, for a fleeting moment that passes like a ship of the mist, he has his reasons. It is because there are in these pains and this bitterness hidden blessings that are worth more to me than that health which is so precious, or that well-being which is so sweet. He will never deprive me of any good except to give me some other, better one. That is my consolation; it is all in his love.

I defy you to find anything of which I could not say, “That belongs to my Father; therefore it is mine. If he refuses it to me today, he will give it to me tomorrow. I entrust myself to his love. All is mine if I am Christ’s.”

Adolphe Monod, Living in the Hope of Glory: A Dying Pastor’s Farewells, p. 46-48.

Shane Lems
Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Hammond, WI, 54015