Jesus is Enough Part 1: The Need for Jesus

Throughout my life, in some form or another, a question will periodically surface to the forefront of my mind:

Am I enough?

Am I good enough, pretty enough, talented enough, smart enough, just enough? Is the real me enough to be loved, wanted, accepted, and treasured? Or do I miss the mark of enough, do I come up short when measured against enough, do I fall far from that which is deemed enough?

Fear of not being enough gives way to shame and insecurities and anxiety. Shame about the past; all those ways I’ve messed up and failed. Insecurities about the present; all those ways in which I’m not beautiful or likable. Anxiety about the future; all those ways I could mess up and fail.

Does the same question ever surface to the forefront of your mind? Does the same fear ever grip your heart?

Lately, as that question has come to my mind, another thought follows in answer to it:

Jesus is enough.

Jesus is more than enough.

And when we find our contentment and worth in Him, we find enough in Him. We find we are enough in Him. Because He loves, wants, accepts, and treasures each one of us. 

We do need to recognize our sin. We do need to recognize that we indeed fall short of the glory of God. That we could never, ever earn our way into heaven. That no amount of good deeds is enough to pay the debt of our sin; is enough to make us good enough.

But when we recognize this, when we see our sin and our falling short, we then see how much we desperately need Jesus. We need Him to be our enough. We needn’t look to success or other’s people’s opinions or the mirror or the bank account. Jesus is enough.

We need to let Jesus be our enough; to desire and seek Him and only Him, not looking for our satisfaction, fulfillment, worth, and contentment outside of Him.

That really is our great fall: looking for enough outside of God. Desiring something other than the Divine. Not believing that we need Him and that He is all we need. 

In the first two chapters of Genesis, we read of God creating the heavens and the earth. He said, “Let there be…” and there was light, land, plants, animals. Through Him all things were made. It was good.

On the sixth day, God created people to be His companions. He made man and woman in His image and breathed His life into them. Creation was now complete. It was very good. It was enough.

But in Genesis 3, we read of a serpent who spoke lies to the woman; lies she believed.

Eve looked to a forbidden fruit, believing that being made in the image of God, communing with Him in the cool of the evening, and caring for the beautiful home He had given her wasn’t enough. She didn’t need God; she would be her own god. She took a bite.

And with that bite, sin entered the world and the heart, causing a separation from God, causing us to fall short of His glory.

And since that time, God has been showing us that only He is enough. Only He is enough to truly save and satisfy us. Everything else falls short.

“To whom will you compare Me? Who is My equal?” Isaiah 40:25, NLT

God gave the law to show our good deeds aren’t enough, and the law foreshadowed the coming of the One who is enough.

“For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” Romans 3:20, NLT

​“Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Romans 10:4, NIV

God sent the prophets to say trusting in the strength of men, worshipping other gods, and serving self isn’t enough, and the prophets promised the coming of the One who is enough.

“But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush Him and cause Him grief. Yet when His life is made an offering for sin, He will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in His hands. When He sees all that is accomplished by His anguish, He will be satisfied. And because of His experience, My righteous Servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for He will bear all their sins. I will give Him the honors of a victorious soldier, because He exposed Himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.” Isaiah 53:10-12, NLT

And finally, God gave His Son, the One who fulfills the law and the prophets, to be enough for us. To pay the debt of our sin. To take the punishment for our looking to gods other than God. Jesus gave Himself to be the sacrifice that was enough, so we would be enough. So we would no longer fall short, but would be made righteous, whole, and complete in Him.

“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” Romans 5:21, NLT

That is really what we celebrate during Easter. This trade-off in which we trade up. Our sin for Jesus’ righteousness. Our broken, messy, and flawed for His wholeness, purity, and perfection. Our separation for reconciliation and relationship with God. Our old life for new life in Christ.

For life in Christ is enough, and when we live in Him, we have enough, we are enough.
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But sometimes we forget that. We’ve asked Jesus to be our Savior, but we still feel we must earn approval and acceptance, as if the promises of God’s Word that we are cleansed and not condemned aren’t enough. We still have a hard time trusting God with our future, our family, our fears. We cling to these and try to control, rather than resting in the truth that God is enough to take care of us. Life seems to fall short in so many ways. We seem to fall short in so many ways. And these shortcomings try to steal our contentment.

Lies whisper, You should be more beautiful, funny, successful, good, intelligent, like so-and-so. You should do more with you life, with your time. You should have more friends, happiness, adventures. And we feel dissatisfied, and we scramble and scrape to be more, do more, have more, rather than than leaning into more of Jesus and letting Him be our enough.
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If you’re like me, you long for enough. That deep contentment, like the satisfaction that comes after a good meal. Did you get enough to eat?

And if you’re like me, you’ve found yourself often dissatisfied rather that full. The striving to be enough, do enough, and have enough to earn approval, earn love, earn acceptance, and earn worth has left you empty.

So leading up to Easter, I’ll be writing a series about Jesus being enough and about finding enough in Him; letting Him pour His enough into our emptiness. We’ll be looking at Jesus’ interactions with a few different women; how His life intersects and infuses their lives, their emptiness, that we too may discover life in Him who is enough.

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