Please sir, may I have some more

“Just a little bit more” was the response given by the world’s richest man John D. Rockefeller to the question, “How much money is enough money?” Here was a man who had it all and yet he wanted “just a little bit more.” Just a little, he wasn’t asking for much, just a little, is that too much to ask?

Christians, if we are not careful that ends up being our plea as well: “Just a little bit more.”

This can come in the most common forms man knows: health, happiness, wealth, safety, physical satisfaction and relationship. In fact, most often those peddling a false hope key off of mankind’s common desires for such things, prompting us to go down to the shop and buy the newest teaching or product that promises and guarantees us the answer to our problems.

Your health is bad? Eat organic and stretch. You don’t have enough money? Go to our school and invest with us. Your life seems out of balance and you’re unhappy? Take our drug. You will not survive a car crash without this car and our car seat. You will be miserable unless you buy our bed.

Maybe you have heard this:

“When are you getting married?”

“When are you having kids?”

“When are you having more kids?”

“Don’t you think you have enough kids?”

These all tap into the quest for “just a little bit more.”

What does God say about all this?

Romans 8:32 gives us the answer: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

This delves into the biblical concept of moving from the greater to the lesser. If God gave us the greatest gift of all, salvation through the death of Jesus Christ—which He freely did—then why would we think He is keeping anything else from us?

For the Christian, God does not need to give us anything more. He has given us the greatest gift of all. Imagine standing before the cross as Jesus was being crucified. You see Him being whipped. His back bloody and raw, a crown of thorns pushed firm onto His head. The mocking crowed spitting on Him and laughing. Nails pounded into His hands one at a time and into the front of His ankles. Then, with each breath taken, He has to push up on His feet to gasp for air.

Finally, He gives up the ghost and a soldier with all his might heaves a spear right into His side and you see blood and water pour out. Imagine in the midst of that saying, “Well I appreciate what you are doing, but it’s not enough. I need a little bit more. I need to feel a little bit better, be a little bit richer, little bit more successful. I need a little bigger family and a little more guarantee that things are going to work out for me. What you are doing is great but I need a little bit more.”

Preposterous?

Not from a gospel perspective. Too often we forget Christ’s work, and the wonder, cost and greatness of our salvation.

Let us remember what God tells us in Romans 8:32: He has already given us the greatest gift and that He is not going to keep from us what we truly need.

I know we have desires, but let us not make gods out of them. Let us not be unsatisfied and forget what we have already received freely, the greatest gift of all—life in Jesus Christ. We don’t need a little bit more. God has given us all we need in Christ.

— by Paul Rochford

Rochford is the executive pastor at Barabbas Road Church and a graduate of Southern California Seminary, is working on his Master’s of Divinity degree. He and his wife Julia have a daughter, Andrea.