When Christianity Loses Sight of Christ How we risk overlooking the Savior even in our most spiritual pursuits. June 17th, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

 

When Christianity Loses Sight of Christ

How we risk overlooking the Savior even in our most spiritual pursuits.

June 17th, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Have you ever asked yourself a strange but searching question Am I in danger of losing Christ in my Christianity?

For many of us who profess faith in Jesus who trust him for salvation, who love him sincerely this question still bears weight. Has our first love grown dim? Has Christ become less the object of our affections and more a mere backdrop to our spiritual pursuits? Sadly, it is possible to lose sight of Jesus even while immersed in gospel work, Bible study, personal holiness, and church life.

Losing Him in the Gospel

One way we lose sight of Christ is when the gospel becomes merely a formula: gospel plus faith equals heaven. Instead of focusing on the person of Jesus, we can unintentionally reduce the gospel to an abstract system. Michael Reeves observed that Charles Spurgeon preferred to speak of preaching Christ rather than simply preaching the gospel because of how easily we reduce the gospel to an impersonal arrangement.

Yet the gospel, as Paul describes, is never faceless. It is "the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son" (Romans 1:1–3). The good news is a person Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified and risen, reigning and returning. The gospel is not a system we mentally assent to but the announcement of our crucified and living Savior.

Losing Him in the Scriptures

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for diligently studying Scripture while missing its central message “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). We can make the same error, reading the Bible to extract lessons on marriage, parenting, or morality, while failing to behold the One to whom it all points.

Consider your own Bible reading. What have you seen lately? Lessons on contentment, love, patience, or suffering may fill your mind, but have you also seen Christ? Have your affections been stirred by his character, his sacrifice, his glory? The Scriptures exist not just to inform but to draw us nearer to the Savior who is their central figure.

Losing Him in the Pursuit of Holiness

Even our pursuit of personal holiness can become detached from Christ himself. We strive to grow in love, patience, and self-control, but sometimes these virtues become impersonal targets rather than expressions of Christlikeness.

Holiness is never simply about acquiring moral attributes; it is about beholding Christ and becoming like him. "We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image" (2 Corinthians 3:18). Holiness means putting on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14), living in joyful obedience to him, and confessing sin not as mere law-breaking but as a personal offense against our triune God.

Losing Him in the Church

Christian community itself can subtly shift into human-centered activity. We gather, serve, and love each other and rightly so. Yet even in this, Christ can fade into the background if we focus only on the horizontal while neglecting the vertical.

We were not saved merely to build strong community; we were saved to belong to Christ’s body, with Him as our head (Colossians 1:18). Christian fellowship exists for his glory, sustained by his grace, and rooted in his gospel. Remove Christ, and our community becomes nothing more than another social club.

Rediscovering the Treasure

John Flavel once wrote, “The study of Jesus Christ is the most noble subject that ever a soul spent itself upon.” The angels never tire of gazing upon him, nor will the saints in glory. Can we grow weary of the One who purchased our salvation with his own blood?

The apostle Peter writes, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8). Christ himself is our highest joy both now and for eternity.

Let us refuse to settle for a Christianity that lacks Christ. Let us devote our lives to knowing him, loving him, and proclaiming him. The riches of his person are unsearchable (Ephesians 3:8), and we will explore their depths forever.

As Flavel so beautifully said, “The best of us are yet but upon the borders of this vast continent.” There is infinitely more of Christ to see, to savor, and to love. Let us journey further still.

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