The Best Coffee

Some coffees are especially good, and others are not ones you’d drink unless you were very thirsty. Even then, they could be revolting. Occasionally, a friend and I will sit and talk over a nice hot cup of coffee, enjoying the fragrance as well as the taste. Besides solving the world’s problems, our conversation has turned to the coffee itself, for we both have a particular liking for a good cup of steaming hot coffee. We’ve both tried many varieties, such as Tim Hortons, Starbucks, McDonald’s and A Second Cup. He mentioned the various additives people use to modify the taste of their coffee such as cream and sugar, or honey and I volunteered that some believe a dollop of whiskey will make it taste the way they like it. He explained that companies try to make their coffee more palatable by adding something to the actual coffee beans. A cup of coffee can be made to taste like dirty water or molasses, which is not how a good cup of coffee should taste.

In the process of comparing coffees that had been modified, my friend found that a truly great coffee was to be enjoyed when nothing was added to change its taste. I too, like my coffee straight from the carafe. He then compared this to our faith in Christ, saying. “He is complete in Himself, and you don't have to add anything to your faith in Him as Savior.” “Jesus,” he said, “told us that He was the way, the truth and the life and that no one is able to meet His Father in Heaven unless it would be by Him, and also, that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Jesus didn’t tell people to add anything more to their faith, because He alone is sufficient. In that, He meant, you don't have to do a whole lot of good deeds to earn your way into Heaven.” My friend added, “How would you know when you had ever done enough? Fortunately, He paid the price in full. We don't even have to be good, but instead, we simply must believe that He, Jesus, was God in human form, and was entirely sufficient as the Sacrifice made for us, so we may be forgiven of every fault that would prevent our acceptance into Heaven.”

While my friend spoke, I was enjoying the warmth of the cup in both hands, listening intently to what he was saying, for I thought he had a very good point. Then, he added for good measure, that he always remembers this principle by the few words he memorized, which were, "Christ plus anything equals nothing. Christ plus nothing equals everything."

My friend may have expounded for some time on the various ways in which a cup of coffee can be spoiled by adding something to it, but he said something I’ll definitely remember by using that easy-to-remember formula. There are of course, those who believe they have their own formula, which is, “Christ alone is not enough.” They believe that to gain God’s favor, one needs to add something more. Without understanding, they undertake to design their own theology, like people do when they modify the taste of their coffee. Even so, there is only one way to Heaven and that is to believe that "Jesus paid it all.” It is the title of a hymn. Its chorus says, “Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow." “Jesus plus anything equals nothing. Jesus plus nothing equals everything.” It’s like a great cup of coffee. One needs to add nothing, for it is complete in itself.