The Very First Lesson of the Gospel

As my wife and I continue moving through John Owen's On Communion with God, I am jolted by my lack of Christ-centerdness.  What follows is a word from Owen that I long to embrace heart and soul.

In a section from chapter 5 that treats of Christ's love for those he died for on account of Christ's valuation of them, Owen speaks of the saints' valuation of Christ:

They value him above all other things and persons.  Christ and a dungeon, Christ and a cross, are infinitely sweeter than a crown, a scepter without him, to their souls.  So it was with Moses: 'He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt' (Heb. 11:26). . . .  The treasures of Egypt were in those days the greatest in the world; Moses despised the very best of the world, for the worst of the cross of Christ.  Indeed, Christ himself has told believers, that if they love anything better than him, father or mother, they are not worthy of him (Matt. 10:37).  A despising of all things for Christ is the very first lesson of the gospel. 

And so, let us learn again and again, daily recalling Christ's worth and glory, this very first lesson of gospel.  "Christ is all" (Col. 3:11).  "To live is Christ, to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21).  In view of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, let us count all as dung and loss, that we may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of our own, but that which comes through faith in Christ (Phil. 3:8-9).