PRECIOUS PEARL VALUE

PRECIOUS PEARL VALUE

Continued from article PERFECT EYES

“And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God….This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, "THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone,” 1 Pet. 2:4, 7

Turn with me once more to another Scripture, 1 Peter 2:4, 7. Here again while the figure of the pearl of great price is not to be found, the great facts of which it is a figure are set forth per­fectly. "Unto whom coming, a living Stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious." Mark that word "precious." "The precious Stone," this is spoken of the Lord Himself. "Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house." I omit the rest, because it describes the issue, and I go to verse 7, which describes the process. "For you therefore which believe is the preciousness." What preciousness? His preciousness. The Christ of God is here described as being precious, and you may read all values into that word. In character, precious; in conduct, pre­cious; in all the facts of His great personality, precious. All the things God values center in Him. Rejected of men, but precious to God is He.

We come to Him, says the apostle, and are built up. "For you which be­lieve is the preciousness;" that is to say, all that is precious in Him, is communicated to us who believe. That is the whole story of the development of Christian character. To the last, to the unending ages of eternity, I shall never have anything of myself of which to boast in the presence of God. I shall always boast in the values that have been made mine by communication—the values of the Christ char­acter. Anything excellent in us is the Christ-life realized in us. He is pre­cious, but unto you that "believe is the preciousness." That does not mean that you hold Him precious in your affection; but that the precious values in Him are communicated to you, and we who come to Him worthless and base, are changed into worth and pre­ciousness because He communicates to us His own infinite value. Such is the story of the pearl. It is first of all base, a worthless thing, harming the life to which it comes. And here is a most remarkable and exquisite figure of what happens in the building of the Church of Jesus Christ. We "were no people "—I still quote from Peter, and he is quoting from Hosea—we "now are the people of God;" we "had not obtained mercy," we "now have ob­tained mercy." How has the change been wrought? We came to Him worthless, and it was in our approach to Him that He was wounded and harmed, injured and bruised. Yet the answer of the injured One to that which harmed, was that He made over to us in the mystery of His harming, all the virtues and glories of His own character. As the pearl is the outcome of a hurtful thing transformed into beauty and innocence by the communi­cation of the life it hurt, so the Church of Jesus Christ in its entirety consists of such as wounded Him, and yet from that very wounding, and because of it, there has been, and is being communi­cated to them His virtue, His grace, His glory, His beauty. He Who for the moment in the parable is the mer­chant, is infinitely more than the mer­chant. He is not only the One Who sees the possibility of the precious jewel, but He Who transmutes the unsightly thing into the thing of beauty, he impure thing into the thing of in­nocence; the One Who has lifted out of the troubled sea of human sorrow, a people that shall flash in glory forever upon the bosom of God, the chief medium through which He shall manifest His grace and His glory in all the ages a come.

This is the subject of the Ephesian Epistle. The parable is silent about that final issue, because it is only dealing with this age, but we may follow the pearl in imagination until it flashes upon the bosom of some potentate. If we reverently inquire what becomes of the pearl that Jesus finds, we may turn to the Ephesian epistle and there see its destination. Paul first of all prays that these Christians may know "the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints," a phrase rich and gracious and glorious in meaning. Notice carefully Paul did not pray that they might know what the greatness of their inheritance in God was, but what was the greatness of God's inheritance in them. The thought is not that the saints are made rich in God, but that God is en­riched in the saints, that in them He gains something for His possession. I dare not say that if it were not the teaching of the whole epistle, and I dare hardly say it if it were but the suggestion of a verse. But mark the argument of the great Ephesian epistle, and see to what end it works out. In it Paul distinctly teaches us in what sense God gains in the Church. He tells us that the Church is to be the medium through which His grace, His goodness, His love are to be made known to the ages to come. The Church is to be that through which the unborn ages will know the grace of God and the love of God. A little further on in the same epistle, he tells us that the Church is to be the instru­ment through which angels, principali­ties, powers, the unfallen intelligences of other worlds, will learn the wisdom of God. This Church, redeemed, purchased, purified, glorified, is forever more to be the instrument through which the grace of God and the wisdom of God will be made known to ages and to principalities and to powers, until we get to the close of the letter, and Paul with one flash of light says—and reading, think of the pearl of the parable—"Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present the Church to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."

The pearl of great price is found in the midst of human wreckage, is gathered out of it, exalted, and made the medium through which in coming ages the infinite truth of God's grace and wisdom shall be revealed. Thus does God gain in the Church. He gains nothing of essential glory, but He gains a medium through which He may manifest that glory. He gains nothing of essential grace, but He gains a peo­ple, through whom His grace shall be revealed as could be in no other way.