God's Jewels # 2

God's Jewels # 2

1. Because of their inestimable VALUE in His sight. This is an exceedingly hard thing for the Christian to really grasp, for he feels such a wretched and worthless creature in himself. That the Lord of Glory should deem him of any consequence is difficult to conceive, that He regards him as great worth "passes knowledge." Yet so it is. The Scriptures are very plain on this point. They declare, "For the Lord's portion is His people" (Deu. 32:9). They speak of "The riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints" (Eph. 1:18). The Lord Jesus likens His Church unto "one pearl of great price," so that He "went and sold all that He had and bought it" (Matt. 13:46).

From the remotest antiquity men have thought much of precious stones, and fabulous prices have been paid for them. With great ardor and toil, do men hunt after gold, but with even greater eagerness and labor will they seek the diamond. Hundreds of men will labor for a whole year in one of the diamond mines of Africa, and the entire result of their efforts may beheld in the palm of your hand. Princes have been known to barter their estates in order to obtain some gem of peculiar brilliance and rare excellence. More desirable still are His saints in the esteem of the Lord Jesus. The value of a thing in the eyes of its possessor may be gauged by the price he was willing to pay for it. So valuable was God's people that He gave Himself for it, and shed His precious blood to purchase it for Himself. Thus, the saints are likened unto "jewels" because of the great value which the Lord places upon them. 

2. Because of their DIVINE CREATION. A jewel is the production of God. Diamonds have been burned, and other jewels have been resolved into their elements, but, after the most laborious attempts, no chemist has yet been able to make a diamond. Lives have been wasted in attempts to produce precious stones, but the discovery is still unmade; they are the secret productions of God's own skill, and chemists fail to tell how they are produced, then though they know their elements.
So the world thinks it knows what a Christian is, but it cannot make one. All the wit in the world put together could not find out the secret of the heaven-born life; and all the sacraments, vestments, priests, prayers, and paraphenalia of Popery cannot create a Christian. The Lord alone can create a child of grace, and a Christian is as much a miracle, as was Lazarus when he rose from the tomb. It is great a work of Deity to create a believer as it is to create a world!" (Spurgeon).

This is the reason why the saints are precious unto the heart of the Lord Jesus: He regards and receives them as the Father's workmanship, the Father's gift unto Him. This comes out, again and again, in the wondrous 17th chapter of John. From all eternity Christ viewed them in the glass of God's decrees, and before the foundations of the earth were laid His "delights were with the sons of men" (Prov. 8:31). Because the Father had, by His predestinating purpose, fashioned His elect as vessels "unto honor" the Son prizes them as of infinite value. 

3. Because of their RARITY.  It is this, chiefly, which constitutes the value of precious stones. Were they numerous and common, found in the soil of every man's garden, they would not be so costly, nor so highly esteemed. The number of perfect large diamonds, called paragons, is very small; and so we read, "Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called" (1 Cor. 1:26). Possibly the disparity between diamonds and the pebbles of the brook is no greater than that which exists, numerically, between the regenerate and the unregenerate. The Lord Jesus plainly declared that God's flock is only a "little" one (Luke 12:32), and that few find that narrow way that leads unto Life (Matt. 7:14). God had never likened His people unto "jewels" had they been nearly so numerous as is now popularly supposed.

4. Because of their BEAUTY. The jewel is prized for its luster. It is the brilliance of the gem which, in a great measure, is the evidence and test of its value. It is said that the colors of jewels are the brightest known, and are the nearest approaches to the rays of the solar spectrum that have yet been discovered. See how the diamond flashes and sparkles! And yet its beauty and brilliance are not so much inherent. Examine it in a dark room and it emits no radiance. It is simply a reflector: its glory is borrowed from the light!

So it is with the saint: his loveliness is a loveliness which has been placed upon him, imputed to him. "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels" (Isaiah 61:10). It is very blessed to develop this aspect of our subject. To His disciples the Lord Jesus said, "You are the light of the world," and why are they so? The light of a Christian is a reflected one. That supplies the key to that little understood exhortation, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). "So shine" that Christ gets all the glory; "so shine" that we  make it clear and plain to all that whatever goodness or righteousness there is in us, and whatever fruits are produced by us, all is from Christ as the Root.

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 3)