God's Jewels # 3

God's Jewels # 3

5. Because of their variety. Precious stones vary considerably both in color and in size, kind and value, brilliance and worth. If order is Heaven's first law, variety is certainly its second, for there is no uniformity in the ways and works of God, though there is a blessed underlying unity. So it is among gems, all are valuable, but all are not the same. All are God's children, all bear the marks of the Divine workmanship, all are equally precious to Christ, but all are not alike. Beautifully was this typified of old in the breastplate of Israel's high priest: twelve different precious stones adorned it, representing the tribes of Israel. No two of these gems were alike, but all were equally near to Aaron's heart!

This brings before us an important aspect of the truth which we do well to ponder. What difference we perceive between Thomas and John, between Peter and Paul; yet all were apostles of Christ. So it is now among the saints: there is almost endless variety in their capacities, their talents, their growth, the varying graces which they manifest. No one gem reflects all the colors of the spectrum, and no one believer exhibits all the excellencies of Christ. God's people are not all alike, and never will be; and all attempts at uniformity must fail. But it matters little whether we shine with the sapphire's blue, or the emerald's green, or the ruby's red - so long as we are the Lord's on the Day when He makes up His jewels.

6. Because of their durability. Precious stones are one of the very few things in this world which, notwithstanding the flight of time, neither decay nor die; and thus do they strikingly intimate in the natural realm, that eternal life which pertains to the spiritual world. The Christian, who has within him a principle which is incorruptible, undefiled, and destined to endure forever. The world has often tried to destroy God's people, but all their efforts to do so have been futile. The empty professor, the sham gem, is like a "paste" diamond: it quickly succumbs to trial, but the genuine child of God endures to the end, and shall reign with Christ forever and ever.

7. Because of their glorious destiny. "You will be a glorious crown in the Lord's hand, and a royal diadem in the palm of your God" (Isaiah 62:3). What marvelous words are these - for faith and hope to lay hold of, for our feeble intellects cannot grasp them! Wondrous is it to think of rough stones, which first look like small pebbles, being found in the mud and mire of earth; then cut and polished until they scintillate with a brilliancy surpassing any earthly object, and being given an honored place in the diadem of a monarch. But infinitely more wonderful is it that poor lost sinners, saved by sovereign grace, should be among the crown-jewels of the Son of God.

But He will yet "present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). Then shall He say to the Father, "The glory which You gave Me, I have given them" (John 17:22). 

What is meant by "When I make up My jewels"? Is it not when the complete number of His redeemed are regenerated and polished? Is it not when He shall descend from Heaven with a shout, resurrect the sleeping saints and transform the living ones and rapture them together, so that we shall "ever be with the Lord"!

One once wrote: "Earthly jewels sometimes get separated from their owner, Christ's jewels never: "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life...nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38, 39). Earthly jewels are sometimes lost - Christ's jewels never: "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand" (John 10:28). Earthly jewels are sometimes stolen - Christ's jewels never: "in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal" (Matthew 6:20)."

Are you sure that you are one of Christ's jewels? Then seek to shine for Him now.

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)