1. What is God’s Word for this hour??
2. Jesus’ parable of the pearl of great price:
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls (this is different from the previous parable (v.44) where the treasure is accidentally discovered), 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Something exceedingly precious that it is counted worthy above everything else.
3. If the kingdom of God is the precious thing, its substance is the King himself, Christ.
“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious” (1 Pet 2:4 cf.1 Pet 2:6 citing Isa 28:16)
Cannot be Christ in some abstract or idealistic sense, must be Christ in relation to his body.
4. Where is Christ?
a. Christ in us:
“To them (the saints) God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col 1:27)
The precious indwelling, this involves a process of maturation .
“my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (Gal 4:19), that comes through the Word.
The church itself is a pearl of great price formed deep within Christ.
b. Christ clothes us”
“14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Rom 13:14) “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal 3:27) cf. “put on the new self” (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10 “image of its creator”)
4. What is so precious about this?
To be clothed with Christ is to be covered with his resurrection life:
ESV “if Christ is in you, although the body is dead (body of Christian still mortal, perishing like the rest of humanity cf. 1 Pet 4:6) because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Rom 8:10) v. 11 relates to the resurrection of Jesus, “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
What sort of life is this – resurrection life. But, if we are “in the Spirit”, if “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49) then we are immersed in resurrection life () despite all fleshly appearances). We now share in “the glory of the immortal God” (Rom 1:23) because through the “precious promises” we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:24). That is, we are one with God’s “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (Rom 1:20) because we are in Christ who is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15).
Seeing these things are true of us, we are essentially free from the power of falleness, i.e. they “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals” (Rom 1:23). To commit idolatry is to reject our basic identity e.g. by substituting the glory of God for the glory of man, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44).
In Christ/covered by Christ how could we live as if there were no creator?? (JY Lugano/Lausanne experiences of European culture)
5. How does this become real to us?
In the same way it became real to Jesus. Made “perfect through suffering.” (Heb 2:10)
We are those who “have escaped the corruption in the world due to sinful passions” (2 Pet 1:4). Death to idolatry quickens the resurrection life in which we dwell/dwells in us.
“Only men and women of courage, who throw themselves into depths of sorrow come up with pearls, not those who for the sake of comfort shun the sea and the waves.” (Richard Wurmbrand)
6. How does this relate to Mission?
The greater the revelation of the preciousness of Christ in relation to us the greater the expression of Christ from us “in all things” (total war on the denial of the presence of God). Extensiveness relates to intensiveness, breadth to depth. All this depends on the power of the Spirit.
We are those who, because we are clothed with Christ, share in the knowledge of the glorification of the universe (“all things”), according to the image of the resurrected Lord. As such, we are inwardly compelled to see all things move towards this goal.