How do we Receive Christ as Supremely Valuable?

By Pas­tor Daniel Stege­man — Stand­ing for the Truth

Last week I wrote an arti­cle where I argued (with the help of pas­tor John Piper) that receiv­ing Christ involves receiv­ing Him as supremely valu­able and not sim­ply on our own terms. In response to this arti­cle, a good friend of mine remarked that there are times when he strug­gles to make Christ (using my lan­guage) his “great­est trea­sure.” Giv­ing the fact that this is a strug­gle for many of us, I thought it would be appro­pri­ate to write a follow-up article.

As I pon­dered this impor­tant ques­tion, two para­bles from the gospel of Matthew came to mind. Jesus said, “The king­dom of heaven is like trea­sure hid­den in a field, which a man found and cov­ered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the king­dom of heaven is like a mer­chant in search of fine pearls, who, on find­ing one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:44–46). These para­bles are short and sweet. The basic mean­ing is that while the king­dom of heaven is hid­den to most, the few who find it are will­ing to go to great lengths to posses this hid­den treasure.

Keep in mind that this is a para­ble, which means we have to be care­ful how we inter­pret these verses. Jesus is not say­ing that we must use our own resources to find sal­va­tion. Rather, Jesus is say­ing that those who freely receive the gift of God in Christ (Eph­esians 2:4–9) are will­ing to part ways with all their worldly trea­sure. Hav­ing found some­thing far supe­rior (Christ) to what once held value in their lives, they gladly let go of those trea­sures because of the supreme value of know­ing Christ. The apos­tle Paul writes, “Indeed, I count every­thing as loss because of the sur­pass­ing worth of know­ing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suf­fered the loss of all things and count them as rub­bish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not hav­ing a right­eous­ness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the right­eous­ness from God that depends on faith” (Philip­pi­ans 3:8–9).

It is safe to say that the world has a way of dis­tract­ing us from Christ. In the same way that Santa Claus has a way of tak­ing our focus off the true mean­ing of Christ­mas, so too does the world’s val­ues dis­tract us from fol­low­ing Christ. When we invest our­selves in what is earthly it shows that our pri­or­i­ties are not invested in the One who has infi­nite value, the Son of God. There­fore, we must con­stantly bat­tle against our fleshly nature, and pray that our affec­tions remain in Christ. As Paul tells, “If you then have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hid­den with Christ in God” (Colos­sians 3:1–3).

While this is cer­tainly not easy, it is nec­es­sary and required by God. Jesus said, “Do not lay up for your­selves trea­sures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for your­selves trea­sures in heaven, where nei­ther moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your trea­sure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19–21). If your heart is taken with the things of the world, then they will be your reward. But if your heart has been cap­ti­vated by Christ and He is your hid­den trea­sure, God will reward you with eter­nal life in the pres­ence of Christ. The choice is yours, friend.

May God richly bless you.

Pas­tor Daniel Stege­man – Stand­ing for the Truth — www.danstegeman.wordpress.com

Posted by Guest 1 Columnist on Jan 16 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.