SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/4/2022 9:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus PT-1
“The Kingdom is Made Personal by a Transaction”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
13:44-46
Message of the verses: “44 "The
kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and
hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and
buys that field. 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
seeking fine pearls, 46 and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and
sold all that he had and bought it.”
Today
we begin the last section in talking about these two parables, and in both
parables the priceless object was bought at the expense of every possession the
finder owned, and that is worth thinking about.
It is for that reason that some Christians feel uncomfortable about
these two parables, and that is because they seem to teach that salvation can
be bought, but this is not the case as a person can do nothing on their own to
inherit salvation that comes as a free gift from God. Now as we interpret this in the right way, we
will see that salvation is bought in the sense that the person who accepts
Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior surrenders everything he has to Him, and
I think that is what this parable teaches.
John
MacArthur writes “In all parables, the physical and earthly is used to
illustrate the spiritual and heavenly.
In these two parables the economic transaction of buying represents the
spiritual transaction of surrender.
There is an exchange in salvation.
The old is exchanged for the new.”
I think that 2 Corinthians 5:21 speaks of this transaction “He made Him
who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him.” This verse
can be called “The Great Exchange.”
We
want to now look at a familiar Old Testament passage that speaks of salvation
as the free gift of God as it expresses “come, buy” twice in one verse. Let us look now at Isaiah 55:1 in its entirety. "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who
have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and
without cost.” We see here that the buying is not with money or any other possession,
material or otherwise. However in this
passage just as in these two parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of
great price, a transaction is clear.
What we see here is that the sinner gives up all the worthless things he
has while freely receiving all the priceless things God has to give in
Christ. The things that we give up are
in no way what pays for salvation, and the reason is because salvation is
always a free gift from God. To the
contrary, what we give up not only is worthless but worse than worthless
as even the “righteous deeds” of an unbeliever
“are like filthy rags” as seen in Isaiah 46:6.
We
conclude this first SD on this section with quotation from John MacArthur’s
commentary: “In eagerness to defend one
truth of the gospel, it is possible to contradict or compromise another. In order to defend the freeness of the
gospel, some interpreters deny or underplay the cost of salvation to believers
as well as to Christ. Only Christ’s
payment purchases salvation, but the
true believer will also be willing to pay whatever cost salvation
involves. Apart from the willingness to yield all he has, a person’s profession of faith is hollow and worthless. The rich young ruler of Matthew 19:16-22 is
the classic example of one who saw the value of the pearl but refused to submit
all he was and had to the lordship of Jesus Christ.”
5/4/2022 9:35 AM
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