Christ's Jewels
The Lord Jesus when on earth was one of the poorest of men. He was born to poverty; he was cradled in a stable; he went through his brief life on foot; he had no home during his ministry in which to lay his weary head; and his crucified body was buried in a family tomb borrowed from an almost stranger. Yet he was all the time laying the foundations for the most magnificent possessions in the universe of God. He was accumulating the only treasures that can outlast this fleeting globe. They are innumerable luuncui souls redeemed by him unto everlasting glory. To them his prophetic eye looked forward when he said, “They shall be mine in that day when I make up my jewels.” More closely rendered, the passage is, “They shall be my peculiar treasure in the day I am preparing.”
For one, I like the familiar phraseology in our common version. Christians are Christ’s jewels. They are purchased by atoning blood; at an infinite price was this divine ownership secured. As the pearls are only won from the depths of the sea by the dangerous dive of the fishers, so were the pearls for Messiah’s crown brought up from the miry depths of depravity by the descent of that divine Sufferer who came to seek and to save the lost. The most brilliant and precious gem known to us is of the same chemical substance as the black and opaque coal of the mine. Crystallization turns the carbon into the diamond. The grace of the Lord Jesus transforms an opaque soul, as black by nature as the jet, into a jewel which reflects the glory of Christ’s countenance. All the lustre that the ripest Christian character possesses is but the reflection of that Sun of Righteousness. He who lives nearest to Jesus shines the brightest. A “pearl cast before swine” is not more out of place than is a professed follower of Jesus in the society of scoffers or in the haunts of revelry. Not all precious jewels glitter in conspicuous positions. The Master has his hidden ones; there are costly sapphires beneath coarse raiment and up in the dingy attic of poverty. That self-denying daughter who wears out her youthful years in nursing a poor infirm mother is a ruby of whom the Master saith, “Thou art mine in the day when I gather my jewels.” Many a precious pearl do our faithful Sunday-school teachers fish up from the dregs of ignorance into their mission-schools. From an awful depth did Jesus rescue that converted inebriate near whom we sat last Sabbath at the communion-table. All soul-saving work is a pearl-fishery for King Jesus.
“We are His workmanship, M said the great apostle; and the lustre of a gem depends much on the polishing. This is often a sharp and a severe process. Many of God’s people can recall the times when they were under the terrible file, or were pressed down to the grinding-wheel. Blessed be the affliction, however fierce, that gives new lustre to the diamond! The Master spendeth no time upon worthless pebbles; only his jewels are polished after the similitude of a palace. Nor is this process only wrought by the divine hand; every Christian must strive to make his or her own character the more shapely and beautiful. 4 ‘The roughnesses must be smoothed by careful, painstaking self-control, the untrue angles must be cut down by self-sacrifice, the surface must be evened by daily work and spiritual exercise — even trials and sorrows must be borne patiently, knowing that they will give the character an added lustre which will more worthily reflect the Master’s image.”
When these jewels are made ready for his many crowns, Christ will take them home unto himself. Luther said that there is great divinity in the pronouns of Scripture.” They shall be mine, saith the L,ord.n This claim is founded on the purchase made in redeeming blood. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit confirms it, and every true believer is also self-surrendered to the ownership of Christ. Up to the hour of conversion we had other proprietors — self sin, and the devil. Now Jesus says to each Christian, Thou art mine; I own thee. I will instruct thee, and polish thee, and put thee where it pleaseth me. I will take care of thy salvation, and no man shall pluck thee out of my hand. Thou- shalt be my peculiar treasure in the day of my triumphant appearing. I will place thee in my crown.
What a coronation day that will be! All else on this globe will be but as lumber and rubbish — fit only for the flames — in comparison with his choice ones. Then shall the homeless man of Nazareth come into full possession of his magnificent trophies. The lost in hell will be outnumbered by the saved in heaven. They that curse Him in the pit will be far fewer than they that crown him in the Paradise. On the head once bleeding with the thorns will flash the diadem of his imperial glory. And then will all the universe confess that the ransom was worth all its bitter cost of agonies, when the King shall ascend his throne of victory, and be encircled with the constellations of his jewels.