June 20, 2014
Matthew 13:44
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
A lot of Christians know about the redemption Jesus Christ purchased on Calvary’s cross when He offered Himself for our sins. He paid the price – but for what? Why, He paid for all the wrongs we have done against God! True, but don’t stop there! Don’t miss the truth encapsulated in the short parable of The Hidden Treasure in Matthew 13:44:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man
found and hid; and for joy over it goes and sells all that he has and buys that
field.
Some interpret this to mean that we – having sought and discovering the Lord Jesus Christ, and salvation in Him – acquire that priceless treasure at any cost! There are two problems with this interpretation:
• We do not seek out God! He seeks us! Paul wrote in Romans 3:10 and 11 (quoting Psalm 14:1 through 3), “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God.’ ” And in Luke 19:10, Jesus summarized His whole mission: “…for the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” As said before, We do not seek out God! He seeks us!
• We do not buy salvation – either the treasure or the field! In Psalm 49:6 through 8 it is written:
Those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches, none
of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him
— for the redemption of their souls is costly….
Redemption of anyone’s soul is so costly that only Jesus could ever pay the
price! Only He could produce the payment before the Father of a perfect
life sacrificed to pay for the sin of mankind!
The interpretation of parables is consistent, in that if something is shown to mean a specific thing in one parable, then it holds true in the interpretation of all the other parables! Jesus gave the meaning in three parables in Matthew 13 – the Sower (Matthew 13:3 through 8, and 18 through 23); the Wheat and Tares (Matthew 13:24 through 30, and 36 through 43); and the Dragnet (Matthew 13:47 through 50).
In the parable of the Wheat and Tares we discover the man who planted “…the good seed is the Son of Man…” (Matthew 13:37) – Jesus Christ Himself! In the next verse the Lord explained, “The field is the world….” Putting it together just from these two bits of information, the interpretation of The Hidden Treasure is this: Jesus Christ Himself discovers a great treasure hidden in the world. He hides it again and by the infinite price of His own life – costing everything He had – He bought the whole world to gain the treasure! The treasure is us! We are hidden, as it were, from the open acknowledgment of the world now, but of inestimable worth to God!
But notice that the Lord did not just pay for our redemption. The Son of God bought the whole world – actually the whole of creation! It is written in Romans 8:19 through 23:
For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of
the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but
because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will
be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors in
birth pangs together until now…eagerly waiting for the…redemption….
The context tells us that at the return of Christ is glory, all creation will be delivered from God’s curse into glorious liberty – said curse being imposed upon creation when man sinned (see Genesis 3:17 through 19).
What has all this to do with What Will The Millennium Be Like? Jesus Christ came to restore what Adam lost to sin. The Millennium will be like the earth in the time of the Garden of Eden before sin entered in. So we can glimpse the future by looking into the past – which we will do in the next few blogs.