What a value our Lord Jesus Christ must put upon His Church that He should describe it as "The Pearl of Great Price!"

We look at it often, seeing its many defects and failures, and wonder at the grace which sought and saved us and brought us into living relationship with Himself. He looks at it as it will be throughout all eternity, reflecting His beauty and glory, and so says, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman, seeking goodly pearls:who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it" (Matt. 13:45,46).

The pearl of great price is not the sinner seeking Christ and giving up all for Him, for the sinner never seeks Christ, nor does he give anything to purchase either Christ or salvation. We have nothing we can give for Him; on the contrary, every thing we have of God is His free gift to us through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 6:23).

What a great mine of truth is contained in a very small portion of the Word of God! There is no limit to the truth which one verse of Scripture may enfold; it expands and opens out as we meditate upon it. It is inexhaustible, for the Bible is a living Word. Volumes have been written on such a verse as John 3:16. And here in Matthew 13:45, 46 in a few brief words our Lord gives a parable picturing most beautifully His love for the Church and how He purchased it.

In the thirteenth chapter of Matthew seven parables give us God's view of the kingdom of heaven during the absence of its rightful King, who was rejected when He came to His own; they received Him not (John 1:11). The first four parables, spoken "out of the house, by the seaside," give the outward appearance of the Kingdom, which all may see. The last three, spoken in the house, where His disciples came unto;.Him (ver. 36), speak of Israel, the treasure hid in the field, the world; of the church, the pearl of great price; and of the net, the Gentiles, of whom there will be a great ingathering at the end of the age. These are the secret things which belong to the people of God, revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, whom God has sent to be their Teacher and Guide into all the truth (John 14:26; 16:13).

A MERCHANTMAN SEEKING

From before the foundation of the world, God had purposed to have a people. He chose us in Christ then (Eph. 1:4), and wrote our names in the Lamb's Book of Life (Rev. 13:8). But no man seeks God (Rom. 3:11; Ps. 50:1-3); He mast seek us if He would have us in His home. We were dead in trespasses and in sins (Eph. 2:1) and could make no move toward God. And so the heavenly Merchantman, God the Son, came into the world to seek and to, save lost sinners (Luke 19:10; 1 Tim. 1:15).

As "the pearl is found in the reefy bottom of the ocean, near to mud and weeds," so our Lord Jesus Christ must go to the depths of sin and judgment to get us. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich" (2 Cor. 8:9). "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant; and was made in the likeness of men:and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:6-8).

He who was God over all from eternity, by whom all things were created, God the Son (John 1:1-3; Rom. 9:5; Col. 1:16,17), became a Man to die for our sins (Heb. 2:9; 10:5-10). All God's waves and billows of judgment due to sinners for their sins passed over Him when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree (Ps. 42:7; 1 Pet. 2:24; Jonah 2:3). "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." And that is the only way by which sinners can be righteously and fittingly in the presence of a holy God.

The pearl was not seeking the merchant. Left to itself, the merchant would not have had it. Nor does the sinner seek Christ. Left to ourselves not one of us would be saved. The sinner, dead in trespasses and in sins (Eph. 2:1), is as helpless to seek God as the pearl to seek the merchant, so God the Son, the true Merchantman, seeking beautiful pearls, came into the world as Man, that He might come where we were, find us and bring us into the Father's house. He went after that which was lost until He found it (Luke 15:4).

ONE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

"Its value is estimated by One who knows fully what it is He values." While in our natural state there is no beauty which would commend us to God, nor any fitness for His presence, those who are saved now by His grace, purchased by the blood of His own (Acts 20:28; Rev. 1:5), are seen by Him in Christ, and form the one Body, the Church, of which Christ is the Head. This is the one pearl of great price which for all eternity will reflect the beauties and glories of the Son of God. The Church is clothed with a comeliness put upon it as the object of Divine Grace. As the pearl is for personal adornment, so the Church will be in the highest place in eternity, to show most conspicuously the grace and glory of God through Christ Jesus. To an ordinary observer, a cheap imitation may look very much like a real pearl. I am told that sometimes men take a bead necklace and dip it in a solution called "pearl wash" which has in it the iridescent colors of the real pearl. When taken out of its bath, many people would think the necklace was composed of real pearls. But not so with "the man who knows." I went recently to the pearl buyer of a fine jewelry establishment, and said to him, "Let me see the finest pearl you have in stock at present." He went to his desk, took out a tin box, and from an envelope in it extracted a pearl about the size of a small shoe-button. "What is the price?" I asked. "Thirteen thousand dollars." To my unpracticed eye it looked something like those
I had seen in a, thirty-five cent "pearl" necklace. But not so to "the man who knows." He had bought it and he knew its value. He was willing to pay the price for it, and when I held it in my hand where the light could shine upon-it, the pearl reflected all the colors of the rainbow. It took the light to bring out its beauties.

So will it be in eternity. The Church will there be seen faultless in God's glory, reflecting the light, clothed in its beauty. That is why our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to pay the price for it. He "loved the Church and gave Himself for it."

As. He saw the value of the pearl, the merchant felt no price was too great to pay for it. Our Lord would have us in the glory like Himself, so He gave all for us. We were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:18,19).
WHAT IS A PEARL?

"It is the only precious jewel which is a living growth;" the only jewel which is the product of a living being. This is what makes Christianity different from every religion in the world. All others are systems of ethical teachings or commandments given through a teacher now dead. Christianity centers in a Person, and that Person is the once crucified but now risen and living Son of God.

A pearl is the result of an injury done to the living organism which produces it. Pearls are formed in oysters by a particle of sand or other foreign substance introduced into the shell. The finest pearls are formed by this foreign substance piercing the oyster itself. Then the oyster overlays the particle which wounded it with layer after layer of nacre, or "mother-of-pearl," as we know it. Finally the particle is not seen. Covered over and hidden by the mother-of-pearl, we see only the beautiful iridescent colors which overlay it. What a picture of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through the sufferings of Christ as wounded for our transgressions, the Church (like the pearl) is now formed in Him. He covers us from all our sin and defilement. The offending object in the shell-fish becomes, through the work of the injured, a precious and beauteous gem for personal adornment. So the Church, composed of sinners saved by grace, who both wounded and caused the wounding of our Lord Jesus Christ as the One who suffered for them the righteous judgment of God, becomes through His atoning sufferings a precious possession for Him through all eternity. As the iridescent colors of the pearl are produced by the light reflected from its rounded surface, so the beauty of the Church is produced by our' reflecting the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Light.

In the view of the Church as the Holy City, recorded in Revelation 21, there are twelve gates, three on each side, each "one a perfect single pearl. In eternity the Church will reflect the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in every direction. "Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word; that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5::25-27).

WHAT IS A PERFECT PEARL?

"One that is perfectly spherical, pure white, slightly transparent, free from specks, spots or blemishes, and lustrous." The Church as God sees it in Christ is perfect, pure, transparent, or free from guile, with no spot or stain of sin, and lustrous in its reflection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This, beloved, is our place and portion because each of us can say:"The Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

WHAT ARE THE PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE?

Christ loves us. He gave Himself for us. He cleanses us and polishes us to fit us for Himself. He will have us with Him for all eternity, reflecting His glories to the whole universe. No price was too great for Him to pay to possess us, for He gave Himself.

May His love and grace and the purpose which He has for His Church fill our hearts and lives, leading us to greater faithfulness and devotion to Himself and more likeness in our daily life and ways to Him whose treasured possession we have become through suffering. –F. L. FRENCH.