T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
November, 1933
cÇJrecious C^Ja reci ^ sa v io u r Unto you therefore which believe he is precious” (1 P eter 2:7). / \ f f r -------T A k B y the late HAROLD F. GRAHAM
His S aviourhood was D ivinely E xpensive The saviourhood of the Lord Jesus Christ was divinely ex pensive; it robbed heaven o f its glory. It must have been this fact
. re you not a lto g e th e r taken by surprise at finding these words on the lips o f Peter ? Had it been John, the beloved one, the tender-hearted one, the one who laid his head upon the breast of the Lord Jesus, who had called Christ precious, you would not have been surprised. Had David, the sweetest singer o f all Israel, the one who set down the deepest emotions o f the heart on the pages of the Psalms, written that C h ris t is precious, you would not have thought it strange. But the words set strangely upon the lips of Peter, the hardened, burly fisherman o f the sea. On the night when Christ was betrayed, '■
o f which the psalmist was think ing, when he wrote: “ Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: . . . All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out o f the ivory palaces.” “ My Lord has garments so won drous fine, And myrrh their texture fills; Its fragrance reached to this heart of mine, With joy my being thrills. His life had also its sorrows sore; For aloes had a part: And when I think o f the cross He bore, My eyes with teardrops start.” Myrrh and aloes and cassia— the fragrance of these were upon His garments, for He came from the ivory palaces o f glory to a world of sin, god lessness, and death. He who was the brightness o f God’s glory and the express image of His per son had to veil Himself in a robe o f human flesh. His saviourhood not only cost heaven its glory, but, in a stranger way, it cost earth its pride. If the Father sent the Son to be a Saviour o f the world, then the world must need a Saviour. The world must know itself lost, ruined, and eternally smitten under the power o f sin. This saviourhood o f Jesus Christ cost an unwilling world all its pride. It dashed the proud, self-righteous Jew to the earth; it destroyed all the wisdom, culture, and self-refinement o f the Greek. It told the world that it had already been judged by God, and that its sin was known; its secret parts were uncov ered, and God knew o f its filthiness and had de clared it all to be a stench in His nostrils. If He is to be your Saviour, He will rob you o f your pride likewise. You shall have to drop your little pretenses o f being good enough with out Him. You shall stand still in your own help lessness, before you advance in His strength, see ing your little air castles o f self-realization and self-sufficiency tumble and crumble about you. You shall realize your utter helplessness without Christ. YoUr pride will be destroyed and broken, and you shall then stand ready for this next revelation— all glorious it is— concerning the saviourhood of Jesus Christ.
I have prayed for thee'
there were no tears on the face o f Peter, but there were curses from his lips. Yet it is from the same lips that we have these sweet, tender, winsome words: “ Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.” O f how many things in your life could you use this word “ precious” ? You count your h e a l t h precious, or at least you do after you have lost it. You count your possessions precious. The dear companion o f your life is precious. You look down into the smiling blue eyes o f your baby boy, and you say he is precious. But nearer and dearer than all o f these is the Christ o f our redemption. So we look at Him with loving, glistening eyes, and our hearts respond with unutterable emotion, as we hear these words o f Peter: “ Unto you there fore which believe he is precious.” What makes a thing precious ? Surely its cost liness determines this. I could place in your hand a diamond, and you would say it is a precious stone. That is because it is costly. Then if I could place in your hand the Hope Diamond, world famous as it is, you would say also that it is precious— and infinitely more precious—because there is none other like it in the world. Perhaps, then, if we take just such simple, earth-bound standards as these, we shall be able to under stand why we must speak of the Lord Jesus as our precious Saviour. E ditor ' s N ote : Last year, about this time, the busy young pastor who wrote the accompanying article was serving as an instructor in the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. The Editor of T he K ing ' s B usiness asked him for a sermon outline to be used on the homi letical page of the Thanksgiving issue. Mr. Graham graciously responded by sending the manuscript of the sermon, “ Precious Saviour,” which, while it does not deal directly with the subject of thanksgiving, focuses meditative attention upon the divine Source of it. It was felt that to condense so inspiring a message into the narrow bounds of an outline would be to lose much of its richness and beauty; it has therefore been held for use, unabridged, in the present issue. Since the message was penned and preached, its ardent author has glimpsed in Glory the beauty of the precious Saviour whom on earth he loved. *
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