“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
— Matthew 13:44 (NKJ)
You’ve heard it said that we are just poor sinners who needed saving so God decided to come to the rescue. This view gives the idea that he came because he felt sorry for us, or he felt a sense of obligation to pull us out of the muck we got ourselves into because. after all, we chose to disobey. Sometimes we feel like God just tolerates us, puts up with us. Well, He is God and that is what God does. He tolerates and saves.
Yet, when we look at Jesus and what He says, we get a completely different picture. One statement Jesus made in Matthew 13:44 tells us a lot in just a few words.
A man, who finds treasure in a field, sells all he has in order to buy the field and get the treasure. Who is this man that gives up everything? He has great worth and yet gives it all away? Some say it is you and I who gave up everything for the treasure and that the treasure is the gospel. But that is not the case. The man here is not you or me and the treasure is not the gospel.
So who is this man?
The man who gave up everything is our beautiful Savior, our Redeemer, Jesus. He is the one who joys over the treasure by selling all He had. He is the one who set aside his glory; He stepped into humanity to become one of us.
Philippians 2:7 says in the
NIV “he made himself nothing…”
NLT “he gave up his divine privileges…”
ESV “but emptied himself…”
KJV “made himself of no reputation….”
CEV “ he gave up everything…”
WNT “he stripped himself of his glory…”
As we just read, He emptied himself of his divine privileges, that is He became fully, 100% human. He was seen as truly human (Philippians 2:8-WNT). He gave up all He had and then amazingly does it again!
Isaiah 54:12 says, “he poured out his life unto death”…he emptied himself once again. He willingly gave his life to die a cruel and brutal death. In his humanity, he gave all again; he gave his life (John 10:11).
He gave all he had, twice. He had nothing more to give. First, he emptied himself of his divine privileges and became one of us. Second, in his humanity, he gave his life, pouring it out unto death.
Jesus is talking of himself, the man who sold all he had to buy the treasure. He gave all because of the value of the treasure. That treasure is you and me.
“Surrender – accept His acceptance of you.”
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