One Pearl of Great Price

There are many precious stones and materials that command a high price in this world today including diamonds, gold and silver. Throughout the Bible there are many gems and precious metals mentioned but on one occasion the Lord Jesus spoke to a crowd of people about the “one pearl of great price” (Matthew 13 v 46).

A pearl starts as something worthless, a small grain of sand or grit, which is an irritant and eventually makes its way inside the Oyster. The Oyster reacts and protects itself by surrounding the foreign body by secreting mother-of-pearl over it and a beautiful pearl is formed.

The merchant man in the parable that the Lord Jesus taught was seeking “goodly pearls” (v45) and when he had found “one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it” (v 46).

A parable is sometimes explained as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning and we can possibly see a picture of the Lord Jesus and ourselves in this story.

It reminds us that we are worthless sinners, who have fallen short of God’s standard and “without Christ, being aliens” and “strangers” and “having no hope, and without God in the world:” (Ephesians 2 v 12). We are just like the small, insignificant grain of sand in a mighty ocean.

The merchant man could be a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, rich, and one who came “to seek and to save that which was lost.” The one who paid that “great price” by giving his life on the cross of Calvary and shedding his precious blood. The Lord Jesus died and “he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” (1 Corinthians 15 v 4).

By repenting of your sin and placing your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ you can have your sins forgiven. Like the grain of sand, once worthless, lost and hostile but now being arrayed with “the garments of salvation” (Isaiah chapter 61 v10).

The pearl is a thing of beauty and this is now how the Lord Jesus Christ sees a forgiven and saved individual. One who is now dressed in beauty not their own and as Paul states in his letter to the Corinthians “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5v17).

“What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?” (Matthew 27 v 22),

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16 v 31)

Paul Cartwright