Chapter 2

THE MEASURE OF GOD’S LOVE

IN THE FIRST CHAPTER, WE SAW HOW SATAN IS A life-taker who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. In stark contrast to the life-taker, we saw the marvelous truth that Jesus came as a Life-Giver. He gave His life so that we could receive new life in Him. As we continue our study, let’s reflect on how the Cross where Jesus poured out His life reveals the love of God. The cross shows the great price Jesus paid to redeem us.

If I had to choose one theme of the Bible as the greatest, I would have to say it is the love of God. Any study of the death of Jesus on the cross that doesn’t include some focus on the love of God is an incomplete study.

There are many possible ways of approaching the theme of God’s love. But I am going to approach it by one particular route. The approach I will take is that we can discover the extent of God’s love by the value that He set on us— and by the price that He paid for us. That is the way we will be looking at this subject. What was the price that God was willing to pay for you and me?

If you can receive this truth by faith, it will have a life-changing impact upon you. For example, it will do a great deal for your self-image. If you feel unimportant, unworthy, or in some way inferior, it is an indication that you have never understood the value God set upon you, which is the expression of His love for you. From the very beginning of this book, I believe it is important for us to recognize one basic truth: the love of God is so great that it really can’t be measured.

WHY HE LOVES US

Actually, the love of God can also not be explained. Here is an interesting observation: nowhere in the Bible do you find an explanation of God’s love. Let’s begin with an interesting passage of Scripture in Deuteronomy 7, where Moses is trying to tell Israel why God loved them. (These words apply to you and me as believers in Jesus.) In Deuteronomy 7:6, Moses says:

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

Do you realize that you and I are God’s special treasure? After this initial statement, Moses attempts to tell Israel why God loved them. However, he never seems to reach a conclusion. Verse 7 says:

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples.

That statement is also true of you and me. We were the least. We were the foolish, the base, and the despised of the world. So why did God love us?

The next verse continues:

…but because the Lord loves you…

God did not love you because you were this or that, but simply because He loves you. That seems to be the end of the explanation! You and I could search Scripture in vain for any explanation of God’s love. The unexplained love of God is the ultimate fact behind history.

TWO PARABLES OF LOVE

Let’s now examine some of the ways Scripture depicts the love of God. We will consider two parables found in Matthew 13. Right at the outset, let me state that the way I am interpreting these parables is by no means the only possible way. I know from the cross-references in the margin of my own Bible that whoever put them there interpreted the parables in a different way. It doesn’t worry me, and you shouldn’t let it worry you either. I would encourage you to consider what I am saying, because one of the features about parables is that they can be applied and interpreted in different ways in different contexts.

The two parables we are going to consider are the parables of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price. They are both very short. The treasure in the field is just one verse. The pearl of great price is two verses. But the content is really measureless.

In Matthew 13:44-46, we read:

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.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

There is one feature common to each parable. The man in question found something so valuable that in order to obtain it, he had to part with everything else he had.

The Treasure in the Field

First, let us consider the picture of the treasure in the field. How did the treasure get hidden in the field in the first place? If you are familiar with the history of the Middle East, especially the land that was called Palestine, you will understand that it was frequently invaded by bands of marauders, all of whom came to plunder and steal.

We can picture a man with his house and all his valuables contained in it. News comes to him that marauders are on the way. He knows he can’t hide his house. So, he takes a big wooden chest and piles all his valuables, money, and jewels into it. Everything that is of great worth goes into the chest. Then the man goes out at night, digs a hole in his field, and buries the chest. He covers it over, hoping that no one will find it. Perhaps in the ensuing fighting, he gets killed—and he was the only person who knew there was a treasure buried in that field.

The treasure may lie there for centuries. Who knows? Then, another man is walking across the field one day and he stubs his toe on a hard object. At first, he thinks it is a rock. But he looks down and sees a piece of wood. Wanting to find out what it is, he starts to dig it up. As he does, he finds a rotting old chest. As he pulls up just one corner of the lid, his eyes see jewelry, pearls, and gold. In that moment, he realizes what has happened.

The story in the Bible says that he hid the treasure again. Why? Because he didn’t want anyone else to know there was treasure in that field. He wanted to keep that secret for one reason. What was it? The price of that field would have gone up significantly if anybody else found out about the treasure. Bear in mind this fact: The man didn’t really want the field. He wanted the treasure. But in order to have a legal right to the treasure, he had to buy the field.

When he inquired about the price, it was a very high price. Some of the neighbors might have asked, “Whatever does that man want that field for? Nothing ever really grew in it. Why is he prepared to spend so much money on that field?” He doesn’t tell anybody the real reason he wants it.

He knows the value of the treasure it holds, and he is very willing to pay the price.

The Pearl of Great Price

Let’s now examine the other parable of the pearl of great price. It is very important for us to see that the man in this parable was a merchant. He was not a tourist. He isn’t simply wandering through the streets of the town. He didn’t simply happen upon some pearls in a shop window and listen to the story the owner told him about the merchandise. Instead, this man was looking intentionally. When he found this one pearl, he knew immediately it was unique. No other pearl he had ever seen equaled it. Not only was he a merchant, but he really loved his business. Once he had inquired as to the price of the pearl, he sold everything he had to pay for it. After he has bought the pearl, he holds it in his hand. He looks down at it and says, “I paid a lot for you. But you’re worth everything I paid and more.”

Now that you have heard both of these parables, I would like to interpret them for you. Please bear in mind that this is the “Prince” interpretation.

CLAIMING THE TREASURE

The man in both parables is a picture of Jesus. Really, in a sense He is the only one in a position to buy. Because you and I have nothing with which we can buy anything when it comes to the spiritual realm.

The field is interpreted by Matthew 13:38 where it says: The field is the world.

I believe this meaning runs consistently through the parables about the Kingdom of heaven in Matthew chapter 13. Every time the field is mentioned, it refers to the world. As Jesus looked at the world with His divine insight, He knew that hidden somewhere in the world was this priceless chest full of treasure. What was the chest, what was the treasure? Here is what I would like to suggest. The treasure is God’s people whom He foreknew from eternity—the ones He chose for Himself.

Like the man in the story, in order to have legal right to the treasure, God had to buy the field. It wasn’t really the field that He wanted. Rather, His interest was always the treasure in the field. What is the treasure in the field? It is God’s people. People like you and me—and millions upon millions more. (In fact, there are a lot of those millions still in the field.)

Let’s picture ourselves as the Lord’s servants. God has paid the price for the field. What was the price? The precious blood of Jesus Christ. Our job now is to go out into the field and dig up the treasure. He has the legal right to it, but He gives us the privilege.

A lot of treasure remains under the earth to this day. It is all dirty and maybe it is corroded. A lot of work will need to go into getting the treasure out and making it what it ought to be. Please allow me to share a story that may increase your incentive to enter into the work that remains.

THE VIEW FROM THE TRAIN

Many years ago, in 1943, when I was a new Christian—I had only been saved two years—the British army sent me to the Sudan. This country is just south of Egypt, and at that time, it was administered by the British government. The word Sudan means “the black people.” The people of Sudan were very primitive. The northern part of the Sudan was totally Moslem, and the southern part was also very primitive and animistic, but becoming Christian. I worked for a short while in Sudan as a medical orderly. I had been put in charge of what they call the reception station at a railway junction in a town called Atbara in the northern part of Sudan.

I vividly remember my time traveling in the train as it went to Atbara from Khartoum. Because I was a British soldier, I had a carriage all to myself which none of the civilians could use. At one point in the train trip, we stopped at a platform in some city. If you have never been to a third-world country, you may not be able to picture this. But the platform was just totally alive with creatures of every kind: old men, old women, young men, young women, toddlers, babies being nursed by their mothers, donkeys, camels, chickens, dogs, etc. It was a seething mass of life.

As I looked out of the window at them from the carriage where I sat, I just said to myself, not in any kind of super-spiritual way: “I wonder what God thinks of these people.” Surprisingly, I got an immediate answer from the Lord that has stayed with me to this day: “Some weak, some foolish, some proud, some wicked, and some exceedingly precious.” As far as I am concerned, I have never had any reason to change that categorization of humanity: some weak, some foolish, some proud, some wicked, and some exceedingly precious. I believe that any time you and I look out over the mass of humanity there will be representatives of every one of those categories.

A DEEP CONCERN

When I arrived at Atbara, I was put in charge of the reception station—a place where soldiers were brought in if they were sick. In dealing with them, it would be my decision whether they needed medicine, whether they needed to go to the hospital, or whatever course of action might be required.

It is important for you to know at this point that the British Army never provided soldiers with pajamas. For my years in the army, I simply got used to sleeping in my underwear. However, at this reception station, there were not only two hospital beds, but also three white, flannel nightdresses. (The nightdresses were to be used by patients who required a bed.)

First of all, for me to have a really soft bed at that time was a luxury. As if that were not enough, I made another decision: “I’m going to sleep in a nightdress. I mean, here it is. Why shouldn’t I use it?” So, I put this nightdress on and gloriously went to sleep in a nice, soft bed.

I don’t know how to describe what happened next, but sometime during the night something supernatural occurred. In the middle of the night, I suddenly woke up with this tremendous burden to pray for the people of the Sudan. It was totally unexplainable. I have to say, in the natural no one would tend to find them very attractive people. But here I was, just pouring out my heart in prayer to God for these people whom I didn’t know, and hadn’t cared much about, outside of that holy moment.

Then, as I continued in my intercession, a miracle began to take place. My clothing became luminous. It was as if Jesus within me was shining through my body. I don’t know if I can make this as clear as I would like, but Jesus began to speak to me about the way He loved those people. He spoke of them and others as His jewels. He reminded me that jewels are buried deep in the earth and that I had to mine them out. Then He said, “They are cut with suffering and washed with tears.”

A FIRSTFRUIT OF HARVEST

After that short but meaningful stay in Sudan, I was deployed to a little place in the Red Sea Hills called Gebeit. Essentially, I spent the rest of the year in what was then called Palestine. I was put in charge of the “native” labor—pulled from area residents—in a very small hospital for Italian prisoners of war. Other than two doctors and a few people like me, the prisoners were the only people there. At that time, in 1943, there were thousands upon thousands of Italian prisoners of war under the care of the British Army. In this situation, I ended up being responsible to see that the native work force did its job.

The man in charge of the native labor force was a Sudanese named Ali, which is a very common Arabic name. To be blunt, he was a rogue. He cheated on the wages he got, kept back money given him, and he was a brawler. About the only positive word I could give to his credit was that Ali was a very good footballer (soccer player).

At first, Ali and I never seemed to be able to enter into any kind of relationship. Our routine was that I would meet him every morning, and we would talk together about what had to be done. He had learned English simply by talking to soldiers. He never had one lesson in English but had an amazingly accurate memory. For instance, one of the tasks we had to perform was the disinfestation of blankets. My British soldiers never could get the word disinfestation right, no matter how many times they tried. Ali heard that word once and never got it wrong after that.

For a while, we just didn’t make any real connection. Then one day, I discovered that Ali believed in the devil. All Moslems do, though I knew nothing about Moslems at that time. I said: “I believe in the devil, too.” Strangely enough, that became our point of contact. Every day, Ali would come to my little store (because I was also in charge of the rations for the hospital) and we would line up the day’s work.

Over time, the Lord enabled me to bring Ali to faith in Jesus despite his Moslem background. This was a wonderful miracle, and the story of how it happened is an illustration of the point I am making about how precious people are. Ali was a clear example of what the Lord Jesus showed me that night in Atbara, before I ever got to Gebeit. On that train, He was showing a tiny little measure of His passionate love for even these not very loveable people.

Ali’s tribe was called the Hadendoa. British soldiers called them “the Fuzzy-Wuzzies,” because they habitually shaped their hair up about twelve inches above their head and greased it with mutton fat. We didn’t find it very attractive, but the Lord loved them. Likewise, He imparted just a little bit of His love for them to me. During the time I was there in that hospital, Ali and one other workman got saved, and I baptized Ali in the hospital swimming pool before I left.

What the Lord showed me unmistakably through my relationship with Ali is that it is our responsibility as the Lord’s servants to go into the fields and find the treasure. We have to unearth it, clean it up, remove the corrosion, the rust, whatever may be there, and make it fit to be presented to the Lord.

OUR TREMENDOUS VALUE

In the parable we examined earlier regarding the field, Jesus paid all that He had for that field. That is the measure of His love.

The parable of the pearl, as I said earlier, can be interpreted in various ways. I believe it is legitimate to interpret the pearl as every redeemed soul. It is important to understand that if there had only been one soul to be saved, Jesus (as the merchant seeking that pearl) would have paid the full price. This realization can really help you to have a sense of your own worth as a redeemed soul. You are the pearl of great price. Sometimes I imagine the joy experienced by that merchant when he bought that pearl. He didn’t complain about the price. He was just satisfied he got the pearl.

Would you let your imagination run free for a moment? Would you allow yourself to picture that merchant with the pearl there in his hand? Imagine what he is saying as he talks to it: “Now you’re mine. You belong to me. You cost me a lot, but I don’t regret what I paid. You are the most beautiful pearl I have ever seen. You are altogether lovely. You are altogether perfect.”

If you have any problems at all with self-worth, would you, just for a moment, picture yourself in the nail-pierced hand of the Lord Jesus. Imagine yourself saying, “I am that pearl. He died for me. He paid that price for me. If there had been no one else in all the world to be saved, He would still have paid the price for me.”

NOT ONE BLEMISH

Among the books of the Bible, there are some very beautiful words in the Song of Solomon. If you can, allow your imagination to think of the words of the Song of Solomon as the Lord speaking to a redeemed soul. Or, you may want to interpret it as the Lord speaking to the Church. But somehow, it is a little more exciting when you think about the Lord speaking to you personally. Listen to these words from Song of Solomon 1:15:

Behold, you are fair [or beautiful], my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes.

In Scripture, the dove is often a type of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is saying of you and me that we have eyes that see by the Holy Spirit. We can see Jesus as others can’t.

Interestingly enough, I have been told—though I am not an expert on birds—that the dove is the only bird who has two eyes that can focus on a single object. Every other bird looks with one eye or the other eye. But the dove can focus with both eyes. When the Lord says to His beloved, “you have dove’s eyes,” it means you can see by the Holy Spirit. You can see Jesus as the single focus of your sight.

Then in Song of Solomon 4:7:

You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you.

Isn’t that beautiful? Not one spot, not one blemish. That is how the Lord sees us—through His eyes of love—even when we are unlovable. “Someone exceedingly precious.” That is how He sees us.