“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19~ NIV).
Have you seen the price of gold lately! It’s over $1,500 per ounce. Little wonder everywhere you go you see someone waving a sign; “Will Buy Gold!”
Bu there is something in this world far above the price of all the gold in the world combined. Its great value is based on what it can do that nothing else in the entire world can do.
All the wealth of the world cannot redeem a single soul, for gold and silver are merely corruptible elements in a world under “the bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21). Everything in the physical creation is decaying and dying. In fact, one day all these “elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). Even the very seeds which transmit life are “corruptible seed” (1 Peter 1:23), and all mankind is “corruptible man” (Romans 1:23). Modern science recognizes this universal principle of decay as one of its most basic laws–the law of entropy.
Even in this corruptible world, however, some things are incorruptible. There is the “incorruptible . . . word of God, which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23). Even though “heaven and earth shall pass away,” the words of Christ “shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
We are redeemed, not by silver and gold, but “with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:19). Silver and gold are the most valuable medium of commerce among men yet their value is as worthless as an unsigned million dollar check. Our “immortal God” (Romans 1:23), has ” bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue).By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature ” (1 Peter 1:3-4~ Amplified Bible). We work, not as others “to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 9:25).
Finally, these dying bodies will themselves be redeemed, “for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:52-53).
Don’t get disheartened for,
The Best Us Yet To Be!
Pastor Bryant