Precious!

1 Peter 2:7 - “Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious…”

This was the text that Charles Haddon Spurgeon took for the first sermon he ever preached. He was just 16 years of age at the time, and he was asked to preached to a group of farmers in a small cottage in the village of Teversham. Some years later he said: “I do not think I could have said anything upon any other text, but Christ was precious to my soul.”

And that's about all I want to blog today. Jesus is precious to ME.

1. He is precious to me because of who He is.

The King of all kings, and the Lord of all lords, Co-partner of the eternal throne of God Almighty, Creator of the rolling spheres and Sustainer of all things. The Self-existent God who needed nothing, had to prove nothing, was challenged by nothing. Yet He set His love on the sons of men whom He had made. And when mankind rebelled and went astray (every one of us, without exception, the Bible says), He left all the glories of Heaven behind in a moment, just as He had planned to do, and subjected Himself to poverty, and mistreatment, and rejection – to stand by our side.

Jesus, our Savior, the eternal God, is good. Worthy of glory, and worthy of honor, and worthy of praise. He is precious to me because of who He is.

2. He is precious to me because of all that He has done.

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6)

His humiliation took Him all the way to the Cross. He suffered and died there in my place - in OUR place. In His death He paid the price for our sins, satisfying the demands of Holy justice. God can now justly commute our death sentence. Having made that payment in His own blood, Jesus rose from the grave, and ascended to heaven where He now lives interceding for us. He’s applying the victory that He won for us, over and over again – blessing our lives. He salvages us from sins, He saves us from ourselves, He makes us holy through the power of His Holy Spirit, He heals, He leads us, He provides, He empowers us, He’s preparing a place for us, He’s coming again for us!

Oh, Jesus is precious to me for all that He has done.

3. He is precious to me because I am precious to Him.

“We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

Jesus came to stand by our side, not because we were calling for Him – we weren’t. He came because He knew we needed Him. Because He knew there was no other way. And because He loves us with an everlasting love.

Jesus esteems US as precious. Precious enough for Him to seek and to save us. Doesn’t that amaze you? Doesn’t it change everything?

Andrae Crouch used to sing:

“I don’t know why Jesus loved me
I don’t know why He cared,
I don’t know why He sacrificed His life,
Oh, but I’m glad, so glad He did.”

Phil