Ephesians 3:8 To me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given… The unsearchable riches of Christ:" what are they? Go to a man in an arid desert, lying on the ground gasping with thirst, at the gate of death, beneath a burning sun; take to him gold and jewels; offer them to him; promise him a kingdom; and what do you bestow on him? There is that for which, if he had it, he would barter them all. A cup of water — one draught from the stream — for this he pants; this would be wealth and a kingdom for him. Go again to another in the jaws of famine, dying from hunger; pour out silver and gold, the wealth of a world, at his feet; and what do you confer upon him? He would give a world, or a thousand worlds, for a single morsel of bread. Again, take a man gasping on the field of battle, mortally wounded, writhing in agony; offer him riches, offer him a crown; will he thank you? No. If you could heal his wounds, if you could raise him up from the cold bed of death, if you could restore him to the life and health he enjoyed an hour before; that would be wealth and riches for the dying man. Take a poor criminal, led out to execution; offer him all that earth could give; what could he do with it? what is the earth to him? But procure a pardon for him; gain for him a reprieve; there is a world, and more than a world for him. Well then, if you knew your own actual state, you would see that your spiritual condition before God is just as hopeless, just as miserable, just as desperate, as the temporal condition of any one of those sufferers I have described; you are spiritually the poor wretch in the burning desert without a drop of water, and if you die in your unconverted state you must be without a drop of water to cool your tongue for eternity. You are worse than the poor creature who is famishing with hunger — worse, far worse than him writhing in agony on the field of battle — worse than the criminal about to be led to execution; these, however agonizing their state, are merely suffering for time; considered in reference to man's mere animal existence, their pangs soon must terminate; but the misery in which your immortal soul is sunk, unless you are delivered, must endure for eternity. Now Christ is the Water to the soul that is dying of thirst (John 4:10; John 7:37). Christ is the Bread of Life to the sinner, perishing for hunger (John 6:32, 33, 35). Christ is the Great Physician that can heal the dying man (Mark 2:10, 11). Christ is the King that extends His pardon to the criminal led forth to execution (Luke 23:43). These serve as a partial illustration of the "unsearchable riches of Christ." You understand the application, if you know Christ as the Deliverer, the Healer, the Saviour of your immortal souls. (R. J. McGhee, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; |
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