December 5

Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious.—1 Peter 2:7.

He is precious. Or, your honor. The difference is small. You account him your glory and your gain; he is not only precious to you, but preciousness itself. He is the thing that you make most account of, your jewel, which, if you keep, though you be robbed of all besides, you know yourselves to be rich enough.

To you that believe. Faith is absolutely necessary to make this due estimate of Christ.

1. The most excellent things, while their worth is undiscerned and unknown, affect us not. Now, faith is the proper seeing faculty of the soul, in relation to Christ: that inward light must be infused from above, to make Christ visible to us; without it, though he is beautiful, yet we are blind; and therefore can not love him for that beauty. But by faith we are enabled to see him who is fairer than the children of men, Psalms 45:2, yea, to see in him, the glory of the only-begotten Son of God, John 1:14; and then, it is not possible but to account him precious, and to bestow the entire affections of our hearts upon him. And if any one say to the soul, What is thy beloved more than another? Cant. fii. 9, it willingly lays hold on the question, and is glad of an opportunity to extol him.

2. Faith, as it is that which discerns Christ, so it alone appropriates him and makes him our own. And these are the two reasons for our esteeming and affecting any thing, its own worth, and our interest in it. Faith begets this esteem of Christ by both: first it discovers to us his excellences, which we could not see before; and then, it makes him ours, gives us possession of whole Christ, all that he hath, and is. As it is faith that commends Christ so much, and describes his comeliness in that song, so that word is the voice of faith, that expresses propriety, My well-beloved is mine, and I am his. Song of Solomon 2:16. And these together make him most precious to the soul. Having once possession of him, then it looks upon all his sufferings as endured particularly for it, and the benefit of them all as belonging to itself. Sure, it will say, can I choose but account him precious, who suffered shame that I might not be ashamed, and suffered death that I might not die; who took that bitter cup of the Father's wrath, and drank it out, that I might be free from it?

Think not that you believe, if your hearts be not taken up with Christ, if his love do not possess your soul, so that nothing is precious to you in respect to him; if you can not despise and trample upon all advantages that either you have or would have, for Christ, and count them, with the great apostle, loss and dung in comparison of him, Philippians 3:8. And if you do esteem him, labor for increase of faith, that you may esteem him more; for as faith grows, so will he be more precious to you. And if you would have it grow, turn that spiritual eye frequently to him, who is the proper object of it. For even they who are believers, may possibly abate their love and esteem of Christ, by suffering faith to lie dead within them, and not using it in beholding and applying of Christ; and the world, or some particular vanities, may insensibly creep in, and get into the heart, and cause them much pains ere they can be thrust out again. But when they are daily reviewing those excellences that are in Christ, which first persuaded their hearts to love him, and are discovering still more and more of them, his love will certainly grow, and will chase away those follies that the world dotes upon, as unworthy to be taken notice of.