Young Men and Women, Consider the Preciousness of Jesus

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

In his youth of 16-year-old, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, my hero and celebrated preacher, preached his first sermon from this verse. Could he have chosen a verse more wonderful and limitless to a lover of Christ?

Jesus was precious to the Father. “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy,” was the Father’s testimony at Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:17). He was inexpressibly dear to His Father. Oswald Sanders writes, “Everything in His walk from Bethlehem to Calvary gave Him infinite delight.” Wow!

Since this is so, it is little wonder that Jesus is precious to the believer. It should be noted that here the word “precious” in New King James Version is a noun, not an adjective. It could be better rendered: “To you who believe, He is the preciousness,” that is, preciousness itself. An adjective can be increase or decrease, but a noun constant. To the believer He is the essence of all preciousness.

All the most precious things are hid in Him – in Him “lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3); and “all the fullness of God in a human body” (Colossians 2:9 or in him dwells all the completeness of the Godhead bodily). We may lose any of earth’s precious things, but we can never lose Jesus, our priceless treasure. Even death serves only to bring Him nearer. He is a jewel of which neither Satan nor Death can rob us. Heat can destroy even a diamond, but the fiercest heat of trial cannot separate the believer from Jesus! He shares our sorrows, lightens our loads, and doubles our joys.

Jesus is the cornerstone of our faith (1 Peter 2:4). He is precious as Saviour. He not only saves us from our sin but shares His own life with us. Should this not make Him inexpressibly precious to us? It is when we are in deepest need that we most appreciate His preciousness. He is the complement to our every need. Charles H. Spurgeon speaks about Jesus’ preciousness in a hymn:

What the hand is to the lute,

What the breath is to the flute,

What is fragrance to the smell,

What the spring is to the well,

What the flower is to the bee,

That is Jesus Christ to me.

What the mother to the child,

What the guide in pathless wild,

What is oil to troubled wave,

What is ransom to the slave,

What is water to the sea,

That is Jesus Christ to me.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.