No-one Has Ever Explained God's Love This Way (Part 1)

Let’s let the Holy Spirit just speak as he will.

I want to suggest to you that one way to understand the love of God, to appreciate it, is to try to estimate the price that he paid to redeem us from our sins. Because when you see the price that God was willing to pay, it gives you some faint idea of the measure of his love. And I’m going to use these two parables as a way of depicting the love that God has, the price that his love caused him to pay to redeem us from our sins.

Now, I want to suggest to you that tonight we’re going to view Jesus as the man that made the purchase. You know that the word to redeem means to buy back.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

Let’s try and fill in the background a little. So for who knows how many centuries, that treasure was lying there in that field. And then one day this man in the parable was walking across the field and he stumbled over something, kicked his toe against it. At first, he thought it was just one of the countless rocks that are scattered over that land. But when he looked down, he saw that it was the corner of a chest that had been buried under the soil.

And so, prompted by curiosity, he began to get below the surface, see what was there. And he managed to prize open a little corner of the lid, and he saw incredible wealth: gold, silver, jewels. And he realized that was hidden there in the field.

Well, he knew that if he wanted legitimate ownership of that wealth, he had to do one thing. What was that? He had to buy the field. Once he owned the field, he owned the treasure, see?

Well, he inquired about the price of the field, and everybody wondered really why he wanted to buy that field because it had never been a very productive field. It mainly produced thistles and, but the owner of the field wanted a monstrous price, and he wouldn’t come down.

So this man, because he wanted the treasure, said, “Well, I’ll pay the price.” And when he worked it out, it meant he had to sell everything he had.

I can picture him going home to his wife, saying, “Honey, we’re going to buy that field.” “That field? What do you want that field for? Nothing ever grew in it.” “Oh, but I want that field.” “Well, how much are you going to pay?” “Well,” he named the sum. “Where are you going to get the money?” “We’re going to sell everything we have. We’re going to sell the house, we’re going to sell the furniture, we’re going to sell the farm, we’re going to sell our implements, we’re going to sell our animals, we’re going to sell our spare clothing.” “You must be crazy. Whatever for?” “You wait, you’ll understand.”

So he sold the whole of all that he owned and had just the money that he needed to buy the field. And when he’d bought the field and got all the legal deeds absolutely tied up, then he said to his wife, “Now, come, and I’ll show you why I bought the field.” And he began to dig down, and he came to the chest, prized open the lid, and she gasped at the incredible treasures that were in that chest.

The treasure in the field is God’s foreknown people buried in this world. Matthew 13 says more than once,

“The field is the world.”

Jesus died for the whole world, but he didn’t want the world. What did he want? The treasure in the world. What is the treasure? It’s God’s people. But in order to get the treasure, he had to buy the field. Buying the field cost him everything.

It cost him all he had. He died with nothing. He was buried in a borrowed burial robe and in a borrowed tomb. And on his way to the tomb, he had poured out the last drop of his lifeblood.

It cost him everything. It seemed crazy. What did he see in us that he would pay so much?