This
led me to look into Peter’s letters and there I discovered he uses the word “precious,” seven times.
Peter
uses the word in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. When Jesus was on earth, it was the disciple,
John, who is recorded as the one who leaned upon Jesus’ breast. Yet Peter also leaned on the breast of Jesus
as well as recorded in John 13:25 and John 21:20.
Therefore
we see just how intimate the Lord is not only when He was on earth, but now through
the Apostle Peter in his two letters by his using this word, “precious.”
We
certainly see and observe all the Apostles in the work God gave them in
declaring as witnesses, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We see their writings of the Great TRUTHS of
God. They not only wrote of the things
that took place historically. Yet they
also penned the things God revealed to them after Jesus Christ sat down at the
Right of the Father when His work was accomplished. They penned it ALL by the Holy Spirit in
them!
With
a penetrating heart and mind, we “see” the intimate, precious love that has
deepened in these Apostles, as seen also in their writings.
What
happened to these men?
The
Holy Spirit came to dwell inside their hearts.
Previously, they were only WITH Jesus on earth. Peter mentions that they were “eyewitnesses of
His majesty.”
But now He is inside them! In Spirit, they became united with Jesus
Christ – in union with Him. “They they
may be one as We are One – and the love which You loved Me may be in them and I
MYSELF in them!” John 17:26
Paul,
the Apostle pens these words:
“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the
flesh: yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know
we [him] no more.” II Corinthians
5:16
If
one is in union with the Lord and He dwells in them, how close are they to Him?
Therefore,
what about us today – right here and now?
Though
we not Apostles, we have received the SAME
Holy Spirit of God – the SAME Lord Jesus Christ. We are one
with these men who received the Lord’s Spirit.
We are family – they are brothers.
And God reveals the SAME Truth
– the Truth of God that never changes, for the Word of God abides forever.
In
reference to the Scriptures again found in Peter’s letters, one verse speaks of
the Lord Jesus as the “chosen precious
One in the sight of God!” Therefore,
if this Person dwells in our hearts, what does this make us before God in and
through His Son? Precious?
Like
the Apostles, we know the Father and the Son by God’s Spirit and His Word. And again, although the Apostles saw Him in
the flesh, God opened up to them His new
and living way of being in His Spirit and knowing Him now this way. They
were not seeing Him anymore with the physical eye nor “trying” to know Him by
His natural fleshly bloodline. Remember
they were looking for the King over Israel, but God did and was doing something
greater than they understood that included us – it was later revealed to them. And one day God will finish what He started
with Israel, but now He is revealing Christ to all.
Why
is this important to us now? Because
their knowledge of the Lord increased by His Spirit dwelling in them – their
love increased because they came to know Him more deeply and intimately through
His Spirit and the Word revealed to them.
God revealed the GREAT things of God that He accomplished THROUGH His
Son. And this is exactly what He is
doing in our hearts today!
Though we do
not see Him, we love Him! We should ask God to
reveal to us the SAME WORD as He revealed to the Apostles. The Lord Jesus
Christ is certainly is REAL and His Spirit makes Him real to our hearts- just
as though He were on earth again in the flesh.
“To you who
believe, His is Precious.”
Sue Gaither
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