“And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels;
and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” Malachi 3:17
In any culture on earth, precious gems, such as diamonds, are highly valued, not only for their beauty but also for their resilience in various applications, which makes the diamond the world’s most popular gemstone.
If one views a diamond closely, it can be seen that it has many “facets” to its surface. Its ultimate value depends upon the purity of the diamond, plus its size, shape, and number of its “facets” (or surfaces) that reflect its inner beauty to the outside world.
Likewise, this is how God sees each Christian. After He takes us from “The World” through the process of salvation, He sees the purity inside our hearts despite the outer surfaces of our personality appearing dirty, rough and not polished compared to others.
More importantly, God’s desire is that as He eventually shines His character (of holiness, gentleness, love, mercy, etc) appearing back to Him through each highly polished surface of His newly adopted “child” (Gal 4:4-6).
Our ‘Imperfect’ State at Salvation
At Salvation (Rom 10:9-10) where we are washed from our sins (Rev 1:5), the new Christian can not reflect anything of God’s dwelling presence because this inner “radiance” is marred from escaping because of the imperfections of “worldliness” (Titus 2:12) that remain on our external surfaces. These represent our “old man” unregenerated nature (Rom 6:6). Although we are now “Saved,” our character may still be offensive to other Christians (and to God) because of influences that remain from our past life.
Nevertheless, God still sees the beauty inside us that MUST be revealed so as to reflect His love to those in “The World” through our newborn nature (Eph 4:24). To do this, we have to change from our “old ways” and worldly values by becoming conformed to “His ways” (Rom 8:29).
This process of sincerely desiring to make this change begins with the Christian’s ‘New Life in Christ‘. God requires His children to help clean up their “marred” outer surfaces that represent the “scum” of our past, unregenerated life. After we have accepted God’s “cleansing process” of submitting ourselves to Him, He then begins the process of scrubbing, cutting and polishing us so as to bring out His beauty in us for the world to see. The method God implements in this process is the fiery trials, persecutions and afflictions that occur in the lives of all born-again Christians (2 Tim 3:12; 1 Pet 4:12 and John 3:3-8). Through these experiences, God teaches His children how to think and act RIGHTEOUSLY.
This godly characteristic of RIGHTEOUSNESS is the hardest and most important attribute that any Christian can attain. Like “Perfection,” it is NOT impossible to acquire. It requires persistent determination to attain it! Therefore, each facet (or surface) of our Christian character becomes important to God when He looks at us as a precious jewel. Sometimes, it seems that certain “surfaces” need a lot more polishing than other surfaces. This is why we must be patient and long-suffering with Him at various times in our lives while God undertakes some cleaning processes to cleanse us from our “imperfections” that He doesn’t like.
God the Father requires Godly qualities demonstrated in the lives of each follower of Jesus Christ, such as:
“…having THE MIND OF CHRIST.” (1 Cor 2:16)
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE of his Son…” (Rom 8:29)
The Bible says Christians can not do this using their own set of values because God is the “Master Craftsman” who wants to make us into His “precious jewels” containing many facets that allow the various aspects of His godliness to shine through us to others. In this, He wants to refine us using His ways (Isa 55:8), so that we can be used as “lively stones” in His temple here on earth!
“Ye also, as LIVELY STONES [not discolored, unwashed and uncut stones, but “precious stones”‘ that], are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5)
To permit Him to do this work in His people, God says:
“I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a CONTRITE and HUMBLE SPIRIT, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to REVIVE THE HEART of the contrite ones.” (Isa 57:15)
“But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the CLAY, and thou [O God] OUR POTTER; and we all are the work of thy hand [both at the beginning of our life when we were ‘clay’, and at the end of our refinement through “fiery trials”].” (Isa 64:8)
Therefore, our Creator wants us as the fully cut and highly polished DIAMOND (or precious “stone”) that brings forth His glory toward others through the many facets that reflect His molding of us in our new life in Christ.
Author Bio: A native of Australia, Alan Manson worked in electronic and radio engineering throughout his working life. When he turned 40, he began wondering about life after death. He searched for three years in the new age movement. He began administering spiritual healing in a Spiritualist Church. During his marriage crisis with his first wife, Alan had a born-again experience. He had to choose whether to embrace New Age teachings or following Jesus after being evicted from his home by his wife and children. Back then, Alan chose to take up his cross and follow Jesus (Matt 16:24) and has not regretted doing so despite the hardships he has endured (Matt 10:22) and the blessings that have followed (Mark 10:29-30). For 30 years, Alan has studied the Bible and researched many theological beliefs to find other born-again Christians. He has attended many churches in various denominations. He is an expert who speaks on the topic of Salvation and has written theological essays on the subject. He currently is spreading his message throughout the world using his blog.
