Can We Really Be Wealthy?

Issues – March 2020 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Can We Really Be Wealthy?

Some years ago, during a time of economic hardship and recession, Queen Elizabeth II visited the Bank of England. When she was taken into the vaults where the gold bullion of the United Kingdom is stored, she asked the bank officials if all of the gold ingots actually belonged to the nation. She asked because she was concerned about how much true wealth her people possessed. She was also aware that her visit was being videoed for mainstream TV news and that there was a unique opportunity for her subjects to see these real money reserves. Sometimes, Christians are not aware of what real spiritual wealth actually is, but the Lord invites us to find it!

A Special Word From The Lord To You And Me
We 21st century believers are living in the final part of the church age, which is symbolized by the description of the church in Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-22). Christians need to heed the Lord’s directive, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (2:7,11,17,29, 3:6,13,22 ESV). We must pay particular attention to His words in Revelation 3:18-22 and become overcomers in the lukewarm conditions (v.16) of today’s Christian profession. The Lord’s advice to the Laodiceans starts with the words, “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich” (v.18).

Why Are We Advised To Buy Gold?
Naturally speaking we think of gold as a metal which is both beautiful and most precious. It is reputed to be the first pure metal ever known to man, and this concurs with its being the first metal mentioned in Scripture (Gen. 2:12). Its permanence arises from the fact that it is, under normal conditions, non-rusting. “Golden” is an adjective sometimes used to describe excellence, such as a “golden age.” The Lord wants us to obtain from Him something that is truly valuable, excellent and eternal.

Gold Speaks Of Christ
From the tabernacle we find that gold symbolically speaks to us of God and of what is divine. Consider, for example, the ark and the mercy seat in Exodus 25:10-22. About the resurrection of Christ, Psalm 21:3 exclaims, “You set a crown of fine gold upon His head.” Therefore, gold speaks to Christians of the Lord Jesus Christ. First and foremost, it reveals His personal glory as Son. Secondly, gold tells of His present position in the glory of God, consequent upon redemption’s completed work. Thirdly, it symbolizes all those things which are unique and special to Christianity because of Him and His place now at God’s right hand. To buy from Him “gold refined by fire” is to know Him – the eternal Son – and to apprehend the heavenly truths about Him by the Holy Spirit of promise, which He received from the Father and poured out on His Church.

What Does Gold Mean In Revelation 3:18?
In prophetic terms, the features of the seven churches in Revelation 2–3 demonstrate that there has been an overall deterioration in the Christian testimony. It began with Ephesus, where the serious condemnation was that they had abandoned their first love (2:4). By the time its final phase was reached with Laodicea, the Lord, instead of being in the midst, is seen outside the church (3:20).

In Revelation 3:18 we see the Lord urging Laodicea to return to the original Ephesian state of first love, which characterized the earliest Christians. It was vividly demonstrated by the Ephesians, to whom Christ became everything after they received the gospel and were converted. Out of pre-eminent love, or first love, for Him they abandoned their former ways of life to lay hold of the Way (Acts 19:10,17-20, 20:24-27). This was done at a great cost!

To buy gold is to:

• Lay hold of the New Testament truths about the person of the Son of God and all that He has introduced.
• Appreciate the revelation of the Father and the relationship we have with Him through the Son.
• Value the heavenly nature and destiny of the Church.

But we read “gold refined by fire” – meaning these truths with all the impurities, which man’s teaching about them has introduced over the centuries, removed. It includes a righteous response to these truths in Christian living by adorning the doctrine of God in everything (Ti. 2:10).

How Do I Buy Gold?
Like natural gold ore, this gold has to be searched for and dug out. Good advice about any truth is to treat it like gold ore:

• Look it up (find all scriptural references),
• Dig/work it out (discover its meaning with the help of the Holy Spirit),
• Write it down (make your own notes),
• Pray it in,
• Live it out,
• Speak it forth, and
• Pass it on.

Search the Scriptures’ precious store
As a miner digs for ore, Search and you will surely find,Treasures to enrich the mind.

How To Become Rich
According to Revelation 3:18, true riches are pictured by gold ore and white garments, meaning our knowledge of the Son of God must be accompanied by practical righteousness! The Holy Spirit – symbolized as eye salve in our verse in Revelation – will cause us to realize our own inadequacies in this respect (see Eph. 1:17-18). Therefore, we must give attention to the Lord’s demand for repentance: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:19). But verse 20 introduces His new appeal:

• “Behold, I stand at the door and knock”– the Savior wants to come into our hearts and lives.
• “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door” – He calls us as individuals to respond to what He is saying to all of these churches and to become overcomers.
• “I will come in to him” – He wants a place in my heart and life.
• “And eat with him, and he with Me” – He will fill my heart and life (see 1 Pet. 3:15).

It is a whole upper room (Jn. 14–16) experience for myself! Yes, I will be rich indeed because “in [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).

Gold For The Things Of Gold
King David made all the preparations for the temple by providing Solomon with the plan and all the necessary materials. A revealing phrase is that he provided “gold for the things of gold” (1 Chr. 29:2,5). The application of the principle “gold for the things of gold” to the present house of God, the Church, means the things of God must be maintained as stated in the New Testament. Like David, the primary responsibility lies with older brethren to hand down these truths to the following generation. To provide “gold for the things of gold” is a lifetime’s work, which involves commitment and sacrifice (28:2, 29:3). “With great pains [afflictions, troubles] I have provided for the house of the Lord,” David said in 1 Chronicles 22:14. Can we, like David, truly mean “so far as I was able”? (1 Chr. 29:2). Paul urged Timothy not only to “guard the good deposit entrusted to him” but to pass it on (2 Tim. 1:14, 2:2). “Gold for the things of gold” suggests passing on the truth unchanged to the next generation.

The Things Of God
In a general sense we could paraphrase “the things of gold” as “the things of God” and apply these particularly to New Testament revelations. According to Romans 1 (KJV), some of those things are the “gospel of God” (v.1), “Son of God” (v.4), “beloved of God” (v.7), “will of God” (v.10), “power of God” (v.16), “righteousness of God” (v.17), “wrath of God” (v.18), “truth of God” (v.25), “haters of God” (v.30) and “judgment of God” (v.32). The counsel of the Lord to buy from Him gold refined by fire could be expanded to mean to get an understanding of all the deep things of God, which are made known by His Spirit (1 Cor. 2:9-16).

The City Of Gold
The final time that the symbol of gold is used in the New Testament is in the description of the Church as the New Jerusalem, where both the city and its street are pure gold (Rev. 21:18,21). John did not see a temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. Also, the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God and the Lamb illuminate it (vv.22-23).

Our heavenly destiny is intrinsically gold. Eternity is filled with the glory of the Son and His Father!

By David Anderson