Revelation Chapter 3
VERSE 18 continued “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”
As taken from The Keys of Revelation.
“This message indicates the self-complacent attitude of the nominal Church of Christ, which is completely unaware of its true condition…
There is only one way to obtain (“buy”) the gold, the white raiment, and the eye salve of which the risen Lord speaks. To effectually begin to rid oneself of the contaminating influences of the world, the flesh, and the Devil, the individual must do three things (whether or not he is actually aware of the second).
First, he must recognize Jesus as the Savior sent of God, and be repentant of his former life in sin and under condemnation in Adam.
Second, he must give up his earthly inheritance in order to obtain the spiritual. In other words, the Christian must relinquish his right to a future hope of everlasting human life here on planet earth as guaranteed to each member of Adam’s race by the Redeemer, who tasted death for every man and gave his life “a ransom FOR ALL, to be testified in due time” (Heb. 2:9; 1 Tim. 2:6). This declaration will go forth in the resurrection age, when all who are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man and come forth, and they that hear (obey) shall live (John 5:25–28). This is thoroughly explained in our study entitled “The Only Way”, which please see.
Third, the individual must commit his entire life and trust into the Lord’s hands. He must recognize Christ as his Redeemer in the strictest sense of that word, as the Master and Lord of his life. In short, the Christian must consecrate his all to God through Christ in order to be eligible for a spiritual inheritance.
Such consecration and surrender are required to buy of the Master the reward reserved in heaven for those who love God supremely. Therefore, all things incidental and vitally related to this salvation are also the Christian’s by reason of his obedience to and compliance with the Lord’s instruction.
In the parables of the Field and the Pearl of Great Price, Jesus presented his own life as an example and pattern of behavior. He indicated that he himself sold all he had of his former glory that he might buy the field (the world), which contained the pearl of great price (the true Church)—see Matthew 13:44–46.
The “gold tried in the fire” means that the exceeding great and precious promises are given to the Christian to enable him to become an ultimate partaker of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). This gold, the divine nature, can be secured only by his successful endurance of the fiery trial of faith in the earthly house of his pilgrimage.
The “white raiment” is the robe of Christ’s righteousness imputed to the (consecrated) Christian to cover his sins and shortcomings from divine indignation. Such clothing, made possible through the advocacy of Christ, enables the Christian to approach unto and commune in prayer with the Father, who dwells “in the light which no man can approach unto” and is a “consuming fire” (1 Tim. 6:16; Heb. 12:29). Without this covering, the (professed) Christian would be naked in God’s sight.
The anointing of “thine eyes with eye-salve” by the Master is essentially the impartation to the (consecrated) Christian of the promised Holy Spirit from on high, enabling him to understand the Word of Truth, the Bible (John 14:26). Through the Holy Spirit, previously blind eyes of understanding are henceforth as truly and miraculously opened as were the literal blind eyes of some of the beggars of Jesus’ day—and by the same gracious Lord.”
We will venture on to Verse 19 in our next post.
