Here we are going to see six lessons in the next five verses, on a theme which the apostle Peter is inspired to bring: six benefits bestowed by salvation. The first of these benefits, blessing, treasures, is the preciousness, the honour of Christ, and his great virtue.
He cannot be equalled. You cannot find anyone equal Jesus Christ, let alone greater than him. Once you have him, you can never lose him. He is the source of eternal life for you. He is the source of light, will bring the Scriptures to life. He is the source of love and liberty for his people. He is beyond all price, precious and honoured as a sufferer – no sufferer like him, because his suffering brought eternal salvation for all his people. He is the physician who heals the most sin-wracked, wretched person, the person who comes to him, is transformed and blessed by him. He is the perfect leader, the rules he has given to the church, the methods of evangelism, everything he does turns out to be perfect. He is the strengthener when we need him. Call upon his name out of any trouble, any distress. He will strengthen you. He is the comforter in the sorest imaginable distress. He is the perfect and the best listener, who listens to our every cry at any time. He is our guide; he is our friend; he is everything. To us therefore who believe he is precious, priceless, costly, honoured, cleaved to. We should be ready to give up anything and everything for him. Once we have him, he is more precious than anything else we could possibly conceive. Our sure foundation and one day we shall see him and we shall be with him and we shall be made in great measure like him.
If you believe in Christ with all your heart this day, you will not be put to shame. You will find him. You may have a difficult search, if your heart is not really genuine, if you are not really repenting, if you are not really trusting in him, if you still have some idea that there is some good deserving in you? But the moment you believe in him with all your heart, you won’t be confounded or ashamed or let down, because you will know your heart is changed, your nature is changed. Then, when you die in that last day, you will be with Christ and you won’t be let down, you won’t be ashamed.