26 Jan 2025

Hidden Treasure and Pearls: Jesus’ Requirements for Salvation

Steve Copland

I. Introduction

In this article I want to examine the two parables Jesus spoke about the kingdom of heaven being like a hidden treasure and a pearl of great value. These parables raise some powerful questions.

1. Is Jesus saying that finding the kingdom of heaven is difficult, and if so, why does God make it difficult?

2. According to the parables, what will it cost an individual to attain the Kingdom of Heaven?

44 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure buried in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-46)

II. Sincere Seeking: Jesus’ First Requirement

To our first question, is Jesus saying that finding the kingdom of heaven is difficult and if so, why does God make it difficult. The first thing we notice is that in both parables the person found something, a treasure and a pearl of great price, therefore, the clear inference is that this person was seeking. In terms of the treasure, it was hidden, not lying on the top of the field.

One of the demands of atheists is that Christians are under the obligation of the burden of proof. In other words, if we claim there is a God, we must prove it to them. Apologists spend countless hours using various arguments to convince these people and they just continue to sit with arms crossed, often mocking, and stating that arguments from cosmology, morality, biology, design etc, are not enough. The truth is this: On the surface, in the material world, there is ample evidence in creation to call the most unspiritual person to begin to seek. But these arrogant people have the insane idea that God must come to them begging them to believe in Him. He will not, He never has, and never will, and furthermore, the Lord does not require Christians to waste their time on such people.

When I meet a person with genuine questions who is seeking the truth about life, I will give almost unlimited time to help them, however, I also insist that they first sincerely ask God to reveal Himself to them. If they are not willing to do that, I know they are not sincere, I wish them luck, and move on. Scripture states that God has set eternity in the hearts of men (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and that He has revealed Himself in creation to the degree that no man has any excuse to deny His existence (Romans 1:18-20). Furthermore, God has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, He has come to this earth and lived as one of us leaving us no excuse for unbelief. The atheist will one day stand before God and be reminded of the thousands of times He called them to recognize His existence. When they were watching a beautiful sunset, when they held their child for the first time, when they were at their parent’s funeral, etc.

On the surface of the field we can see the existence of God, but to find Him we must seek, we must act, we must go digging for the treasure. Why does God make it difficult? Firstly, because the kingdom of heaven is of great value, it is priceless. If gold and diamonds were just lying around on the surface and as common as sea shells, they would have little or no value. But, they are hidden beneath the surface, they are difficult to find, and because of their rarity, we consider them precious. All the diamonds and gold in the entire world could not buy our way into the kingdom of heaven, it is a priceless treasure which demands that we seek it will all our hearts. Proverbs 2: 1-5 Speaks about searching for wisdom. Verses 4-5 say that ‘if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.’

III. God Hates Mediocrity

Secondly, God hates mediocrity for mediocrity takes the most important issue of life and places it in a box labeled ‘who cares’. Do we ever witness mediocrity at the funeral of a child? Even the most hardened atheist is devastated at the loss of a child. Why? Because this person they loved is gone, they have been deprived of several decades of relationship with this child. They certainly don’t just wave their hand and say, ‘never mind, it’s just another dead monkey’. Nobody is openly arguing the evolution of man from apes at a child’s funeral. A person may ask why God allowed a child to die, but such an argument simply underlines the value of a human life which all recognize at such times. If we are mere products of random evolutionary processes, a child has little more value than a treasured pet, yet, although we may grieve the loss of a pet, we are devastated at the loss of a child. Mediocrity disappears when it is about a human relationship which is precious to us.

Yet God offers eternal life, an eternity of love, of relationship, of joy devoid of death and suffering. If the length of this life could be compared to one grain of sand, then eternity is living the beach, and then another beach. How can people be mediocre about that? God has set eternity in our hearts and every person, no matter their upbringing, thinks about life, death and life after death. It is unavoidable because the seed of eternity is part of our very being.

God has made us this way because He desires that we seek Him, and seek Him with all of our hearts. When Paul spoke to a group of Greek philosophers on Mars Hill he told them this:

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations of the earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their land. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ (Acts 17:24-28)

Paul tells these Athenians that God has given us life and breath and everything else, and He has done this so that we might seek Him, reach out for Him and find Him. He is the treasure hidden in the field, the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the Eternal Life, He embodies the kingdom of heaven, the treasure of infinite value. If we were told that our grandfather buried $10,000 we may look for a spade and start digging. If we were told the sum was a million dollars, we may be excited and even more motivated to dig up the whole field, but to find Christ is to find a treasure of unimaginable value, a treasure which never fades or spoils, and never runs out (1 Peter 1:3-4).

God knows His value, as do we who have found Him, and He has a requirement and a promise to seekers. Jeremiah 29:13 states that: ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’, and Hebrews 11:6 says a similar thing, that ‘God rewards those who diligently seek Him’. The intensity to which we seek the truth about our existence is the measure of our sincerity, or lack of it. The mediocre seeker may find some religion or other to give them a false sense of security, but they will not find Jesus Christ, and their religion will simply condemn them when they stand before their Creator.

Should God just hand out eternal life to everyone? He plants within humanity the desire to have life, He demonstrates Himself in creation (Romans 1:18-20), He offers to forgive even the most heinous of sins, but if people refuse to have a relationship with Him in this life, He honors their decision in the next. And no, I do not believe that Scripture teaches eternal conscious torment for eternity, but rather, as Jesus taught, the annihilation of body and soul in Gehenna (Matthew 10:28), a topic discussed in my series and small book entitled ‘Hell and Immortality’. https://stevecopland.com/hell-and-immortality-living-in-christ-series

IV. The Cost of Salvation: Jesus’ Second Requirement.

My second question is this. According to the parables, what will it cost an individual to attain the Kingdom of Heaven?

In the first parable the man had to sell all he had to buy the field, and in the second, again, it cost him everything. The theme of losing everything for the kingdom of heaven is constant in the teaching of Jesus, but seldom preached today in Western churches. Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything he had and come and follow Him (Mark 10:17-27). In Luke 14:33 He said that those who do not give up everything they have cannot be His disciples. Was this a literal giving up of everything, or being willing to lose all to follow Him?

Jesus’ underlying message was the denial of self. Why such an emphasis? The answer is quite simple. The root of all sin is in the creature demanding to rule its own life. We are made in God’s image and each of us has an inherent desire to make ourselves like God. That in itself is an honorable desire; however, it is sin when the creature demands to make themselves like God their way, rather than God’s way, independent of Him. Romans 2:6-8 contrasts two attitudes of people, two types of seeking.

6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. (Romans 2:6-8)

Paul was not teaching some form of works-based salvation in these verses, but two different attitudes; those who are seeking to live in accord with God’s standards and law which they know in their conscience (Romans 2:15), and those who are self-seeking, who reject God’s standards and live for themselves. One person desires the kingdom of heaven above all else, the other is firmly rooted in the principles of the world. The two are completely incompatible. Those who belong to Christ have surrendered their lives to Christ and are called citizens of heaven even whilst they live their lives in this world. They live to store up treasure in heaven, they know that their old self is crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6) and that they are now ‘aliens and strangers’ in the world (Hebrews 11:13, Ephesians 2:19).

Sadly, there are very few who teach what Christ said regarding the kingdom of heaven and being a disciple. Catholics around the world, and Orthodox people where I minister in Ukraine, claim to be ‘Christian’ but do not want Christ interfering in their lives beyond a very basic recognition of belief and practice of traditions. In Catholicism, people pray to their guardian angel, some saint, or Mary, and praying to God as in the Lord’s prayer, is often commanded as a means of penance after confession to a priest. The idea of a personal, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ is totally absent, unless of course one desires to be a professional ‘Christian’ as a priest or nun. Catholics get baptized, go to confession now and again, swallow a wafer, and think they are good to go. Orthodox ‘Christians’ are very similar, but with an emphasis on relics, icons, and holidays, yet most don’t even own a Bible, and have no relationship with Christ. Sadly, such people will hear the words, ‘depart from me I never knew you’ (Matthew 7:23).

In Western countries other extremes are rife in protestant denominations. Free-grace adherents teach a person is not required to seek, repent, turn away from sin, or obey Christ as Lord, and boast that a person can ‘just believe, live any old way they like, and still go to heaven’, indeed they even teach that apostates are also saved.

Calvinists, with their doctrines of TULIP, have reduced the gospel to a form of monergism, that humans play no role in salvation, that the ‘elect’ are chosen before the foundation of the world, that humans are mere automatons in a divine game with no free-will.

Then we have those whose services appeal to the flesh and look like a rock concert with huge stages, dozens of lights, smoke machines, dark nightclub type atmosphere, and messages about enlarging your vision and your bank account. All of it is self-centered entertainment which fills pews, panders to the emotions and fundamentally denies denial at every turn.

But then there are those who live in countries such as China where being a Christian is likely to get you arrested, imprisoned, or killed. Like those who lived in the first centuries of Christian witness, where persecution was rife, these people understand what it means to count the cost, to deny self and live as disciples of Christ.

V. Summarizing the Teaching of Christ

If we were to summarize the teachings of Christ regarding salvation it would sound something like this. Firstly, that the Lord desires that we seek Him with all our hearts. He has provided both the motivation and evidence, and promises a reward for those who obey this command. Secondly, that those who sincerely seek will find themselves before the cross of Christ where the Holy Spirit will convict them of sin, which brings a form of self-loathing. In that moment, they will understand the utter impossibility of ever meeting God’s standard, and that only by surrender to Christ as Lord and Savior can they be granted eternal life by the grace of God.

Thirdly, the issue of faith, of trusting Christ for their future. There will be a cost involved, a willingness to walk away from sin, taking the Lord’s hand to walk a new road, a narrow path, even a very difficult path which may mean the end of relationships, a change of business practices, or whatever we are and have been enslaved to. This is the denial of self, the death of the old self and beginning of our new life. This may mean ending a relationship of fornication, or homosexuality. Those things were part of the old self, and cannot be taken into the new life. We must come to the cross with empty hands, offering everything, our entire lives. He will remove that which has no place in our new life, and fill us with His Spirit so that we are empowered to live for Him. We do this by faith, trusting Him for the strength to live in obedience.

This is not about a person making themselves good enough for salvation, indeed quite the opposite. It is about recognizing we don’t have the power or strength to make ourselves anything acceptable to God and denying the self-rule which enslaved us. There must be a death to self, to the principle sin of demanding ‘I will rule my own life’. When Christ spoke of the many who call Him Lord but hear the words ‘I never knew you’, His principle teaching was ‘not all who call me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father in heaven’ (Matthew 7:21). The decision to surrender to God’s will is the difference between a religious person who still rules their own life, and a born again person who has surrendered their life to Christ as Lord (Colossians 2:6).

VI. Help and Don’t Hinder the Work of the Spirit.

In biblical history people understood the concepts of sin, atonement, forgiveness and appeasing whatever God or gods they followed. Today, especially in Western countries, sin is celebrated, individualism is cherished, and the idea of surrender to anything other than our own ego, is mocked. Most modern people have little or no idea of God’s plan of salvation throughout human history. When people begin to seek God, they need time to understand God’s law, understand sin and its consequences, and why sin must be atoned. But most importantly, only through conviction by revelation will they ever see their sin as God sees it, and only then will they cry out to be free from sin.

I take seekers through a 6-8 week course through the history of salvation with my book ‘Time for Truth’.

https://stevecopland.com/time-for-truth-book

I encourage them to invite the Lord to reveal their sin to them, to reach out for Him (Acts 17). I never rush people into a decision for Christ because that would be standing between them and the Lord. During that 6-8 weeks they begin to trust God. It is like a courtship period. If they ask me if they are born again yet, my reply is always that if they were they would not be asking.

I have seen people come to a place where the Lord opened their eyes, gave them a taste of what His salvation will mean for them, but they walked away, never to return. At the moment of deepest conviction, they knew they must be willing to walk away from a sinful relationship, they knew the choice was a real relationship with Christ, or a sinful relationship, and they knew they could have only one or the other.

I have also witnessed many ‘revival’ services where people have heard sermons condemning sin and come under an initial form of conviction, but never told they must count the cost and deny self. They are taken through some formula prayer to ‘ask Jesus into their heart’, told they are now born again, but the emotion and so-called ‘salvation’ soon fades away. I have no issue with preaching to the lost, but don’t tell such people they are born again, tell them to make a commitment to seek with all their hearts. If a person is born again they will know it, the Spirit will testify with their Spirit (Romans 8:16) that they are a child of God. If that has not happened, then no existential relationship has been established between them and the Lord.

Give the Lord time and get out of God’s way. Help them to seek in the right place, educate them on the story of salvation, but encourage them to go into a secret place and talk to the Lord (Matthew 6:6). He is perfectly capable of making Himself known, and at the end of the day, knowing Him is the only objective.

The parables of the treasure and pearl have two fundamental messages. That God will not be found by those who do not seek the hidden treasure with all their hearts, and that salvation will require them to surrender everything so that the old self is crucified and a new life begins.

Steve Copland