3. Ibid.
Jesus Illustrates His Gospel
The Savior consistently set forth His gospel on those terms. Faith as He characterized it is nothing less than a complete exchange of all that we are for all that He is. Two brief parables in Matthew 13:44 – 46 illustrate precisely this truth. They show the incomparable worth of the kingdom of heaven and the nature of the commitment required of everyone who would enter:
Th e kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the fi eld, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that fi eld. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fi ne pearls, and upon fi nding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
Both parables make the same point: a sinner who understands the priceless riches of the kingdom will gladly yield everything else he cherishes in order to obtain it. The corresponding truth is also clear by implication: those who cling to their earthly treasures forfeit the far greater wealth of the kingdom.
Some students of Scripture object to this interpretation of these parables. They see Christ — not the sinner — as the one who sells all to buy the precious treasure and pearl. C. I. Scofield, for example, wrote:
Th e interpretation of the parable of the treasure, which makes the buyer of the fi eld to be a sinner who is seeking Christ, has no warrant in the parable itself. Th e fi eld is defi ned (v. 38) to be the world. Th e seeking sinner does not buy, but forsakes, the world to win Christ. Furthermore, the sinner has nothing to sell, nor is Christ for sale, nor is He hidden in a fi eld, nor, having found Christ, does the sinner hide Him again (cf. Mk. 7:24; Acts 4:20). At every point the interpretation breaks down.
Our Lord is the buyer at the awful cost of His blood (1 Pet. 1:18), and Israel . . . hidden in "the field," the world (v. 38), is the treasure.2
For similar reasons, Scofield wrote, "The Church is the pearl of great cost."3
We cannot be dogmatic about the meaning of parables not specifically explained by the Lord, but I reject that view for several reasons. First, the field in this parable is not said to be the world. Verse 38 ("the field is the world") applies to the parable of the tares. The seed strewn there pictures "the sons of the kingdom." By contrast, the field in the parable of the soils represents a
2. C. I. Scofi eld, ed. Th e Scofi eld Reference Bible (New York: Oxford, 1909), 1017. 3. Ibid.