A twenty-five-year-old man stepped on his shovel, pushing it into the sandy riverbank. When he turned it over, what he found would change his life forever. In the shovelful of sand, he uncovered a diamond the size of a computer mouse. It measured 182 carets, turning out to be one of the largest diamonds ever found.
The man who discovered it had lived all his days in poverty. He rarely possessed more than just enough to stay alive. Like most of his fellow countrymen in Guinea, he lived under a crushing weight of poverty.
Whether this man can escape the poverty which engulfs him awaits to be seen. Neighbors of the man marveled that he wasn’t robbed and murdered the first night he spent at home after finding the stone! When government authorities got news of the incredible diamond, they had the stone confiscated and the finder hidden away so he wouldn’t be such an easy target for crooks. They informed the media that the finder of the diamond was entitled to keep a percentage of the worth of the stone.
It was not disclosed how big a percentage the man could keep, but since the diamond could be worth millions, even a small percentage would doubtless seem like a fortune to someone who was all his life accustomed to poverty. If he managed to get it and keep it, he could have a real “rags-to-riches” transformation.
Did you know that in order for any of us to escape hell and enter into heaven, we too must have a “rags-to-riches” transformation? Strange as it sounds, it is true. Every one of us, whether we are rich or poor in this world’s goods, must experience such a change in our lives on a spiritual level. Each one needs to personally realize that all his righteousness is as “filthy rags” and take the salvation that is so freely offered through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible says that “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). That is the judgment God has pronounced on all mankind. In God’s sight we are all sinners, dressed in filthy rags, and unfit ever to enter His presence. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Not a single one of us will ever make it into heaven in our natural state. God is holy, and He must judge sin.
One sin is enough to sink a sinner into hell for eternity. Don’t be fooled into taking sin lightly. It is the weightiest matter known to man-weighty enough to sink multitudes into hell if they fail to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus. To “repent” means to pass the same judgment on yourself that God has already passed on you. It means to realize that you are unfit for His presence and on the road to hell.
When sinners repent and look to Christ for salvation, He will take away their filthy rags and give them the true riches of His salvation. What are some of the riches that He gives with His salvation? Here is a verse that speaks of them: “Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). These are all qualities that we are totally lacking in our impoverished state as sinners. But let a person take Christ as his Savior, and all these qualities in their perfection and super-abundance will be his through the blessed Savior.
Wisdom: “In whom [Christ] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” All the efforts of this world’s philosophers never devised a way for a sinner to be cleansed from sin and made fit for heaven, but God through Christ not only devised a plan but carried it out. Before the foundation of the earth was laid, God knew His Son would become a man and die for His creature’s sin-the only way those sins could be put away. It was God in His supreme wisdom that made such a plan, while His perfect love carried it out. We can enjoy all the benefits of that wisdom when we make Jesus Christ ours through faith.
Righteousness: In our sinful condition, God describes even the best of us as having only “filthy rags” for righteousness. However, let a person believe in Christ and the work He did on the cross, and they will be made “the righteousness of God in Him” the moment they believe. The only way to be justified or accounted righteous is through faith in Christ. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5).
Sanctification: This word means to be set apart to God. The Lord Jesus is the light of the world, and without a real faith in Him, people are set apart to sin and darkness and are headed towards hell. But when people turn to Jesus Christ for salvation, God will forgive their sin and set them apart for His special care for time and eternity. The forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified belong only to those who are set apart by faith in Christ.
Redemption: Redemption means deliverance from the power of sin and death. We were all under their power-all in danger of going down into everlasting hell. Jesus Christ went into death and conquered it for us, rising out of the grave. In His victory over death He became our great Redeemer. Believe on His name, and redemption will be yours. Then you can say like Job of old: “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”
When people repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they go from the utter poverty of being a sinner to possessing eternal life and all the riches that come through faith in Christ. They are riches that no thief or murderer or government of man can ever take from them. Every sinner who trusts in the Lord Jesus has passed through a “rags-to-riches” transformation. Won’t you take Him as your Savior, so that you can leave the rags and ruin of sin behind and possess the riches of salvation through Christ?