An article in last Wednesday’s newspaper reported that a Mickey Mantle rookie card recently sold for $48,000! Do you have a card like that kicking around your attic? If you’re not sure, there are 48,000 reasons why you should look. Even if you don’t find a Mickey Mantle rookie card, you might discover something else that’s valuable. Isn’t that why kids love to spend time in their grandparents’ attic? Even though it’s dusty and stuffy up there, they dream of finding some long forgotten treasure, like a rare baseball card or an antique medicine bottle, that will net thousands of dollars when offered up for sale on eBay.
Chances are you’ve never found any such treasures in Grandma’s attic. That’s all right. You already have a something more valuable than a Mickey Mantle rookie card. You have the Gospel. Sure, the rest of the world thinks that the message about Jesus is junk, the Apostle Paul, however, insists that it’s a treasure. This morning Paul gives us two reasons to value the Gospel. We value the Gospel because it’s ancient, and because it’s potent.
It often seems that the older an object is, the more value it has. For example this penny from 1793 is now worth at least $1,100. Two hundred years ago you may have been able to buy a loaf of bread with this penny, today you could buy a thousand loaves with this same coin.
If older means more precious, than nothing can match the Gospel’s value for Paul calls it an ancient mystery (Romans 16:25). Just how ancient is the Gospel? The Bible tells us that already before God created the world he had in mind what he would do to save the world. He didn’t just know that he would have to save mankind from their sins; he knew how he was going to do it through his Son (Ephesians 1:4, 5).
When I worked at the Seminary library I regularly handled books that were two hundred, three hundred, even four hundred years old. I never got tired of blowing the dust of those books, cracking them open, and wondering how many other pairs of eyes had read the same words I was now reading. Even if you’re not a booklover, I still think you would think it quite a treat to handle such books. Well guess what? Every time you crack open your Bible you’re handling a book that is thousands of years of old. No, your Bible might not be that old of a printing, but the message contained therein is as old as God himself.
But just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s valuable, does it? I’m sure that my father has baseball cards of players from Mickey Mantle’s era and even before, but their cards aren’t worth as much. Why not? Because the cardboard on which they were printed is inferior to the cardboard used for the Mantle card? No. The Mantle card is not worth $48,000 because it used a gold-fibered cardboard. It’s worth $48,000 because of what’s printed on the card.
So it is with the Gospel message. It’s not valuable just because it’s old. It’s valuable because of what it says. The Gospel message reveals God’s thoughts. That’s what Paul meant when he called the gospel an ancient mystery (Romans 16:25). The Gospel isn’t a mystery because it’s hard to understand or grasp, it’s a mystery because we wouldn’t know it unless someone told us about it. That’s exactly what Paul says the prophets of the Old Testament did. God commanded them to write about the coming of the Savior and in so doing they revealed to the world the plan of salvation God had concocted before time began. God continued to speak through his Apostles during the New Testament time so that the Bible, as we have it today, is God’s revelation, not man’s explanation of spiritual matters.
How much would you be willing to pay to find out what kind of things God thinks about? Would you pay $1,900? That’s how much this antiques dealer is hoping people will pay for this letter to find out the kind of things Napoleon thought about. If historians are willing to pay this much to get their hands on a letter not even addressed to them, how much more precious is the Bible! The Bible is God’s letter to us. Without it we would be lost. We would be like millions of people today who don’t think that God is angry with them because of their lust, their jealousy, or their love for money and praise. If they think he is angry, they blame their sins on other people, or they think that sacrificing a chicken or bringing money to a shrine will buy God off. The Gospel message makes it clear that no amount of money or good deeds will appease God’s wrath. Only a payment of holy blood can do that.
C. S. Lewis illustrated that truth in his popular book “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” When little Edmund deceived himself into thinking that the Witch was a good person, he willingly betrayed his brother and sisters to her for more candy. Although the Witch was never able to lay hands on Edmund’s brother and sisters, she still claimed Edmund as her own saying that anyone who had willingly gone over to her side deserved death. Aslan, the Christ-like lion figure in the story, agreed, and then took Edmund’s place and died for him. Isn’t that what Jesus did? He took our place and willingly shed his blood so that we would escape hell.
As clever as C. S. Lewis was, he would not have written such a story had he not been acquainted with the Gospel. But is the Gospel message really that unique? Aren’t there other true stories of people giving up their lives for others? Don’t soldiers and police officers do that sort of thing all the time? Yes, they often give their life to save another, but the lives they save are the lives of their friends, not enemies. Jesus gave his life to save us who had rebelled against him and his heavenly Father.
The Gospel message about Jesus dying to pay for our sins is not just valuable because it’s ancient and unique; it’s valuable because it’s potent. What I mean is that the Gospel is more than just news about Jesus. Paul calls the Gospel the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). The Gospel message is actually the tool the Holy Spirit uses to bring us to faith in Jesus and once brought to faith we enjoy the blessings of eternal life, joy, and peace. Those blessings make the Gospel way more valuable than a Mickey Mantle rookie card. Sure such a card would net you $48,000 if you sold it, but you can burn through that much money in a single day and when it’s gone it’s gone.
The Gospel message is not like that. Every time we read or hear the Gospel and take it to heart, it connects us to God’s complete forgiveness and brings joy and relief into our lives. The Gospel’s blessings never end. It’s like owning a Mickey Mantle rookie card that causes $48,000 to appear every time you look at the card! That’s what Paul meant when he said that God uses the Gospel to establish us (Romans 16:25). The Gospel strengthens our faith and therefore our hold on our reservations for a mansion in heaven.
Because the Gospel does these wonderful things, hold on to it. Just as the owner of the Mickey Mantle rookie card has no doubt locked that card in a safety deposit box, guard the Gospel against those who will try talking you into trading it for something more glamorous this world has to offer. Although baseball cards today look a lot more slick than the ones made fifty years ago, they’re not worth as much. In the same way there is no job, there is no hobby, there is no person worth following to the ends of this world if it means leaving behind the Gospel. Don’t let anyone fool you into accepting a counterfeit Gospel either. There are a lot of replica Mickey Mantle rookie cards out there but they’re not worth $48,000. There are also a lot of people out there who preach about Jesus and talk about forgiveness but what they offer is no Gospel – not when they say that you must do something to earn it, or show your worthiness to benefit from it, or say that God’s forgiveness gives you the right to live any way you want. The Gospel gives us no such rights. It gives us privileges. It gives us forgiveness. It gives us the will and strength to live as God’s children. Value it! Amen.
