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Thats whats thew metaphor is all about.. Can YOU afford salvation is the question?.. LoL..

The parable is not a single metaphor, but a collection of metaphors, each metaphor brings it's own meaning to the whole. I suppose that it is possible that Christ is the pearl and the merchantman, and the one that produces the pearl.

My problem is with the notion that we need to purchase our salvation. The cost was covered at the cross and our standing before God is established at (spiritual) birth. Are we to be persuaded that we should work to obtain something that we already have or to keep that which we cannot lose?

Salvation is an investment..

I believe that Christ is investing.

Seven

[.. My problem is with the notion that we need to purchase our salvation. ..]

Faith is the currency of God.. you purchase salvation with faith.. Faith in the blood and ministry of Jesus the Christ.. He is the gold that backs up the faith(currency) that runs his(Gods) economy.. If you have faith in any other you are passing counterfeit faith, on purpose OR by mistake.. And will be apprehended..

Re: "working to maintain what we already have"

If you are married, you have the love of your spouse: do you not cultivate that? In order to get married, does one not need to forsake all other loves?

I see the "treasure" and the "pearl" 'I found' being 'purchased' in this way.

It is because Christ is already mine that daily I seek more of Him and less of what I formerly held to - even as a spouse "forsakes all others, keeping only unto" this one new, consecrated partner. We cannot serve both God and Gain. I count all the former "treasure of this world" less than garbage and press on to take hold of Him Who took hold of me!

He said, "If you are a friend of the world you cannot be a friend of God." It's an either/or sorta thing, as it is with marriage: Either you are married or you are 'playing the field' - can't have it both ways in a rational universe. Try living like you're single when you are married and see how long that marriage will last, or how good that relationship will be. I 'sell' all those former 'relationships' (to people or things of "mammon" or "of the world") and in the place of them I hold Christ. Amen. "He must increase!" I repeat, as John the Baptizer proclaimed, and this happens only as all other things, self included, decrease.

If I have my hands full with other things, how can I pick up a diamond? Seeing the diamond free and available, I will drop whatever worthless thing I formerly clung to and grasp the gem...if, that is, I am in my right mind (; The 'purchase price' consists only in letting go of, or "selling," what I already have.