Pure Silver
I recently bought silver dollars commemorating Apollo 11's 50th anniversary. They have a beautiful design and are in absolute perfect condition. They are pure silver, totally unique, and have great worth. But since silver naturally occurs with other metals and impurities in it, then what process did these coins have to go through to become this new creation?
Silver ore has impurities in its original state. And so it is put through a refining process. The silver ore is heated in a furnace to remove all the impurities. Then the purified silver is cut into round blanks with no images in them. These blanks are placed into a coin press and struck with a die that holds the intended image. When the die presses onto the blank, then the blank conforms to the die, causing the silver to bear the die's image. This is how a brand new coin gets its worth.
Did you know that the Lord refines His people? He said to Israel in...
Isaiah 48:10
See, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
God put Israel through the refinement of affliction to purify them from the sin of worshiping false gods, to bring them back into pure worship with Him. In our own original state, we had the impurities of sin in us. And so there is the necessity of refinement to bring us into rightness with God.
Psalm 34:19
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
Let us realize that the purpose of refinement is to purify sinners into a new and pure state, so that we can be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, so that we can bear His image. This makes us a new creation with a beautiful design, in perfect condition, and totally unique. This is how a new believer gets their worth!
Psalm 12:6
The words of the Lord are pure words;
As silver tried in a furnace on the earth,
refined seven times.
