“The Color”
God’s Second “C” (the color) equals “Spiritual Transparency”
We are considering the 4 Cs of a diamond and how they represent the diamond cut, color, clarity, and carat weight. We want to zero in on how the 4 Cs can illustrate aspects of Christian Character. Remember how some people who have just become Christians are referred to as diamonds in the rough, because of the moral and spiritual condition they are in at the time they met the Lord and experienced salvation.
Last time we studied the 1st C of diamond grading called “The Cut”, which is the work it takes to transform a diamond in the rough into a bright, shiny, and valued gem. Diamond cutting is the practice of shaping a diamond from a rough stone into a faceted gem, that requires specialized knowledge, tools, equipment, and techniques, because of its extreme difficulty. A diamond’s cut determines a stone’s proportions and ability to reflect light.
Remember the first “C” in God’s work (spiritual cut) is “conviction”. Conviction represents each “spiritual cut” in our lives as the Holy Spirit (God’s “lapidarist”) cuts away the veneer and false concepts we have of ourselves, so we can see ourselves the way God sees us spiritually and we will feel the great need to be saved (born-again). As the Holy Spirit does His work of “conviction”, a lost person comes to the realization that he or she is not just a sinner but sees himself or herself as “the sinner” in desperate need for the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation. Therefore, through the “spiritual cutting”, we are recreated with the needed facets of Christ’ character to reflect His light in whatever environment, circumstance, condition, or situation we as Christians can encounter.
Now let us investigate the 2nd C of diamond grading referred to as the “Color”. This represents the work the Holy Spirit does in transforming a newly mined Christian (a spiritual diamond in the rough) into a bright, shiny, and valued believer (spiritual gem) who is transparent represented by a “Colorless Diamond”. The Holy Spirit’s goal is to make each one of us transparent like Jesus was in His life on earth for 33 years. Therefore, my goal today is to equate the beauty and value of a “Colorless Diamond” in the physical world to the value of spiritual and moral transparency in the Christian life.
The Lord Jesus is our example. When someone saw and/or heard Jesus, they were seeing Him and hearing Him for He what He really was – Totally Transparent meaning He never had anything to hide. What you see is what you get. When Christ did something or expressed His thoughts and feelings, He did so without any hidden motives or agenda.
He never played word games or used semantics. Semantics can be defined as the language used in advertising or political propaganda, to achieve a desired effect on an audience...especially through the use of words with novel or dual meanings (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/semantics). Jesus used many parables and analogies to communicate truth, but this was not just semantics.
The Lord said what He meant, and He meant what He said (and He never had to go back and change something He said or did later), which is also true of the Bible. Whatever God said in the early parts of the Bible was still true and still the same at the end of the Bible. He always spoke the pure truth, which always reflected His “Father’s will” and character. He came to reveal the Father to the world. Therefore, everyone could see the Father though the Son’s perfect moral and spiritual transparency, even though they did not always like that or appreciate that. This is why Jesus told Philip in John 14:9 this:
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for such a long a time, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Can people say that of you and me? If they saw you or I act in life and heard us carry on conversation in life, can they say they have seen and heard the Son and the Father in us and through us?
This is always the goal of the Holy Spirit (God’s “lapidarist”) when He begins transforming a spiritual diamond in the rough to a clear and pure reflection of Jesus Christ. The ultimate goal is to remove all flaws or anything that would dim or block the pure light of Christ in our lives...ultimate transparency. To better understand the Holy Spirit’s work, it will help to understand the work of a diamond grader.
Here is a great summation of what a diamond grader means by a diamond’s color from https://www.brilliantearth.com/news/4-cs-of-diamonds.
Traditionally, a diamond receives a color grade on the Gemological Institute of America’s (GIA) scale based on its lack of color. Experts consider a colorless diamond to be the rarest of all. A colorless diamond is worth more than a diamond with a yellow, brown, or gray appearance. The more color visible in a diamond, the less it is worth.
Spiritual Analogy or Application
In a Christian’s life, the Holy Spirit considers a “colorless child of God” to be the rarest among the family of God and best equipped for service. This means this believer is as close to totally transparent as possible. One can see right through him or her. And what do they see as they look straight through this believer? They see Jesus. They should see Jesus being reflected back to them. Is there any greater experience for a believer in this life than to be a witness for Christ, reflecting the image and light and truth of Christ in the most clear and transparent way possible?
That is why sometimes, a non-Christian or a carnal Christian does not feel comfortable in the presence of a transparent Christian (a colorless child of God), and they will want to get away from this person, just as many people did not feel comfortable in the presence of Jesus. If they were not ready to deal with God, they wanted to get away from Him or worse...kill Him.
Light and truth bring conviction or an awareness of guilt, faults, and shortcomings. They can feel like they are being exposed - just being around a transparent Christian (a colorless child of God), like Adam & Eve felt when God came down to visit with them after they had sinned and lost their spiritual clothing of light. They felt naked and exposed in the presence of God Almighty.
A Colorless Diamond
A Transparent Christian
Next, we need to consider what are called colored diamonds with various tints and shades and how they related to our analogy.
The color of gem-quality diamonds occurs in many hues. In the range from colorless to light yellow or light brown. Other natural colors like blue, red, or pink are known as “fancy” and their color grading is different from white colorless diamonds.
Therefore, in the grading system, the Color of a diamond actually refers to the lack of color in a diamond, with perfectly colorless diamonds considered the highest quality with the highest value, and brown or yellow diamonds being the lowest quality.
What does that mean in terms of a Christian’s condition?
Every true born-again child of God is a spiritual diamond for God’s glory, but just as real diamonds can occur in many hues, so children of God can exist in many different spiritual hues, represented by the scale below.
Backsliders
Faithful & Dependent
Spiritually Lukewarm-Stale
Burning hot in devotion
Carnal & worldly
Spiritual & Godly
Unfruitful
Spiritually fruitful & Christ-like
Just like perfectly colorless diamonds are considered the highest quality with the highest value, so the perfectly colorless Christian is the most effective and valuable believer within the Kingdom of God’s work here on earth. All spiritual diamonds (born-again Christians) will go to Heaven, but the colorless spiritual diamonds (transparent spiritual, godly, fruitful, & Christ-like/spiritually hot) will have the most fruit and be the greatest blessing to others (and have the most satisfying Christian lives here on earth before they enjoy their eternal rewards in Heaven).
What causes the subtle colors in a colored diamond?
Diamonds have trace elements in them and that is why they can have subtle colors. As diamonds come from the ground, they usually have yellow, brown, or gray colors because of the impurities they pick up in the earth. These diamonds are rated based on hue, tone, and saturation, and the diamond color scale includes those factors. Diamond hue includes the stone's actual color - for example, white, yellow, pink, brown, or blue. A gem's tone is the degree of color, from light to dark. Finally, saturation is the color's depth and intensity. But again, Colorless diamonds do not have saturation. Instead, they have fire and brilliance.
What causes the subtle colors in a Christian’s character?
When a person experiences salvation, his or her spirit is born-again (John 3:3, Colossians 2:1-4) and now that person has the nature of Jesus Christ in their spirit. One cannot get any more pure or holy than that, but that person will have trace elements from the world in their soul. Remember you have a spirit, soul, and body. You are a trinitarian being.
These soulish trace elements will have those subtle colors from the various impurities (yellow, brown, or gray colors) from the world. Spiritually, these various colors that others would see in us at that time (that keep us from being like a colorless diamond), can be the guilt from violating our conscience over the years, the remnants of exposure to many morally impure things in the world along the way, vulgar habits or speech, a lack of manners to rudeness, or extremes of inferiority to arrogant superiority.
Diamonds cannot change their color or make themselves colorless (the most valuable). They are what they are, and diamond specialists must take what they have and turn them into the most beautiful colored diamonds they can. But God can take a defiled, blemished, flawed new Christian (who has Christ in their spirit) and use His skills and knowledge and wisdom to transform them slowly but surely into a spiritual colorless diamond.
If people resist, they may stay at some level of immaturity, or to put this into diamond terms, they may stay like some sort of colored diamond. They will still be a diamond, but they may not reach the point of being a colorless diamond. Christians who do not seek the Lord with all their hearts will still be Christians, but they may not reach the point of glorifying God through their lives here on earth.
Just as diamonds are rated - based on hue, tone, and saturation (and the diamond color scale includes those factors), the new believer will be rated on spiritual hues, tones, and saturation. Remember, a gem's tone is the degree of color, from light to dark, and saturation is the color's depth and intensity, but colorless diamonds do not have saturation. Instead, they have fire and brilliance, which is what the Holy Spirit is after in our lives...spiritual fire and spiritual brilliance, like Stephen’ face in Acts 6:15, when the Jewish Council (leaders) also called the Sanhedrin were questioning him (interrogating him) about his preaching Christ:
And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel. Stephen’s face was bright and shiny like the face of an angel.
The Holy Spirit knows where to start in beginning that journey (pilgrimage) in taking a new believer from a diamond in the rough ⇒ To a diamond with color ⇒ To a colorless diamond. The Apostle Paul knew from experience what is involved in this transformational process. In Galatians 5:19-23, Paul shows where we all were (to some degree or another) the day we were saved and where the Holy Spirit purposes to take us to.
The day we are saved we are full of the acts of the flesh. From that day forward, the Holy Spirit begins the sanctification process to fully develop His fruits or the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5. The more dominant the fruits of the Spirit are in our lives, the more we are like a colorless diamond that allows others to see Jesus Christ through us.
Galatians 5:19-20:
Galatians 5:22-23:
The acts of the flesh:
Sexual immorality/orgies
Impurity
Debauchery
Idolatry/witchcraft
Hatred/fits of rage
Discord/dissensions
Jealousy/Envy
Selfish ambition
Factions
Drunkenness
And the like...
The Fruit of the Spirit:
Love
Joy
Peace
Forbearance
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-control
A colorless diamond like the D color diamonds is famous for their stunning white and transparent color. They have a stunning icy white color that’s extremely impressive, particularly when the diamond is very well cut and shows lots of brilliance and fire.
- Under magnification and to the naked eye, a “D” color diamond will appear colorless.
- Under the Spirit’s magnification and perfect eye, a D color diamond “Christian” will appear colorless, which is His desire (goal) for you – to not have any color of your own, but only reflect the majestic stunning white and transparent color of Christ’ righteousness.
- What else does the Holy Spirit need to do to have you reach that grading of a D color diamond “Christian”?
Hebrews 1:3: And He (Jesus) is the radiance of His glory (the Father) and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high... (We should all want to become the exact representation of Christ’ nature in our lives.)
How are the colored diamonds graded?
Using a master set of diamonds specifically chosen based on their range of color, a grader picks up the diamond with tweezers and places it next to the individual diamonds in the master set. The diamond grader then skillfully decides the color grade based on the saturation of the color compared to the master set. Graders grade all diamonds “loose” or “without settings”, so that the color of the diamond is not influenced by the metal of the setting.
What does the Holy Spirit (God’s lapidarist) use to grade us?
The Holy Spirit (God’s lapidarist) uses the master spiritual diamond (The Lord Jesus Christ) to grade us by placing our character next to the image and character of His Son. Remember the graphic we used last week (Christ’ stunning white and transparent character).
Now visualize 4 or 5 other body outlines like this standing to His left. Each of the other body outlines will have various shades of color from darkest to the far left to less and less color in each outline (image) as we move toward the right where Christ is on the far right. The day we get saved (born-again), we are represented by the far-left image that has the darkest color in it. As the Holy Spirit begins to conform us to the image of Christ, our color continues to lighten up until we reach Christlikeness at the far right (Christ’ stunning and blinding, majestic, supremely bright white and transparent character.)
2 Corinthians 3:18: And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Romans 8:29: For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Colossians 3:10: And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
The American Gem Society Color Grade indicates where a diamond’s color falls on a scale that runs from 0 (colorless) to 10 (light yellow or light brown). The diamonds graded “colorless” are in the highest range. They will appear to have no color in any setting. Diamonds without color are very rare. Therefore, they cost more on the market.
TIDBIT
Largest colorless diamond to hit the auction block sells for record price.
A necklace featuring a giant 163.41-carat colorless diamond sold for $33.7 million at auction. The diamond was the largest of its kind. It broke a record for the most expensive D color flawless diamond ever sold at auction, surpassing the prior record by more than $3 million. Its centerpiece is the colorless diamond: a D color, IIA type diamond — the rarest and most valuable kind. See the pictures below.
Its centerpiece is the colorless diamond: a D color, IIA type diamond — the rarest and most valuable kind. The 6 grades of color are:
JI – H – G – F – E - D.
D Color
“D” Colored Diamonds are considered as absolutely colorless or icy white as they can be.
So, again they are the highest color grade and extremely rare and most expensive.
The two factors or slices that will have the biggest impact on your diamond’s appearance are the diamond cut and its carat weight. A better cut means more brilliance and fire. A greater carat weight will translate into a larger, more impressive diamond.
Colorless Diamonds in review and what that means to us as Servants Of God!
When it comes to popularity, nothing beats colorless diamonds. Diamonds have about 12 base colors—more than a rainbow’s seven. A crystal-clear diamond or colorless diamond is one of them and again, the rarest and most expensive. Most diamonds, including those perceived by people as crystal-clear, actually have a slight shade of yellow or brown, which only a trained gemologist can discern.
Grading and classifying of diamonds has come a long way. In the early days, terms such as ‘river‘ or ‘water‘ were used to describe colorless or almost-colorless diamonds. ‘Cape‘ was used to describe yellow stones from Africa’s Cape of Good Hope and ‘with flaws‘ or ‘with imperfections‘ to describe clarity.
Then in the 1940s, jewelry innovator Robert M. Shipley, a retail jeweler, started professionalizing the American jewelry industry. This gave birth to the GIA (Gemological Institute of America), with the mission of giving formal training, establishing ethics and standards in buying and selling gems. Thus, in 1953, the GIA established the 4Cs—a diamond grading system that is still being used today. The 4Cs stand for color, clarity, cut, and carat.
The color scale shown ranges from D to Z – with D as the most colorless.
Colorless diamond chart
Colorless diamonds belong to the D, E, and F scales. Those between the G to J fall under the near-colorless category. These color distinctions are very subtle and maybe impossible to detect by an untrained eye. But they can spell a big difference in diamond quality and price. Other than those set by the 4Cs, colorless diamonds are also defined by these four characteristics:
Transparency
Rarity
Purity
Perfect Quality
Colorless diamonds are unsullied. Somehow, they managed to avoid these contaminations other diamonds pick up on their ride to the surface.
They are chemically pure. They don’t have a hint of unwanted hues caused by traces of nitrogen and other natural gasses in their structure.
Colorless diamonds are the ‘model’. They set the standard and value of other diamonds.
A beautiful and exquisite Colorless diamond ring.
Summation of how the level of transparency, rarity, purity, and near perfect quality in diamonds illustrate the spiritual and moral character qualities the Holy Spirit is progressively developing in our lives.
- Just like when it comes to popularity, nothing beats colorless diamonds, so when it comes to Christians who are truly transparent, nothing beats that in the eyes of the world. People in the world really get frustrated and tend to hate professing Christians who are hypocrites or not transparent. Or they judge the whole church as hypocritical, when in reality it is usually just a few among the dedicated.
- They can see flaws and inconsistencies and as they see it in professing Christians, it gives Jesus Christ a bad name. Samuel told King David this in 2 Samuel 12:14:
However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, therefore the child that is born to you shall surely die.”
- Although the grading and classifying of diamonds has come a long way, the grading and classifying of Christians by non-Christians has not changed. Non-believers still judge professing Christians by how we live up to our word or by what we profess, which they are right in doing. Here is how one atheist summed up his feelings.
As an Atheist, I can say without a doubt, can judge Christian behavior based on Christian beliefs. However, since there are 4,200 OTHER religions in practice today, there are 4,199 “non-Christian" religious folk would offer a different opinion. Many atheists I know are FORMER Christians, including myself, and, as the expression goes “you can't see the forest through the trees" very much applies for those who practice. Once you disconnect yourself from it all, you can see the overall picture, and the fallacies within, to include the behaviors of those who profess to be “children of god". Often times, the Bible is used as a weapon by Christians, and when an atheist uses the same weapon AGAINST the instigator, well, they don't like that very much. I tend to hold them to the same standards they, themselves, wish to impose on others. I will say, the Bible should NOT be used as a “measuring stick for morality"… waaaaaay too many contradictions to make it remotely viable.
From: Scott Barnard-A.A.S. Briarcliffe CollegeIf Scott Barnard were to see us and listen to us talk, would he change his feelings?
The Lord Jesus put it like this in Matthew 5:16:Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
- Just as colorless diamonds are defined by the 4 characteristics of Transparency, Rarity, Purity, and Near Perfect Quality, so are professing Christians. The Holy Spirit will never stop working on these 4 things in our lives, so that we will be vessels of the light and glory of Christ!
...TRANSPARENCY as in 2 Corinthians 4:2:
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
...RARITY as in Isaiah 13:12:
I will make a mortal (mortal Christian man or woman who is willing) more rare than fine gold.
On her blog site, a lady named Athena wrote this:
I have actually spent a good portion of my life studying religion and I am also an observer of humanity. Of all the people I know who claim to be men and women “of God”, I can honestly say I believe the actual number to be less than one in a hundred. When pressed, they usually admit that “I’m not perfect, but I’m trying” and yet upon closer examination, it seems they only try when they know someone’s looking. A person who truly is “of God” is one who acts that way even when no one is looking, and no one will ever know. In my experience, those people are extremely rare. In all likelihood, one in a hundred is giving people the benefit of the doubt. It’s probably closer to one in ten thousand. But that is the ones who claim to be “of God”, but are actually hypocrites. I mean, there’s a valid reason why the area identified as having the highest use of online pornography and the area identified as “the Bible Belt” match up as the exact same area. Hypocrisy.
...PURITY as in 1 Timothy 4:12:
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.
...PERFECT QUALITY as in Matthew 5:48:
Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
And as in 1 Peter 1:16:
For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
When it is all said and done in your life, but before you take your last breath – if you don’t die instantly, and have time to look back at your life – where do you want to be on the scale of Christian maturity or spiritual completion? As believers, we will all go through the Judgment Seat of Christ (Bema), where every single thing we ever said or did will be tested by fire. Please consider these two Scriptures as we close this out.
2 Corinthians 5:10: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what we have done whether good or bad.
1 Corinthians 3:13-15: Their work (every Christian’s work) will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder (Christian worker) will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder (Christian worker) will suffer loss, but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
If you will allow the Holy Spirit (God’s “lapidarist”) to have His way with you, one day at a time, then you will come through the fires of the Judgment Seat of Christ (Bema) with your grading of a “Spiritual Colorless Diamond” intact. Your works in this life as a child of God will survive and you will be prepared for all of those eternal rewards. You will be so glad!
HELPS Word-studies on Bema: https://biblehub.com/greek/968.htm
bḗma (from bainō, "to step, ascend") – properly, a platform to which someone walked up to receive judgment; (figuratively) the administration of justice – literally, given from "a tribunal-chair" (throne) where rewards and punishments are meted out.
Note: As a believer, the punishments referenced above, refers to the works that you did that were burned up in the fires of the Bema (judgement seat of Christ). Those works (the things you did and said) did not survive the fire, as the two verses above explained. Whatever is left will be rewarded on the Bema Platform in front of everyone in Heaven. What a time that will be!!!
Now - in saying goodbye for this week, I wanted to let you know that my real goal in what we studied today is to make you the very best judge in diamond buying you can be, so that you can really please that next person you buy a diamond for.
Just kidding! My goal was to show you the value of letting the Holy Spirit have His way with us, as He continues His work in letting the image and character of Christ become the dominant feature in our lives...so we will be the best prepared to stand on the BEMA platform of Christ and rejoice with Him!!!
Thanks again for your precious time!
Gene
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