What is Value?
Webster’s Dictionary defines it:
1: a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged…
So, is God valuable to you? Do you get a “fair return” on your investment with God? The reality is, as the old song goes: “He paid a debt he didn’t owe, I owed a debt I could not pay… Christ Jesus paid the debt, that I could never pay.” and it’s absolutely right.
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
-1Tim 2:5f
Jesus is not only our “broker” of this ROI, he is the payment itself. He have himself as a “ransom for all.” That means that his life was the price that paid my debt, and yours. This is far more than we could ever give.
You cannot look at your faith as a “tit for tat” kind of moral system. In a system like this, one does good things in order to receive protection or favors from God. That is not Christianity, that’s pagan idolatry. What we get as a result of our faith is Jesus. We don’t get favors, but we do become heirs. We don’t deserve it, or some how “pay for it” with our faith, but we get it, as a gift, freely given, to all who believe.
So God is of exceeding value to us, because we can NEVER even begin to pay back the debt that was paid on our behalf. But let’s think of this from the other side of the equation, do we have value to God?
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more
-Luke 12:6f
You do have value to God. Not only are you made in his image (cf. Gen. 1:27), but for those who have been “reconciled to God” (that is, our account settled with him, and our relationship restored with him) we are God’s righteousness, and that is highly valuable to him.
…We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
-2 Cor 5:21f
God’s righteousness is the most valuable thing in-and-of itself, but it was proven to be of great value because of the price that was paid for us to become God’s righteousness, that is, his son died for it.
Because we are of value to God, or, at least we can be if we will only accept the gift of salvation through his son, we can know that he hears our prayers, and listens to them. He comforts us when we pray and he directs our path through his word. In short, we can have a relationship with him, a real, enduring, close relationship with him through his son.
Is God valuable to you? You bet he is, whether you admit it or not, he is worth giving up EVERYTHING we have, even our own lives. But think about this today, as valuable as God is to you, you are valuable to him. As in everything, something is only worth the price someone is willing to pay, for believers, that price is Jesus Christ.
In him we become the righteousness of God…
