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 THE ESSENCE OF WORTH

Ephesians 2:8-10 "God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago."

What value would you assign to a corpse? Odd question? I doubt that anyone would apply any significant worth to something lifeless.

Ephesians 2:1-3 "Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else."

Well, when you evaluate human life from the perspective of God, you may scratch you head at the value God has placed on humanity. John writes down for anyone to read, the value God has assigned to humanity.

John 3:16-18 "For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son."

God is the only One Who can assign absolute worth to a person. He created us as the crown of His creation, created in His image, intended to bear His Life and Nature and become more and more fully human as He designed. We decided in the Garden of Eden, that we could live without reference to God; we needed something more than what God provided. In so doing, we died, essentially died at the core of our being. Being spiritually dead, we could produce nothing close to what God had in mind for us to know and experience.

John 3:19-21 "And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants."

We even took the good gifts God had given and demanded from them things they could never give. Life was twisted, and we began to worship the creation rather than the Creator Who is blessed forever. Truth is that sin and rebellion against God are normative behaviors for those spiritually dead.

It is clearly evident that our worth as followers of Christ Jesus is not the result of any performance or achievement on our part. Our worth has been ascribed to us by God alone. It is never earned. It is BECAUSE God has given us worth valued at the Incarnation, substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that our lives are changed.

2 Corinthian 5:17 "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, Who brought us back to Himself through Christ."

It is because He has given us His Life, that the Life we now live is actually His Life being lived in us, that we can excel in daily living. We are enabled by the Holy Spirit to live deeper and deeper in the new Life we have been given. The life we live following Jesus Christ is lived without reference to the evaluative criteria the world uses to assess a person's value. Our worth in Christ Jesus, established by God, is immutable and fixed so we can continue to grow in grace and hope, our faith can be strengthened, and we can live in contented peace.

God calls us His masterpieces. A painting never exalts itself. It reflects and exalts the mastery of the painter. He has even ordained good things for us to live out with the confidence that what He has prepared for us to live out, He will empower us to actually live out! God makes us His own, lives His Life in us and promises that the good work He has begun in us, He will bring to completion by the Day Christ Jesus returns or when He calls us home in death. 

Follower of Jesus Christ, you bear His Life within you, infinite worth.

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