How much are you worth? That’s an interesting question, isn’t it? I suppose the answer to that question depends on the exact scope of the question.
I’ve spent the majority of my secular career in marketing and sales, although I began my career as an engineer. Arguably, the most difficult transition for any engineer who wishes to enter into the customer facing side of a business is understanding that it’s not how much I think a product is worth (based on how much effort it took to make or even the cost of goods used); rather, it’s how much my customers are willing to pay for it.
There’s a difference between a price tag and the actual value of a product. Value in any economy is set by the one purchasing the product, not the seller (eBay is a perfect example – some people are shocked at how little their item sells for at auction – this is the market speaking). The seller can put any price tag they want on a product, but unless someone is willing to pay the price, it won’t sell.
What happens if we apply this principle to establish the value of our lives. Let’s each ask ourselves this question again, “How much am I worth?” Well, based on the above method of valuation, the simple answer is the same answer to, “How much is someone willing to pay for my life?”
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
-Romans 5:7-8
Here we have our answer, and it is a glorious one, indeed! Christ, our Redeemer, has answered the question, “How much is someone willing to pay for my life?” The answer hung on a cross two thousand years ago. Christ gave His very own life for mine (for every believer). This is how we ought to assign value to our life.
Now, here’s a question to ponder: how might Christ’s valuation compare to the value fallen creatures assign to themselves? Is an inferior valuation at the very heart of unbelief (where someone rejects God’s valuation for their own or another’s)? When Satan lies to a person about their value in the kingdom of darkness being greater than their value in the kingdom of God, what are the repercussions for the one who believes this lie? If this lie were true, why do adherents end up in Hell for all of eternity while those who choose God’s valuation of themselves abide in Heaven forever? To put it bluntly, Satan thinks you’re worth a lifetime on Earth followed by eternity in Hell. God thinks you’re worth eternal life now, somewhat interrupted by a stint on Earth as an alien. Do you see the difference?
God values His own far more than Satan values his. We just need to be reminded from time to time what God thinks of us.
You have declared today that the LORD is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. And the LORD has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.”
-Deuteronomy 26:17-19
At some point in our lives, we all must ask ourselves this fundamental question, “How much am I worth?” The second question we must ask is, “From whom shall I seek my answer?” To accept your valuation from Satan is to agree with him that your life is only worth what it fetches during your time here on Earth. To accept God’s valuation is to accept the highest bid possible, namely eternal life. Every believer has had to evaluate these differences.
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
-Luke 14:25-33
To “renounce all that [you] have” is to say to both Satan and your own fleshly instincts, “You can keep your valuation of me to yourself!” Inferior redeemers can only pay so much, and they pay with lies, to boot (John 8:44). Christ paid with His own life, purchasing eternal life for anyone who believes (John 3:16). Which is the greater valuation?
How much are you worth?
Ask Christ – He’s the One who paid the price.
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins