Worth

So I’m buying a new (well, new to me, used) car. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at cars for sale, and I realized most people think very highly of their cars. They probably think very highly of all of their possessions, but I’ve mainly been looking at cars, so that’s what I’ve been thinking about. People will put amazingly high prices on cars that are really not worth that much.

But what determines worth?

Worth is determined by what someone is willing to pay for a particular thing. Now I’m sure some economics nerd could go into all of the details about supply and demand and other “economics” words I have forgotten, but let’s be honest – I only went to enough Econ classes to get my A. I vaguely remember the graphs, but I’m sure I wouldn’t do a great job explaining it at this point.

So let’s just get back to “worth is determined by what someone is willing to pay.” As I thought about this, I thought about Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross. Christ was willing to pay, not a large monetary sum, but his life – his perfect, sinless, holy life – for us. That must mean we are worthy of Christ’s death, right?

Wrong.

Honestly, when this thought first came to mind, I was focused on Christ’s death for us, and thought it must have to do with worth, but I had the wrong word. The word I was looking for was love. It was not because of our worth that Christ died; it was because of His love.

Romans 5.7-8 – “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.” (emphasis mine)

We are sinners. We are not worthy of Christ’s sacrifice. We are not worthy of life. We are worthy of death.

Romans 6.23 – “For the wages of sin is death…”

The only thing we are worthy of is death. But I feel a strong resistance when I see the first half of Romans 6.23 written without the second half. There is a comma. I think that is meant to allow us to pause and drink in the punishment of justice we deserve. The second half of the sentence is there for a reason, though. It is meant to go with the first.

Romans 6.23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The FREE GIFT. We did not earn it, but He still gave it. We are not worthy of it. So why did God choose to give us this free gift? In Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, John Piper gives an excellent explanation:

“There is only one explanation for God’s sacrifice for us. It is not us. It is “the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1.7). It is all free. It is not a response to our worth. It is the overflow of his infinite worth. In fact, that is what divine love is in the end: a passion to enthrall undeserving sinners, at great cost, with what will make us supremely happy forever, namely, his beauty.”

John 3.16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

We have established that we are not worthy of Christ’s sacrifice, of redemption, or of life. So what about the verses that tell us to walk worthy of the Lord?

Philippians 1.27 – “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ…”

Colossians 1.10 – “…to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord…”

If we are unworthy, how to we walk worthy? Only through the Lord.

2 Thessalonians 1.11-12 – “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”