What Is Your Value?
by Joe Leavell
Photo by Artem Beliaikin
How Much is a Coke Worth?
I remember visiting a museum recently and stopped by the vending machine to pick up something to drink so that we could have a bottle handy as we viewed the exhibits.
Four dollars for a 20 oz. drink?! Are you nuts?! There’s no way I’m paying that price when I could just go to my local gas station and pick up a 44oz for a buck!
But I wasn’t at the convenience store was I? The museum knew this and made sure there weren’t any other options. I had to be willing to pay the higher price if I wanted the drink. No problem, I’ll just hit the drinking fountain and pick something up later.
And of course, the drinking fountain is broken.
That was the most expensive vending machine drink I think I’ve ever bought! I still feel the stain on my sense of principle.
Determining The Price
Think about the value of a bottle of Coke for a moment. If you took that same Coke product you get out of the fountain machine at the gas station and put it into a glass bottle do you think you would get the same amount of coke for the same price?
Nope. The price of that same product that you got in a 44-ounce container has gone up considerably and you even get a lot less to drink! If you think my vending machine purchase was high, try purchasing a Coke at the movies or at a sporting event and see how much it will cost you!
Same product. Different prices depending on what we’re willing to pay.
You see, the way pricing of the value of a product is directly dependent on the value that we the consumer place on it. The Coke at the sporting event is higher because stadiums have said that you can’t bring in outside beverages. So if you want a Coke, you have to pay the price. A Coke at the gas station is cheaper because there are convenience stores all over the place so they have to lower the price to get your attention.
The Value of a Soul
So how about you? How much are you, as a person, worth? How valuable is the human soul?
If you listen only to the culture, you could get the sense that some people are so valuable that they should practically be an object of your worship! At the same time, our society communicates to others who are marginalized or abused that their lives are completely insignificant. These, they are told, are a cheap commodity.
We put great value on a celebrity, athletes, wealthy entrepreneurs, and not so much value on others. We especially do not value the unborn, the sick, the disabled, the poor and marginalized, or the elderly. Children and women are abused and mistreated, and in many portions of the world, there are people who are still living without even the basic needs of clean water, food, shelter, and clothing.
As an example, I remember reading a moving article about a four-year-old little girl who was so badly abused that when the police found her she had a black eye, swollen cheeks, and blood on her mouth. So mistreated was this precious little girl that when the police asked her for her name, she responded,
“My name is Idiot.”
It was the only name she had ever heard screaming into her ears to the point that she truly had no idea that she had the possibility of another name.
What is Your Value?
Remember that the value of a Coke is not simply determined by the drink itself, but by what someone is willing to pay to obtain it.
So what is your value? Does it depend on how others treat you on any given day or is there someone who has ascribed even more value to you?
You and I were created by God in His image as the apex of His creation. Yet when we walked away from Him, we cast aside any meaningful value that we possessed from our creation.
Because of His great love for us, He still ascribed to us value.
How much? A $1.98 that He found in loose change? Nope.
Did He get us on a steal at a garage sale? Nope.
1 Peter 1:18-19 says it this way,
“Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
He did not give the lowest amount but the highest price He could possibly pay: the life of His own Son in exchange for ours.
In Jesus’ death on the cross, the price for our redemption from eternal death was paid in full! In rising from the dead, He took full possession of the resurrection, which one day we who have trusted in Him will also fully enjoy with Him.
If the value of a Coke is measured by what someone is willing to pay for it, think through the value ascribed to us by God when he gave His most precious Son for our redemption. No greater price could have been paid for us, which means that for the redeemed in Christ, we are of infinite value and cherished as precious by God Himself. Your identity and value then is immeasurable in Christ.
Was it because of how cool we are, how attractive, or popular we are that makes us valuable to God? Is it because of all the good works we can do for Him that He would cherish our lives? No, Scripture teaches that while we were still in our sin, Christ died for us.
He valued us at our worst so that we would not measure ourselves by our performance but by His love.
As D.A. Carson once said,
“God loves you not because you are attractive in any way but because it is His nature to love.”
Your life is to be treasured as vitally important, not because you perform, not because you look or dress a certain way, or even because you have important connections and money. Your life is not less important because you may not have those things. You are valuable because God is willing to rescue you from eternal death with His own blood in order to redeem you to Himself forever!
God ascribes so much value in you that He knows the number of the very hairs on your head. For guys who are bald like me, that many not seem like a great statistic, but what is Jesus communicating? That if God takes interest to notice to count your very hairs, how much value and worth you must have to Him!
No matter how you are treated in this life, no matter what you think of yourself or what you’ve done, in those moments when you think that your life is insignificant and unimportant, remember that with outstretched arms at the cross, Jesus demonstrated just how valuable you really are to Him.
Your life matters!
