Monday, June 11, 2012

Off of the Auction Block

How do we objectively determine the value of something? Only by whatever the highest bidder is willing to pay for it. For example, if I want to sell an item on Ebay for $100, but the most I can get someone to offer is $30 - then what does this tell me about the value of my item? It tells me its worth $30. No matter how sincerely I might believe it to be worth $100, the actual value is equivalent the highest bid. In other words, whatever the market will bear.

Let's apply this concept to who we are as human beings. The Bible says that God "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). This act of "giving" by God is elsewhere described in the Bible of an act of "redemption." The Biblical verb "to redeem" basically means "to purchase out of the slave market of sin." The picture God is painting is that at one time, each of us were on an "auction block" of sorts - being pimped out by our former slave-driver, Satan and his cohorts - the world-system and the flesh.

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). When Christ gave His life to redeem us from that slave-market, He was making some very loud statements - one of which was regardign our VALUE to God. I've heard preachers say that telling someone they are valuable to God is just a bunch of "pop-psychology". They say that people need to feel and know how wretched and disgusting they are in order to relate properly to God.

Make no mistake that the Bible is very straightforward about the fact that before we place our trust in Christ, we are identified as "sinners". This means that "sin" was the core of our identity and because of this sinful nature, our behavior often flowed out of that sinfulness. While that's not a pretty picture, its an honest one. But its against this very dark backdrop that we begin to really understand the love of God for what it is!

God does not love us in some theoretical or theological sense in which He merely tolerates our disgustingness. Rather, while we were STILL sinners - right in the mix of all our grime and guilt - God loved us completely. In fact, He loved us to the point that He would rather come and die than live without us for eternity! Now THAT'S love!

What is more, the very moment we place our trust in Christ He irreversibly washes away that "sin nature" and all the guilty deeds produced by it - re-creating us so that we become as righteous as Jesus Himself is! "God made Him who had not sin to BE sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God." (1 Cor. 5:21).

So let me get this straight: God loved me while I was still a sinner. He loved me so much that He shed His own blood for me on a cross. He crucified my old, sinful nature with Himself and created within me a brand new righteous nature at the core of who I am. He not only has forgiven my sin, but made me alive together with Christ.

Boy, if you don't think these realities say something about my value to God, I'm not sure we're reading the same Bible! The grace of God is NOT pop-psychology or empty self-esteem. It is the reality that God - out of sheer, undeserved kindness toward me - paid the highest price imaginable to redeem me as His own. Does this affect my self-esteem? Of course! But it's not a self-help program. It's a mission of redemption where the highest Bidder paid hte highest price to purchase me from the auction block of sin. And it reminds me of something that religion could never teach me: Jesus didn't come to make naughty people nice - He came to make dead people ALIVE!

Jesus is the highest Bidder! He won the war for my heart. And I have this life and all eternity to love Him for it! How about you? Where do you get your sense of value? From the fleeting opinions of men or the rock-solid redemptive price Jesus paid for you?