How Much Are You Worth?

Gene and I bought a home in Guam, the largest purchase of our married life up to that point. We agreed on a purchase price of $75,000 with the seller of a typhoon-secure, concrete, 900-square-foot house on a third of an acre of land in the village of Talofofo. Our agreement was profitable for buyer and seller considering the needs of both at that time. To us, it was “worth the price” we paid.

On the job, our salary or wages per hour are a measure of how much we are worth to our employer. Our time, our attention, our “blood, sweat, and tears”—all are often evaluated in monetary terms. A nephew offers to donate a kidney to his aunt after counting the “cost” to himself. A young dancer aspires to be a prima ballerina and her father says to her, “OK, but are you willing to pay the price?” meaning, it may take years of dedication and hard work before realizing a return on that investment.

To “pay the price” means to give of oneself, one’s life. When given freely, in love, without strings attached and completely for the benefit of others, it signifies a devotion of life based in part or in whole on serving the one, true God.

But I can’t do it on my own! Why? Because I can’t generate what I need on my own. This can only be done when the foundation of my life is the Lord Jesus Christ and not my own efforts or resources.

He didn’t seek his own glory and try to do it himself. He trusted in his heavenly Father to provide him with all the spiritual strength, true wisdom, and physical sustenance he needed to pay the price for our redemption. He “gloried” in his sole dependency on God, his Father.

Jeremiah 9:23,24:
Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

Jesus Christ, of his own free will, chose to pay the greatest price that God’s love could require of a man.

John 10:17,18:
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

John 15:13:
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

He chose to lay down his life in service to carry out the will of his Father moment by moment, even unto death, to accomplish the work of our salvation. Yet, he hadn’t met a one of us! And those he knew and loved, by an ordinary man’s judgment, didn’t appear all that worthy of dying for.

Romans 5:6-8:
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

You can see why Jesus had to completely trust in the love of his heavenly Father to pay the legal price for sin, to lay down his life for us. When Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of the world unto the Father (John 13:1), his closest disciples showed their frailty and inability to stand with him through his darkest hours on earth.

Looking at such records in the Bible, we can understand more fully the extreme suffering that our lord alone endured for us.

• Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, demonstrating his pure self-sacrifice from a heart filled with God’s love for them by performing the lowliest service in their culture (John 13:4-17). Yet around this same time, the twelve were arguing over who would be the greatest among them! (Luke 22:24-30)

• Jesus extended to Judas honor and love when he offered him the sop (given to the most cherished guest) at the last supper. Jesus had also washed his feet, and shared in the bread and wine of holy communion with him. In spite of his master’s love, Judas continued down his tortuous path to betray Jesus. (Matthew 26:14-16,21-25,47-50; Mark 14:10,11,18-21,42-45; Luke 22:3-6,21-23,47,48; John 13:2,11,26-31; 18:2-5)

• Jesus asked Peter, James, and John to accompany and support him in prayer as he prepared to pay the price: to finish his work by facing imminent trials, torture, and death. Under this extreme spiritual pressure and sorrow, all three failed to keep watch with him. (Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:40-46)

• Jesus’ most ardent but often unstable follower, Peter, claimed he was willing to lay down his life for his lord. (Matthew 26:33-35; Luke 22:33; John 13:37) But not much later, Peter denied that he even knew Jesus. (Matthew 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:55-62; John 18:15-18; 25-27)

• Jesus was arrested, and most of his disciples scattered. (Matthew 26:31; 27:55,56; Mark 15:40,41; Luke 23:49; John 16:32)

We may be tempted to look critically on Jesus’ disciples as failures, when we see their often meager or misguided attempts to follow him. But if we see them as he did, from a heart filled with God’s love, they will look to us “as sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36), and we will note their great need for a savior.

How much was Jesus worth to Israel from the worldly point of view of the chief priests and elders? Thirty pieces of silver.

Matthew 26:15:
And [Judas] said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

Matthew 27:9:
And they [chief priests and elders] took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value.

The words “price”, “valued”, and “value” in Matthew 27:9 are forms of the Greek word timē, meaning cost, value, or worth. Of what little worth was the Son of God to these men of the earth, the lowest price for a slave, that they might have him put to death!

Jesus did not allow himself to be discouraged, threatened, or swayed by others. He counted the cost to himself, and determined to pay the price for us because he trusted God. He believed that when his work was done, his Father would raise him from the dead in complete victory over sin and death, bringing salvation to all who would believe on his name. Jesus Christ paid the highest price so that we might have God’s free gift of eternal life. This price far more than silver or gold—it is priceless.

Romans 6:23:
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God has proven how much we are worth to Him by the full and complete sacrifice of His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. (I Corinthians 6:19; 7:23) Having received God’s free gift, how should we then live?

What if we no longer try to prove our “worth” by our own works? How about we put off the old man and his deeds as the believers did in Ephesus? They responded to God’s immeasurable love by ridding themselves of spiritual baggage (books about “curious arts” and magic that today would be worth about $240,000).

Acts 19:19:
Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price [timē] of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

As children of the most high God, brothers and sisters in Christ, we can follow Jesus’ example of love for each other.

Ephesians 5:2:
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

I John 3:16:
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he [Jesus Christ] laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Romans 12:10:
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour [timē] preferring one another.

John 13:34,35:
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

How will the world know that we are disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God? That we follow him who paid the highest price for us, that we might know and experience the Father’s supreme love? Simply by our lives and the love we have for one another. Jesus gave us his example of trusting the Father alone to be his sufficiency.

We need not be discouraged by those (including ourselves) who rely on their own works to prove their worth. We can love one another, preferring one another because we are each of the highest worth to God!