What's Your Value?
I have a bike I'm trying to sell. It's brand new and never used -- so to me, it's worth exactly what I paid for it (about four hundred dollars). But to a complete stranger, it's old and "used," so it's probably only worth about three hundred dollars. I've resold many items in my lifetime, including books, DVDs, video games, and comics. And what I've come to understand is that something is only as valuable as what someone else is willing to pay for it. I could tell you that I own a hard-to-find collectible that's worth hundreds of dollars, but if the only buyer I can find is not willing to pay more than twenty-five bucks for it, it's only worth twenty-five bucks.
In the same way, a human life is only as valuable as what someone will pay for it. Couples pay twenty thousand dollars to adopt or artificially conceive a child. Wealthy relatives pay millions to ransom their kidnapped loved ones. And an individual will make any payment required to get the surgery he needs to stay alive. In fact, there's probably no more valuable object in this universe than a human life.
But the world sometimes forgets this and puts the value of selfish comfort, business, natural resources, land, and politics above human life -- which has been the cause of wars and bloodshed throughout history. In these cases, human life doesn't really seem valuable at all. It seems that life is valued on a relative scale. Sometimes it's of value, and sometimes it's worthless. Is there any way to know for sure the value of life?
I believe so. Again, the value of something is based on how much someone is willing to pay for it. One Man paid the ultimate price in order to save the lives of many.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to Earth in human form in order to live a perfect life, die a physical death, and pay the ultimate spiritual price of receiving God's wrath upon himself, so that you and I could be freed from the penalty of our sins and live eternally with Him in Heaven.
In John 3:16, it says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." It says in Romans 5:8 that, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Don't miss what that verse in Romans says... "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." That means when we were still hostile towards God and religion and couldn't care less about Jesus, He still died for us.
Do you want to know what your value is? While the people you walk past in the mall, or the people driving on the highway beside you, or even the country's government all seem to see you as nothing more than an obstacle, nuisance, or money source, there is Someone who values you above His own life. As unlovely as you and I feel each day, there is Someone who loves you immensely -- a Friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). Jesus loves you, even when others don't.
You are more valuable than you know. Jesus didn't die for a political cause, or to acquire land, wealth, resources, or power. Jesus died for you. So that you could live.
You're that valuable.