What determines the value of something or someone? Commonly, we believe that intrinsic value is determined by what that object can offer you, but that's not always the case. More encompassing is the value someone else is willing to pay for a product or service regardless of what they get out of it.
The first time I ate lobster, I have to say that I was completely disappointed. Now, some of you may love it, and that's good, but I had expected to have tasted something extravagant only to find out a tough truth: it tasted exactly like shrimp, which where I'm from is at least a quarter the cost of lobster. And I started thinking, "People pay a fortune to eat this?"
But the truth is that they do, and it sells because value is not always limited to what something can offer, but what people are willing to pay for it. I also pay for things that people wouldn't put out a single dollar for. I pay a lot of money on a regular basis to run, which people would wish they would get paid to do. It doesn't matter if it's a two-dollar painting, if someone is willing to pay two million for it, then it's worth two million.
In so many ways, it's the same with us. We think of our flaws and weaknesses and think that, because of how imperfect, sinful and damaged we are, we're not worth much. People may have told you before that you amount to nothing or that you're worthless. You may be broken in many places, but your value is not rooted on that.
No matter how broken you are, there was someone willing to pay a steep price for your life. That price was no less than His own blood. Jesus took to the cross His righteousness and holiness as payment for us—sinful and wretched people who would never add up to the worth God paid for, but still here we are with the value God imputed on us.
Romans 5:7–8 tells us, "For 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" (ESV).
You may have been called cheap or made cheap by your own actions and words or the action and words of other people, but God doesn't think you're cheap. He thinks you're so valuable that He exchanged the unlimited and unfathomable intrinsic value of His son Jesus Christ for you, and you are now called to live in His worth, not yours.
