Are We Worthless?

Michael Spencer October 12th, 2009

Neal, a Christian twenty-something struggling with his faith, says "I know I'm worthless and all that, and that Jesus died for me anyway."

Skip the rest of the conversation. Go back to that word "worthless." "I know I'm worthless…"

Stifle your desire to start an apologetics lecture or otherwise instruct Neal in how to be a great Christian.

Think with me: where did he get the idea that he is "worthless?"

Wait, is someone saying "Well….isn't that sort of what we believe? Compared to God we're worthless."

Listen there Bob- compared to God everything other than God is worthless. If you want to think on that level I'll let you go tell Neal we have nothing for him because we agree, he's worthless. Have a nice day.

What I want to know- and I want to know this about everything in my faith- is whether we learn from Jesus that we are "worthless?" Is that the message that comes to us in the incarnation? In the actions, teaching and life of Jesus? Does Jesus agree with Neal's assessment of Christianity as "we're worthless" and "Jesus died for us?"

What's that Bob? If we start saying that we have any value, we'll soon lose the Gospel because God has to sing us songs about how wonderful we are and he just wouldn't be complete and happy without us. Doesn't that mess with the Gospel fairly seriously?

I'll agree to a point. The Gospel isn't sentimental. I don't think we need God turning into a thirteen year old girl with a crush; into someone telling us "you complete me." Wrong turn.

What I want to know is if the lost sheep, that one, stupid, wandering lost sheep, was "worthless?"

Was the prodigal son "worthless?" Was the tax collector asking for God's mercy "worthless?"

The woman caught in adultery felt worthless and the crowd had the rocks to cast their votes, but Jesus gave her worth. Mercy, compassion, love and worth.

Did he want her to walk away feeling worthless?

When the women and the apostle John stood at the cross, they saw the ugliness of sin and the greatness of God's love. Did they feel worthless?

God's love does something incredible. It gives those without worth a worth that nothing can measure. It isn't the worth of their own worthiness and value. It is the worth measured only in the love of the one who loves you.

I often feel like junk. The love of my family makes me feel valuable. Not in a way that makes me arrogant, but in a way that gives me worth and humility at the same time.

That's the love of God in the Gospel. Our creation as persons made in God's image gives us worth. Our status as rebels amounts to our rejection of the value God places on us. God's justice measures us as worthy of eternal punishment. God's love, gospel and grace gives us worth measured in the precious blood and sacrifice of Christ.

Neal isn't worthless, but his worth doesn't come from within himself or out of himself. His worth comes from God whose loves comes with dignity, adoption, forgiveness, justification and blessing. We are adopted and given a new name. Not because of what we are, but because of what God sees in us through the eyes of his son.

The Gospel gives worth without pride, and teaches us who we are in the love of God.

Our "worthlessness" is the cup into which God pours his greatest gift: his own son, Jesus.

Michael Spencer, aka The Internet Monk, blogs at the top-rated www.internetmonk.com and has a book coming out next year pretty much guaranteed to hack off religious people. Especially if he can get Steve Brown to endorse it.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 9:52 am and is filed under Christianity, Church, Faith, God, Grace, InternetMonk.com, Jesus, Jesus Shaped Spirituality, Michael Spencer, Religion and Spirituality, The Cross, The Internet Monk, Value. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.