The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"We Matter"
Value is measured by how much one is willing to pay for a desired thing.
"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (I Peter 1:18-19).
Do we know this, as the Apostle Peter affirms? Certainly, to some degree, every born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ possesses an innate sense and understanding that we matter to God beyond comprehension. We do not know it enough, however. The price paid for our redemption tells us that. God purchased us by "the precious blood of Christ," meaning He values us no less than the lifeblood of His beloved Son. No more humbling thought can grace our hearts. Indeed, grace is the issue. Only a God full of unmerited favor could look upon a fallen human race in such terms. "We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7).
Consider Jonathan's son Mephibosheth. Crippled from early in childhood, he possessed no worth according to the mores of his day. "What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?" (II Samuel 9:8). King David, however, valued Mephibosheth because of who he was in relationship to his father, Jonathan. David found and blessed the broken man because of how dearly he viewed his friend Jonathan. "And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" (II Samuel 9:1). Mephibosheth feasted at the king's table for a lifetime because his value rested not in himself, but rather in the merits of his father.
Viewing ourselves as valuable to God rests solely on the basis of the Lord Jesus. He paid precious blood for us. He made precious our hearts by inhabiting them with His living presence when we believed. God forever views us through the price remitted by His Son, and by the living temple of Christ we are, made possible by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The issue then, as it is always does, involves the Lord Jesus and His centrality to God and to ourselves. We bear "the unsearchable riches of Christ." We are "accepted in the Beloved." We are "in Christ," and Christ is "in us" (Ephesians 3:8; 1:6; II Timothy 1:14). Such grace of a price paid by blood and a heart inhabited by the Spirit constitutes every believer in terms of significance based on the Savior.
Again, such truth first humbles us. It then strengthens our hearts to remember and affirm that regardless of how others view us, or even how we view ourselves, God sees as the the living temple of His Son. We must join Him in the estimation and evaluation. "Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11). We matter. We matter to God, as confirmed by the Blood shed and the Spirit indwelling. We also matter to other people, who need us to walk in the humility and confidence made possible solely by the Treasure possessed in our earthen vessel (II Corinthians 4:7). Having therefore knelt with Mephibosheth in wonder through God's grace, let us arise to walk the faith that affirms our worth, as based on the Savior. Thereby, we will matter in God's purposes, and we will matter in the lives of others.
"Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
(I Corinthians 6:20)
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
(I Corinthians 3:16)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." (Psalm 116:15)
6239
No comments:
Post a Comment