Priceless

Verse: 1 Peter 1:18-19
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Series: 1 Peter

Devotion
I recently purchased a used car for our family. I bought it from a private seller that I saw on Facebook. Here’s my question: how did we determine the value of the car? We looked on Kelly Blue Book to see what the value of a car like it should be. Was that the value? He proposed several values—were any of those the value? Then I counter-proposed lesser values—were any of those the true value? We went back and forth a few times, the value changing every time. So, in the end, do you know what determined the value?

The value of the car was what I was willing to pay for it. That’s it. In the end it didn’t matter what websites or experts said. What mattered was the actual money I was willing to pay, and he was willing to accept, for the car.

1 Corinthians 6:20 tells us that we have been “bought at a price.” If that is true, let’s use the same method to determine our value. Our value should be whatever the person who bought us was willing to pay, right? Peter says that we are so valuable that we actually were too valuable to be purchased with gold or silver. No, the price that God was willing to pay for you, and for me, was the perfect blood of Christ. The life of his one and only Son.

If you ever start to think badly about yourself, to doubt your value, to wonder if God could possibly love you with all your flaws, to struggle with seeing yourself as less than other people—I would encourage you to remember this verse. Hear this: there is nothing more valuable in all of creation than the blood of Jesus. When God looks at you he thinks that you are valuable enough for him to spend his ultimate resource, his prized possession if you will, the highest price he could ever pay.

The lesson here really is that it is impossible to put a “value” on you, because in God’s eyes, you are priceless.

Let that truth sink into your heart today. Allow yourself to know, at a deep level, that you are loved and deeply valued by God. Allow yourself to embrace the truth that you are of utmost value, more than you really could ever conceive of. And allow that understanding of the truth dispel the lies that would tell you otherwise.

Prayer
Speak to my heart, God, the truth of how deeply you and love and value me today.

Author: Christian Dunn