Is Anything Worth More?
I recently read a story about a man who was giving his son a watch that was given to him by his father. The watch was over 200 years old. But before the son could have it for good...
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:24–26, NLT)
Worth vs. Value
I recently read a story about a man who was giving his son a watch that was given to him by his father. The watch was over 200 years old. But before the son could have it for good, he wanted him to go to the jewelry store to see how much it was worth.
“They offered $100 because it is so old,” the son said as he returned from the store.
The father then said, “Take it to the Pawn Shop; see how much they offer.”
“$20 is all they offered because it has a scratch on it,” the son said when he returned from the shop.
“Now, take the watch to the museum,” the father said.
Although the son thought that a museum would not be a place to sell a watch, he reluctantly went and showed the timepiece to the Curator.
“Exquisite!” The Curator said. “I’ll offer you $375,000 for it and place it in our rare and precious antique collection.”
When the son came to the father and told him the good news, the father said, “I wanted you to see that very few people can see true value. There are those in the world that will not recognize your value and will despise you and think that you are worthless. But there is One who values you beyond what you could ever imagine because He sees what you are worth.”
I heard a pastor explain the concept of the value of a human soul. He said that we are incapable of earning our salvation. That can only happen through the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, as far as salvation is concerned, we are worthless. But as far as the created being that God has made, our value is incalculable. God made us. He loves us. He died for us. We are valuable.
When speaking about the cost of discipleship, Jesus says that we must be willing to “give up our own way, take up [our] cross, and follow [Him].” This is the first, and most important step. We must crucify the flesh in order to follow Christ. Otherwise, we are doing little more than following our selfish desires while masking them with religious garb. If the flesh isn’t crucified, then the “old man” is still alive and, well, in charge.
We must take the first step
and die to self.
The second step is
to let it die.
We cannot try and save our soul. We must not see it on its last leg, grasping for breath and do fleshly CPR and revive it. The second we do, we will begin to live fleshly but die spiritually. If we hold on too tight, we’ll lose everything.
Therefore, the only thing to do is let it die. The process is difficult. The flesh wants to live. It is has been in control and kicking for a long time. The thing is, all the flesh offers, pleasure, possessions, money, power…etc., it can deliver, albeit, for a limited amount of time. It cannot satisfy the soul, but it lives to try. When we get all the flesh has promised and look back, we see that our souls are lacking. Everything we have has no value or worth.
It is interesting that in the context of losing your soul to gain a satisfying life, Jesus makes a statement that can easily get overlooked. We talk about taking up the cross and about losing our soul, but we rarely talk about its worth. Jesus asks a pertinent question:
“Is anything worth more
than your soul?”
Who is valuing the soul here? Is the question, “Isn’t your soul worth more to you than all the power, possession, and position in the world?” Or is He saying, “Is anything worth as much as your soul is to Me?” That is an interesting quandary. The literal ancient Greek says, in essence, “Life is so valuable, what would someone give in exchange for it?”
The story of the watch at the beginning is important because it highlights different views of the value of the watch. To someone that didn’t know better, the watch was worthless. But to the one who knew its value, it was precious. So often, we discard our own value. We are like the Jewelry store that sees nothing but a worn-out tent. We may care a little and place a tiny fraction of our value on ourselves. The world is like the Pawn Shop who sees a damaged bag of bones and places less value on us than we do ourselves. But then Jesus comes to us and says, “I want you. You are worth so much to me I am ready to spend an enormous amount, my precious blood, on you. I want to showcase you and use you to glorify my name in that once you were lost, you were valueless, but now, you are beloved!”
It takes humility to find our true value. We must give up our own way in order to find the best way. When we do, we find out that we have great worth to God. He makes us valuable. Never think of God’s creation as junk. You have been washed in the blood of Jesus. You are clean. True, the process of sanctification takes time. We are being transformed daily into the likeness of Jesus. We still make mistakes. Don’t let the enemy keep you down and lie to you about your worth to God. Those of us who follow Christ are valuable to Him. Don’t ever forget that.
What would you exchange for your soul?
Is anything worth more?
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