Why should you feel worthless?
As a fifteen-year-old, I began lifeguarding at our local community center. Sitting by the pool, twirling a whistle, and getting a tan were great aspects of the job! But it wasn’t all fun and games. We were responsible for the health and safety of hundreds of people.
After guarding for a few summers, I was appointed Assistant Manager. I was over the staff, two pools, a pool house, refreshment stand, and acres of baseball and soccer fields.
With all this to manage, I felt important. And yet, this “prestigious” position did not give me significance or worth.
The Apostle Paul puts it this way: “we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look.” (2 Corinthians 5:16a, MSG)
In our world, the tendency is to define our worth by our accomplishments. Robert McGee says it this way in Search for Significance: “Separated from God and His Word, people have only their abilities and the opinions of others on which to base their worth, and the circumstances around them ultimately control the way they feel about themselves.” (p. 20)
When we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ, we are brought into an entirely new system of evaluation. McGee continues, “As marvelous as it is, justification means more than forgiveness of sins. In the same act of love through which God forgave our sins, He also provided for our righteousness, the worthiness to stand in God’s presence. By imputing righteousness to us, God attributes Christ’s worth to us.” (p. 42)
Why should you, or anyone, feel worthless when Christ became sin for us so that, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God? (See 2 Corinthians 5:21)
Biblically, we don’t work hard to accomplish our worth. At multiple points, Jesus warned against self-righteousness (see Luke 18:9-14 for example). We are attributed (imputed) with the worth of Christ and His righteousness in place of our sin. It is from this standpoint of being reconciled to God (justified—see Romans 5:1) that we can go out and serve freely. It is from this position of being legally declared righteous and restored in right relationship to our heavenly Father, that the Apostle John said, “Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.” (1 John 3:7, ESV)
In the chapters leading up to 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul tells us the following: it is God who makes us competent (sufficient) as ministers of the new covenant (2 Cor. 3:4-6). In fact, this ministry is more glorious and permanent than the ministry Moses had (2 Cor. 3:7-18)! He then says that we are entrusted with the ministry of the gospel, no matter what life throws our way (2 Corinthians 4).
The gospel is a ministry of reconciliation. “That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:19-20, ESV)
I recently met a man with more personal resources than I could ever imagine. He was showing us around his newly rebuilt, custom home in the bend of a river on one of the best fishing holes in the area. Then, he showed us his garage, full of motorized toys that reminded him of great adventures.
But do you know when his face lit up and there was pride in his voice? It was when he talked about his children and what they were doing in life. This was especially true when he spoke about his son. Walking in Dad’s footsteps, he was responsible for a multi-million-dollar construction job at only 19-years-old!
When I was 19, I had to organize a guarding schedule and make sure the kids got their root beer barrels and cow tails from the snack shop. There certainly weren’t millions of dollars on the line.
Based on the world’s false system of importance, his son was much more successful than me at 19 years old. But according to Christ, the difference is righteousness or unrighteousness, not money or success. Our worth comes from Christ and is found in our relationship with God, our Father. And we have the incredibly significant job of introducing people to Christ, altering their eternal destination.
Dear Saints, no matter what your work is or how it looks on the outside, you have been given worth and a significant responsibility to fulfill. I encourage you to align your view of yourself with God’s evaluation of you in Christ.