Happy Friday everyone, Ethan, a podcast listener in the Middle East sends us this email to ask

Pastor John.

Does the Bible say or imply that part of the message of the cross is our inherent value?

In other words, does the price paid to redeem us mean that we were worth it?

And if the cross tells believers about our value, what about those for whom Christ did

not die?

Are they less valuable?

What would you say to Ethan?

This kind of question has been around my entire adult life.

I've been responding to this question, I can remember back at Bethel, I've been responding

to this question for over 40 years.

And I've heard people say things like, if you want to see how much you are worth look

at the price God was willing to pay for you.

Or sometimes it comes in a little more ambiguous form, God don't die for trash.

Now the response that is needed for each of those kinds of statements is a little different,

but basically the same.

The Bible does not portray the cross of Christ as a display of the prior value of what He

purchased by it.

Just the opposite.

The cross is a display of the hopeless, undeserving, dirty, sinful, guilty, rebellious, corrupted,

mission of the people who were purchased.

The magnitude of Christ's sufferings is a measure, not of the magnitude of my worth,

...