I saw this statement earlier today: “My worth to God in public is what I am in private.” With all due respect, since I am not exactly sure where the person was originally intending with this statement, I whole-heartedly disagree with this statement with every fiber of my being. Our worth [or value] to God is based on nothing (absolutely nothing!) else than the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to pay what we could not pay for our sin, to forever take away our filthy unrighteousness, and in exchange, to give us His own righteousness as our worth/value.
But, perhaps you will say that such saying like this motivates you to live more godly in your private life. True, it might motivate you. But, it won’t change you. God’s Word is very clear that it is only the Holy Spirit that can change you inside out in a way that is truly befitting of God’s heart for the kind of holiness he desires from us. Anything else is a change on the surface at best. So if there is any motivation I can give you, then I would say: Be convicted by the Holy Spirit, “run” to the Holy Spirit for help, surrender and rely on the Holy Spirit and enjoy the Holy Spirit.
Joy out of repentance based on the lavish grace of the Cross, trust and dependency on the Holy Spirit, and hope in Christ. These are the sources of true transformation and holiness. The Gospel is consisted of these; our worth is consisted of these. It is not our efforts, our good works or our motivational talk that determines how much we are worth to God, but Jesus and Jesus alone.
Here is what the Bible says is the worth of everyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ through grace alone:
John 15:15 - We are His friends
John 1:12 - We are His children
Romans 8:17 - We are fellow heirs with Christ
Jude 1:1 – We are His beloved
Revelation 21:2 – We are the “Bride of Christ”
As Apostle Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 15:10,
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
Amen and amen.
