How God Calculates the Value of Life

Sanctity of Life Sunday

Prayer -  

Heavenly Father, we thank You that we can gather in Your House today. We thank You that You are all powerful, we thank You for Your forgiveness, we thank You for touching our lives with Your power and the power of the Holy Spirit. We thank You that You care enough about us to speak to us and that You caused the Bible to be written so that we would know what is on Your heart and mind. And Heavenly Father, as we read these passages from Scripture, may your Holy Spirit touch our lives and give us understanding and wisdom that only You can give; help us to understand what You are saying to us this morning.   And we pray this in the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Scripture Readings –

The first reading from the Book of Isaiah is the classic Old Testament passage that talks about Jesus Christ going to the cross, dying and paying for our sins. That’s why we can proclaim to you this morning that all your sins are forgiven - Christ paid for them.

Old Testament – Isaiah 53:4-6   Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

The Epistle lesson for today is taken from a version of the Bible called God’s Word to the Nations. The Bible talks again and again and again that God is our Redeemer and on Easter Sunday we sing, “I know that my Redeemer Lives”. One of the things I’ve noticed over my years in ministry is that when you ask people the meaning of “redeemed”, they can’t give you an answer. In the Biblical sense “Redeemed” means to rescue someone by paying a price and the God’s Word to the Nations version puts that thought so well. Christ, Our Redeemer, paid the price for us.

Epistle – Galatians 3:10-14 There is a curse on all who depend on doing what the Law says, because it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the Law.” It is clear that no one is justified (declared righteous) before God by doing what the Law says, because the just (righteous person) will live by faith. But the Law is not based on faith; rather, it says: “the person who does these things will find life in them.” Christ paid the price to free us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (cross).” He redeemed us so that in Jesus Christ the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations, and that we by believing might receive the promised Spirit.

Why would Jesus pay for us? Because, as Jesus said, “Greater love has no man but to give up his life for his friends”. And when you think about it, in our sin we are, in fact, enemies of God. But He still paid for us, He gave up His life for us.

Gospel – John 15:12-16  (The words of Jesus) My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

Sermon –

I have to show you what I brought in my bag this morning. I put it in a bag because I didn’t want to touch it and, in fact, I also brought tongs so I wouldn’t have to touch it. This thing I’m going to pull out of the bag is absolutely disgusting! (Pastor reached into the bag with his tongs)…Here it is - a worn, dirty, smelly, sweaty old athletic shoe! Does anyone want to touch it? Does anyone want to smell it? You don’t?? Well, it does look pretty bad!!!

And you may be interested in knowing that recently an athletic shoe like this one sold for over $4,000! And you know why? Because it belonged to Michael Jordan! It was just as worn out, just as dirty, just as smelly, just as old - and it sold for $4,000 -  all because it belonged to Michael Jordan!

Now there’s a very important principle at work here that we want to talk about on Sanctity of Life Sunday:

The value of something is not in the object

The value of something is in what someone is willing to pay for the object

The value of an athletic shoe is not in the shoe itself, it is in what someone is willing to pay for it. The value of this church building is not in the appraised value; the value is in what someone is willing to pay for it. And that’s exactly how God calculates the value of life, and we need to talk about this today on Sanctity of Life Sunday. The value of a person is not in who they are or what they have done; the value of a person in God’s eyes   is in how much He was willing to pay for them.

How much was God willing to pay for you? That’s your real value and that’s what our readings point out today. You are of such value to God that He was willing to pay for you and me with His life, with His suffering, with His death on the Cross to redeem us. He rescued us by paying the price with His life so that we could have forgiveness of sin, so that we could live with Him forever, and so that we would never be separated from Him. That’s how valuable your life is.

And that’s why, Biblically speaking, we are not real happy with abortion. Psalm 51:5 says, “Surely I was sinful from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me”; at the point of conception God is creating life,   that life is sinful and needs a Savior. That life is of such value that Jesus, the Holy Almighty God, paid with His life for the infant that is developing in the womb. Some might think that the child would be sinless and Jesus wouldn’t didn’t have to pay for the infant’s life. But sin is an inherited condition, passed from generation to generation; that child’s sin was passed on from his first parents, Adam and Eve and he or she needs a Savior. Jesus paid with his life for that child and that’s why the child has value.

And another way of looking at this is that if a child in the womb can die, that child is a sinner. Remember, death is caused by the fact that we are sinners; if human beings were without sin, there would be no death. God lives forever because He is without sin; He is eternal and lives forever. When you get to heaven, you also will live forever because you will be without sin. But if a person can die, they are sinful and need a Savior. That’s why we say that a child in the womb is of great value; Christ paid with His life for that child.

And for the person who has had an abortion or those who have been party to an abortion, know that you are of great value to God. Your value lies in the fact that Christ paid for you and all your sins, even the sin of abortion. God forgives sin and remembers them no more; they are gone because Christ paid for them.

At times you may feel that you are not of great value; maybe you don’t look like you want to look, maybe you are not as smart or as popular as you want to be; in fact maybe you are at the bottom of the barrel on everything you do and you feel that you are not of much value. But you are of great value because God paid with his life for you! Our value is not in who we are or what we do, our value is in what someone is willing to pay for you and God paid with His life for you. You are of great, great value.

As an example, suppose you work in the business world and are making $50,000 per year. In the earthly sense, you are worth $50,000. But if you should lose your job, your value in an earthly sense has gone down to zero. How do you live with that? If you know that Christ paid with His life for you, you know you are of incredible value. Or the person in a nursing home at the end of their life may think, “What good am I, what value am I?” They are of great value because God paid with His life for them.

Now, back to the athletic shoe that I brought this morning. If someone were willing to pay $4000 for this shoe, we would look at it really differently, it would really change our attitude, this shoe would become something of value. We would have an attitude change, we would guard it, we would protect it, and we wouldn’t dare throw it in the trash; great value would be attached to this shoe.

So think about those enemies you have in your life, and we all have enemies in one form or another. If you want a change in attitude, if you want to be able to live with your enemies, if you want to live so that your enemies don’t bug you anymore, look at them as a blood-bought soul of Jesus Christ. Christ paid for them just as He did you and me. When you do this, all of a sudden our attitude changes and we see that our enemies are of incredible value because Christ paid for them; all of a sudden dealing with our enemies becomes a little bit easier.

Are you having trouble forgiving someone? Well, to forgive them we need an attitude change. And how do we get that change? Look at that person that needs forgiveness as someone Christ paid for - because He did - He paid for them with His life. Then all of a sudden you can see that they are of great value to God, you can look at them differently, and it becomes easy to forgive them.

And looking at ourselves, for those days when you don’t know if you are worth anything to anybody because you have been pounded by life, by the people at work, or by your friends or relatives, just remember, you are of great value. Christ paid for you and that’s why we celebrate Sanctity of Life Sunday.

Prayer -  

Heavenly Father, thank You that You have made it clear in the Bible how You calculate the value of a life. Thank You that You were willing to pay for us and for every human being that has ever lived or ever will live. You paid for us with Your life. Thank You for rearranging our attitudes today and help us to guard, protect, forgive, and love others because You paid for them just as You paid for us. Thank You, Lord for what You’ve done. Thank You for being a great God.   And we pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.