Loved Because Valuable, or Valuable Because Loved?

There’s a song that plays on Christian radio that I just can’t stand.  It’s not that the entire song is horrible; it’s just that there’s a line in there that makes me grimace in pain every time I hear it.  It says (talking to Jesus), “‘Cause you would rather die than to ever live without me.”  Uggh!  That idea just irks me!  To me it says, “I’m so wonderful, so valuable, so lovely that Jesus just couldn’t stand the thought of life without me, and it was worth going through hell for him to have the prize which is me!”  I hope that’s not what the songwriter had in mind, but that’s what it conveys to me.  It conveys the attitude that Jesus loves me and desires me because I am inherently valuable.  There’s something in me that is so wonderful that it’s worth more than the life of God’s Son.  I am loved by God because I am valuable.

There are some other songs that I actually enjoy that say things like, “I am nothing without you [God],” and “I try to be good enough, but I’m nothing without your love.”  That last phrase, especially, got me thinking a little bit.  I started thinking about why things are considered valuable.  Take gold, for instance.  Well, don’t actually take it unless it belongs to you, because if you do you’ll be in big trouble.  Why?  Because gold is very valuable!  But why is gold valuable?  It’s just heavy, shiny yellow metal.  Who decided way back when that the metal gold had great worth?  On what basis did they decide that?  Because it’s heavy?  Because it’s pretty?  The fact is that there’s nothing inherently valuable about gold.  It is only valuable because human society has assigned value to it.  What if you took a trunkload of pure gold to a culture where old socks were considered of great value, but gold was not even noticed?  All your gold would be worthless, but your socks might make you rich!  Material things on this earth have value only to the degree they are desired or loved by people.  Gold is not loved because it is valuable, it is valuable because it is loved.

I think it’s the same with us and God.  God doesn’t love me because I’m inherently valuable; rather, I am valuable because God loves me!  It’s not that he would rather die than live without me because I’m so inherently wonderful he couldn’t stand the thought of eternity away from my presence; rather, it is that his loving me makes me a thing of worth.  I am nothing without his love.  Isaiah 40:15-17 says:

¹⁵Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. ¹⁶Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. ¹⁷All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

Also consider Daniel 4:34-35, which reads as follows:

For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; ³⁵all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

In and of myself, I am–like all the other inhabitants of the earth–nothing.  Indeed, less than nothing!  Yet God chose to pour out his love on this pathetic piece of nothingness, and that makes me something special.  I’m still nothing in myself (so I cannot boast in me), but in Christ I am an adopted child of the Most High God, heir to everything he has to give, which is . . . well, everything!  I have been raised with Christ and seated in the heavenlies with him.  I will reign with him in his kingdom.  I will shine like the stars of heaven.  I will one day be glorified with him, rejoicing forever as living proof of his glorious grace.  Oh, I have great value!  Not because I am inherently valuable, but because I am loved by the Supreme One.  And all who are recipients of his redeeming love become vessels of honor.  I am valuable because I am loved by God!