Merry Christmas, dearly loved!

JESUS IS the Son of God!  But what else is He?  JESUS IS the Word made flesh.  JESUS IS the fulfillment of prophecy.  JESUS IS  your teacher, preacher, and healer.  JESUS IS your gift from God.  JESUS IS the measure of your wealth.  JESUS IS the measure of your strength.  JESUS IS the measure of your ability.  And JESUS IS the measure of your worth.  JESUS IS all of this and so much more.

In Mathew 13:44-46, JESUS gives some very interesting examples of what the kingdom of God is like.  He likens it to a man finding treasure in a field and then selling all he has to buy the field.  He also said the kingdom of God is like a pearl merchant who finds a uniquely valuable one and sells all he has to purchase it.  This is similar to the parable found in Luke 15.  JESUS first talks about going to find one lost sheep, and the joy of finding it.

JESUS tells us we’re worth paying the highest price imaginable ~ everything!  You are worth His very life.  He paid the costliest price for you!

JESUS IS the measure of your worth.  He set your worth as the price of His Own life when He paid for you by dying.  And remember, the price paid determines the value.

So many people don’t understand the worth JESUS set on their lives by the price He paid.  They think poorly of themselves, of their worth.  They see the field and think it’s not worth it.  They see the pearl, and they can’t imagine why the guy paid everything for it.  They don’t understand the worth.  They don’t understand that the treasure hidden beneath the surface made selling everything worth it to the guy who bought the field.  They don’t see what he saw, the deep treasure that made every penny worth spending.  

Your lives are worth so much more than the world tells you.  The willingness of JESUS giving His life as the price for our redemption is the worth JESUS puts on you.

There is a hidden treasure within you ~ the very image of God looking out from your eyes, walking around in your skin.  The treasure within you was worth it to Him.  There’s a priceless beauty within you that He saw and recognized long before you were even born, before you took your first step or ever did anything, good or bad.  JESUS, being able to look into your heart, your hidden depths, saw the buried treasure.

You are the most beautiful thing He has ever seen and ever will see.  How can that be?  It is because to the Father, you look just like JESUS.  And because of the beautiful, precious treasure that He sees when He looks at you, He declared, “You’re worth it!”  He paid the highest price for you!  

JESUS called your worth ~ the significance of a right relationship between you and your Father ~ worth dying for.  He recognized that restoring you to God was worth the ultimate price.  It was worth the stripes on His back, the nails in His hands and feet.  You were worth the crown of thorns!  JESUS is the measure of your worth.

What you’ve accomplished or what you’ve failed at isn’t the measure; how pretty you started or the scars you’ve picked up aren’t the measure.  His blood is the measure of your worth.

That’s Who JESUS IS!  JESUS IS the measure of your worth!

Praising the FATHER for JESUS,

Lisa Gordon

Assistant Pastor

Jesus City Church