Worthy As We Are

How could anyone ever win today? There is always someone richer, more clever, with a better job, more popular, a new beauty standard- the people of today’s world are always competing. No one can take their eyes off the ball- you must constantly work to define your worth, by things that change unpredictably. I know before I was a Christian, I found it exhausting.

Because the world that brought me up taught me to always be comparing myself, after becoming a Christian I found I sometimes still looked at other people who seemed to be ‘better’ than me and thought God must be so much more impressed and pleased with them, surely?

In fact, no! We are all the same in front of God! There is no way I can hold God, who IS love, to the same standards as a world that nurtures insecurity, doubt, and jealousy! The beauty of Jesus dying for our sin is that we can’t ever say anyone is more deserving of that! We all stand completely unequal, (and so equal), before God! Saying someone is more worthy of God reduces what Jesus did on the cross for everyone, it reduces His righteousness if there are people more like Him, more deserving.

In Romans 3, Paul explains this, how there is ‘no difference’ between people, no one has any ‘advantage’ over anyone else to God. Reading this is incredible, but when you look at the author, even more so! Paul isn’t someone with a perfect godly past, this guy used to hate Christians! But Paul knows that nothing defines him at all, except what Jesus did. This grace, this love from God, wanted Paul so much that all the bad he ever did or thought wasn’t important! Paul was happy to go to prison for his faith, a faith that he didn’t have to worry about leaving him, because he wasn’t ‘as good’ anymore or have a ‘perfect’ past.

So, what does this mean for us? It means if we know Jesus we don’t have to feel like less of a person, because the only thing that defines us is God. We can never be less loved by God because we never deserved it in the first place! When we are drowning in a world of competition for value, we can turn to a constant God and our worth will not change. If you don’t know God yet, then it means that this love is for you, regardless of your past or future, God sees you and loves you as much as anyone else- you are worthy as you are!