God Overpaid

This past Sunday I got to listen to one of my favorite preachers, my dad.  He preached on 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 which is about sexual immorality.  There was much from the sermon that I took home with me but one line from the passage struck me in the gut.

"You are not your own, you were bought at a price." 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20a

What landed on me when that passage was read was that God overpaid for me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling God foolish, because He is the very definition of wisdom.  Many love the song "Reckless Love" and I guess I'm tapping into that sort of hyperbolic idea (though I hadn't ever heard the song until after this Sunday).  From my perspective and from what most of the Bible says it seems that God overpaid for me.

Sin is a serious offense and the wages of sin is death.  Someone had to die to fix the problem of sin.  God had to be just and therefore blood had to be shed to provide forgiveness for my sin.  When I say that God overpaid I'm not saying that remedying the mess of sin didn't require a perfect sacrifice.

God overpaid because there is no way that I'm worth that much.  There is no way on the trading block I'm worth being swapped with Jesus in a trade.  Even if you pair me and all of humanity there is no way all of us in exchange for the Son of God is a fair trade.

God overpaid for me.  I was bought at a price and if I were God I would not pay that price for me and I wouldn't pay it for you.

But God in His infinite love did pay that price!

In 2011 Mikeschair released a song called "Someone Worth Dying For".  I really, really appreciate what the song was trying to accomplish.  It was trying to give people who felt worthless and hopeless a message that said that Jesus loves them and that they have a reason to live.  However, I must disagree with the lyrics' theology.  I must disagree with the title and chorus.

God did not send Jesus to die for us because we were WORTH it.  No, His love for us is so much better than that.  He loves us so much that He overpaid.  He paid the highest price possible for us when we our market value wasn't near that price.  He paid a price that we simply weren't worth.

But don't sell your self short.  You are worth a lot in God's eyes.

Have you ever watched Antiques Roadshow or something like that?  Have you ever wondered why some of those items are worth so much?  Have you ever thought that the price estimated on those items was a joke?  Well, those items are only worth the estimated price because someone is willing to pay that price.  Someone really loves Victorian era tea cups and will pay a handsome price for one.  The worth of those items doesn't come from their usefulness but from the price someone is willing to pay for it.

You are worth a lot.  Your life is worth so much because you were bought at a price.  You were bought at an insanely high price.  Now live your life, in all areas, with the knowledge that you were bought at a high price.  You were bought at an extremely high price therefore honor God with your life today.