Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 7: Humanity”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
How valuable is a life?
According to https://medicalfuturist.com/how-much-is-life-worth/:
If you could harvest every organ and chemical in your body, you could make a $45 million. But in reality, Medical Transcription estimates, the average price of a human dead body is more likely to fetch around $550,000 (with a few key body parts driving up the price). If you want to legally sell your heart in the U.S., it can be purchased for about $1 million. Livers come in second, worth about $557,000 and kidneys cost about $262,000 each. Not to speak about human skin ($10/inch), stomach ($500) and eyeballs ($1,500 each).
Or if you would just sell the elements in your body…( https://www.thoughtco.com/worth-of-your-elements-3976054)
Have you ever wondered how much the elements in your body are worth? This is a breakdown of the elements from which you are made, by percent. Your Body Is made of:
65, oxygen
18, carbon
10, hydrogen
3, nitrogen
1.5, calcium
1, phosphorous
0.35, potassium
0.25, sulfur
0.15, sodium
0.15, chlorine
0.05, magnesium
0.0004, iron
0.00004, iodine
Your body contains trace amounts of other elements, such as silicon, manganese, fluorine, copper, zinc, arsenic, and aluminum. The going rate for a body’s worth of these elements: just $1.
The range is $1 to $45 million.
$45 million is a lot of money and shows extreme value. But even that pales in comparison to the value that God placed on you. Although “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” it was not enough to pay for the salvation of any one soul. The price that was needed was his Son, sent from heaven to earth to pay the price of sin with his “holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.” The second article of the Apostles’ Creed tells us how valuable we and all humanity are to the Lord. He was willing to give up his Son to gain us forever.
[I believe} in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
What does this mean? I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.
The value God places on us gives us a purpose that is invaluable. God was willing to pay the price of his Son to ensure we might “be his own and live under Him and His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.”
There is no question you are worth far more than $1 and valued at far greater than even $45 million.
You are priceless.
This is most certainly true.
Apply: Reread Luther’s explanation to the 2nd Article. What word or phrase stands out to you that helps you appreciate the value God has placed on you?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for spending your precious blood so I might spend an eternity with you. AMEN.