Value of our grace, standing grows immeasurably with Jesus

Do you want to buy a watch?

I just read a notice that Clyde Barrow’s pocket watch will be auctioned off this fall in New Hampshire. The sale is estimated to bring around $50,000 to $100,000.

The watch itself is rather common; its high value comes from the owner.

Clyde Barrow was one-half of the notorious Bonnie and Clyde duo who robbed banks and murdered people in the early 1930s.

It is no secret that reputation, whether famous or infamous, increases the desirability of something. We like to be connected to something that associates us to the well-known. The connection need not be long lived.

Consider the common baseball. Its value is quite small until it makes connection with a bat wielded by a well–known major league player. Instantly, it can become irreplaceable.

If association with greatness increases value, think of how valuable we become through our association with Jesus. In salvation, we are touched by God’s grace, transforming us from condemned to forgiven. But more than being made innocent, we are made children of God, and as such heirs to the Kingdom of God, even fellow-heirs with Jesus Christ himself.

Grace changes us in standing and essence.

The Apostle Paul reminds us that we have been bought with a price, which influences our value. Like Clyde Barrow’s watch, we have little intrinsic worth based upon who we are. But once we come into contact with the grace of God, we become more valuable than any auction can afford.

­Pastor Mark Holmes is an ordained minister in the Wesleyan Church and has served the Darrow Road Wesleyan Church since 1997.

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