What makes a painting valuable?
The surface on which the paint is applied?
Well, for a painting to last, the surface must be of some quality, but with a masterpiece, like the Mona Lisa, the value of the surface itself is completely inconsequential.
But note these two realities regarding the relationship between the surface and the painting:
- The existence of the painting is dependent on the surface. Without a canvas or some other surface (Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa on a poplar wood panel) there would be no painting for us to see. The forms and colors and textures would all just exist in the mind of the artist. The artist cannot paint in the air.
- The value of the surface is dependent on the painting. In a sense, the painting bestows its glory on canvas. This is why even the most exact reproduction of a work of art will hold a fraction of the value of the original.
And just as the value of a painting and its canvas are inseparable, so it is with the human body and soul.
The human body is the vessel God chose to reveal His Holy image in creation, and it is His Holy image that bestows inestimable value on the human body. That includes your body, regardless of how the world (or you, yourself) would judge its worth.
What Have We Made of What God Made?
The image of the Creator is indelibly marked on the body of every soul that was ever born. I don’t know about you, but when I consider the wonder of this truth, I experience a profound sense of regret.
Because I have done terrible things to my body. And with my body. Perhaps you have to.
Maybe you’ve stuffed it with too much food, starved it with too little, neglected it entirely, filled it with alcohol or narcotics, intentionally scarred it out of anger or despair, or given it away to others like a cheap prostitute. What value could a work of art which has been so battered and abused by its owner still retain?
Or what if your body was taken advantage of by others? Perhaps you were physically or sexually abused. Even worse? Maybe those who should have honored the value of your body the most, were the very ones who stripped away your sense of worth.
What God has Done with what we have Done
Whatever your story, dear one, you have the opportunity right now to understand a most wonderful truth, one with the power to set you free!
To help us grasp it fully, we return to our original question: What makes a painting valuable?
Again, consider the Mona Lisa, which is the painting with the highest insurance value of any in the world.
But why? Why is the Mona Lisa worth 1 billion dollars and Van Gough’s Starry Night only a tenth of that value (a paltry 100 million)? How do we arrive at these amounts?
It’s as simple to explain and impossible to believe as this: the value of any work of art is determined by the highest price someone would be willing to pay for it. So, though neither paintings are for sale, if they were, those are the values insurance companies estimate they would fetch at auction.
What does this have to do with the worth of your body?
It’s just as simple to explain and impossible to believe, because though your body is not for sale, someone has placed the highest value imaginable on it. A pretty significant somebody.
Forget about some billionaire art collector from Dubai. God – as in the Creator of the universe and everything in it – determined that you were worth the life of His one and only Son. Forget about counting in millions or billions. He outbid everyone in the room. For you!
The Father and Son conducted their on little insurance valuation, in which they both agreed your body was worth redeeming – that is buying back from the death that sin brings. That includes both the sin you inflicted on your body, as well as the sin visited on it by those who didn’t understand its value.
And even more remarkable, God didn’t just place that value on you like an insurance company, which prays it never has to pay out.
God went ahead and paid the price. And not just a down payment, but the full amount.
Paid in advance.
Not in cash, but in blood.
Jesus went ahead and paid the price to win your body and your soul, your service and your love. He gave His life not just so you could enjoy eternal life in your heavenly body after death, but so that you can walk in eternal life right now, in the body you’re in.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. – John 17:1-3
Would you like this eternal life? It’s already been paid for. You just have to believe it and then receive it.
And when you do, you’ll look at your body differently, because you’ll realize it really isn’t your body anymore. It belongs to the one who esteems it worthy of a value that makes the Mona Lisa look like a child’s finger painting.
Date Night Advice (DNA) series: The Naked Truth about Your Body
Episode 6: Your Body is a Masterpiece
Click here for the first post in the series.
DNA: It’s What’s For Dating
Dug this weekend’s DNA? Be a good friend and share with your friends on the social media platform of choice: Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter.
The LoveEd discipleship series, Beyond Sex & Salvation, will empower you to prepare for relational success when it counts: BEFORE you fall in love!
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Check out all three study guides in our store. You can walk through them on your own, but it’s more fun with friends (that and it kinda makes sense to grow in relational success in actual relationships with others), so consider putting together an FMU LoveEd small group study.
Even better? And ask a rock star married couple you respect to lead it!
