For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
-1 Peter 1:18-19 (NLT)

One of my favorite television shows is Pawn Stars, which depicts the day-to-day dealings of a Las Vegas pawn shop. Oftentimes someone will bring in some super-rare historical item, something the pawn shop owners have never seen before, so they’ll have an expert give them an appraisal. Sometimes they will comment that a similar item sold at auction recently for a certain price. But sometimes the expert is dumbfounded. They don’t have a clue where to begin in pricing the item, so you’ll hear them say something to the effect of:

“It’s worth what someone will pay for it.”

What they mean is because of the item’s uniqueness there’s no precedent for what it would sell for. It’s virtually impossible to place a specific value on it. You basically have to just throw it out on the market and see what happens. Because you never know… At auction, two guys could bid against each other back and forth all day, sending the price through the roof.

In Peter’s first letter, the author reminders his readers that they too were purchased at a great price by God. He uses the slavery/hostage term “ransom” to explain this, which is simply a payment that buys someone’s freedom. Just like a slave is controlled by his master, we are slaves to our sin. But, as Peter points out, our freedom was paid for with the blood of Jesus.

So if something’s worth is established by what someone is willing to pay for it, then what does that say about our value to God? Wow! It’s inconceivable!

God sacrificed everything, and that changes everything. It shifts the way we think about ourselves, the way we think about others, and most importantly, the way we think about God. Our Father in Heaven wanted nothing more than to set us free from the entrapment of our sin that he was willing to pay whatever it took to do just that. And we weren’t bought with gold, silver, or buckets of cash. It was the sacrifice of his son, Jesus.

When our lives were thrown out on the the market, the devil put up a fight, but God didn’t hesitate. When he put down the decisive bid of Jesus, it sent a resounding message to all… “They are mine and I don’t care what I have to pay to get them!” And because of that, we are free.

Thank God, he was willing to pay for it.