Does the sinful nature cancel out our value?

I was reading a blog by John Eldgrege in which he talked about how many Christians have accepted the doctrine that we have no intrinsic worth as human beings. He was sharing how misguided this viewpoint is and that it gives us a false picture of God and of ourselves. I have always believed that we had value and worth because we were created in the image of God. I have also wondered does our sinful nature somehow cancel out our value and worth. There is a teaching in many Christian circles that "we are flithy rags", there is nothing good in us. Is this true is there nothing good in us?

Let's look at the scripture in context in which the phrase "filthy rags" is used in Isaiah 64: 4-9.

4For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear,

Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,

Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.

5You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness,

Who remembers You in Your ways

Behold, You were angry, for we sinned,

We continued in them a long time;

And shall we be saved?

6For all of us have become like one who is unclean,

And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;

And all of us wither like a leaf,

And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

7There is no one who calls on Your name,

Who arouses himself to take hold of You;

For You have hidden Your face from us

And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.

8But now, O LORD,

You are our Father,

We are the clay, and You our potter;

And all of us are the work of Your hand.

9Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD,

Nor remember iniquity forever;

Behold, look now, all of us are Your people.

This scripture points to God's people's righteous deeds are like filthy garments. They are still valuable to God but He is angry at their continuing in sin. When one of my children is mean to his brother or disrespectful towards me, I correct this behavior. I know that this behavior is not a good habit to get into and will cause him problems if he continues in it. I have not stopped loving him, but I do know that this is not behavior that is good for him. God was angered that his people were living in their sin for too long, were not turning to Him, had forgotten His ways. This is why God hates sin and can have no part of it. Sin causes pain and destruction in the world we live in. Sin also takes us away from the one who loves us with an undying love--God, our Heavenly Father. Sin taints our value and worth. We still have our intrinsic worth but our sin interferes with us living out who God intends us to be.

God can have no part of sin, so our sin seperates us from God. Countless scriptures point to this concept. Do a key word search in the Bible on evil, you will understand God's feelings and thoughts on evil. "You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. (Psalm5:4). "I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion. To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. (Proverbs 8:12-13).

This does not mean that he does not love us or want to be near us. Our sin becomes a barrier that God must deliver us from in order for us to have relationship with Him.
It is not who we are as human beings that he hates....it is our sin. Isaiah says that God's people are the work of His hands that makes us extremely valuable. Isaiah says this in the same chapter in which it is spoken of their righteous acts are like filthy rags. We were created by God and in His Image and God said that all he created was good (Genesis 1). Psalm 139 says that we were designed by God in our mother's womb, that we are beautifully and wonderfully made.

God wants to be near us, spend time with us, he longs for us to know him and he longs for us to share ourselves with him. But, there is this dilema, he can have no part of evil and we have been corrupted by evil. This happened when Adam and Eve (perfect human beings who had perfect intimacy with God) chose to eat of the tree of good and evil when they were tempted by Satan. (Genesis 3).

He loved us so much and so greatly detested evil that he devised a plan to conquer evil and win back his true love. You know the "greatest love story ever told" of God sending his son to earth born as a baby and becoming a man and living a sinless life in perfect communion with God the Father. This perfect man of true love who came as our Messiah was loved by some, rejected by the masses and religious leaders and killed. His death paid the penalty of our sin! He was then raised to life conquering death and evil once and for all. (Romans 8:1-4).

Here's the amazing part! God's beautifully and wonderfully made creation, You and me, are freed from the corruption of sin when we accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We still contend with the sinful nature, but God has declared us righteous! II Corinthians 5:17 states that "We are New Creations"! "For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17). Wow, talk about Good News!

Why does it matter that we are are valuable in God's eyes? What is the importance of this distinction between our worth and our sin? How does it feel to hear that you are valuable? What did you want to hear growing up? What was special about you, or how badly you were screwing up? We are trying to help our kids make wise choices that will create confidence and fullfillment. What motivates you, how horrible you are or how much potential you have? How our parents deal with our disobedient behavior makes a big difference in how we view ourselves. It is the same with how God parents us. That helps us understand why they Bible talks about God disciplining those He loves (Hebrews 12:6). God wants us to value who we are and see how our sinful nature interferes with us having an abundant life!

Human Beings are born with value and worth, they are still God's creation. However, they are also born with the sinful nature. This sinful nature draws us into choices that create death in our lives. The sinful nature and the work of our adversary, Satan, can wreak havoc with our self esteem. This happens in many forms. It can be our choices that cause us to feel bad about ourselves. The sinful nature of others who devalue us, put us down and disregard our value can cause low self esteem. The enemy reinforces our bad feelings, by trying to get us to agree with these lies about ourselves.

We can remove one of these lies of the enemy by making the distiniction between our value and worth and our sinful nature. Let's battle the sinful nature not believe the lie that we are worthless. God loves and values us and He desires relationship with us. He wants us to accept His gift of redemption so that we might be freed from the slavery of sin. Each of us was created in God's image, that is such an amazing concept. Do you believe you are a magnificent creation?