“The Lord, the Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” Isaiah 12:2-3
No one goes to the cliffs of the Pacific to gaze upon the spectacular and glorious sunset to build their self-esteem. As we gaze, our thoughts are captured by the breathtaking beauty on display. Our feelings are enthralled by the glory we have been privileged to enjoy spread out before us. In the same way, no believer should look on the cross and the spectacular glory displayed there and think, “How valuable I must be.” The revelation of Jesus Christ is not meant to increase our joy in ourselves, but to increase our incomparable delight in Him, now and forever!
The first thing we felt when we heard the gospel was not, “how wonderful I must be for God to die for me,” but how, “loving and gracious God must be to love a sinner and rebel like me.” We were helpless and hopeless and destined for hell, and it was entirely deserved. In other words, our problem was not an inferiority complex. We were inferior! All we could do was to cry out to Him, go to him, confess our sins, throw ourselves on his mercy and believe the promise of the gospel, that God sent his Son to die for my sins so that I might have eternal life, the greatest blessing of all, and to know and enjoy and glorify Him forever! (John 3:16, John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 10:31)
The world speaks of self-esteem because it cannot see the “glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6) Unbelievers have to look inside, have to compare themselves with others, have to build themselves up in their own eyes, for they have nowhere else to look. But, we do. Our joy, our delight, our hope, is not in ourselves but in beholding Jesus. (2 Corinthians 3:18) Jesus died to bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18) Why would we gaze upon ourselves in search of our worth, when we can find ourselves in the infinite worth and the radiant glory of Jesus Christ, our Lord? (John 17:24)Nah! I will spend the rest of my days trying to forget about myself, and seeking to find new reasons to rejoice in Jesus, who is sparkling and radiant, on full display, deposited in the treasure chest called the Bible.