Welcome!

QUESTION 196
There is much teaching about self-esteem and man's value to God.What does the Bible teach about it?

ANSWER:
One of the greatest hindrance to the Gospel is the teaching that man is of such value to God that He gave His Son to died for us. This dethrone God and exalts man. God does not need anything from us, further, we have nothing to give. He owes us nothing.

Psalm 39:5 - Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. Psalm 39:11 - When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah. The Bible says, They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; (Romans 3:12) We are all as an unclean thing to God. (Isaiah 64:6).

Self esteem is nothing more than “pride.” Pride was the sin of Satan and is of mankind. When man is lifted up, God is brought down. Some T.V. preachers are so full of pride that they claim they are little gods. Humanism is teaching the same thing. Man in general thinks so highly of themselves that they believe they have a good chance of heaven when they die.

God made man for a purpose. Sin came in and disrupted that purpose. God is redeeming man for His own name sake and not ours. He loved us, not because we were loveable, but because He is love. He forgives sinners for His name sake. (1 John 2:12).

It is not because of our worth that we can be saved, but only the worth of the work of God’s Son, who could and did deal with our sins on the cross. There is no way a sinner can be saved apart from repenting of their sins and trusting Jesus who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” John 14:6.

Have you repented of your sins? Have you trusted Christ as your Saviour from sin? Do it today.

All comments and questions to: Harold Smith

Return to Salvation Questions Main Page

Updated July 2009, by Shelly Allen