“Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.” That was the theme of the song that launched Whitney Housten’s career. Do you agree with that?

I like Whitney’s voice, but I have to disagree with her doctrine. I have never been able to learn to love myself. My self-worth was restored when I saw that Jesus loved me. The love of Jesus is the greatest love of all.

Because I meet with so many people, especially women, who have what we would call “low self esteem”, I have been very interested in how the gospel restores human self-worth. One little-known person who is featured in the Old testament of the Bible makes this clear, and his story points the way to healing of the mind. His name is Mephibosheth.

The first time Mephibosheth appears he is a toddler. King Saul and his son Jonathon are killed in a battle with the Philistines, and the survivors of the family of Saul know that it is time to run. David, their enemy, is about to possess the throne. In the rush to leave, little Mephibosheth is dropped by his nurse, and his feet are permanently damaged.

The next time we see him is after David has been on the throne for several years. One day the king asks, “Is there anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathon’s sake?” Ziba, a servant of Saul’s house, mentions Mephibosheth, and is told to bring him in before the king.

No doubt Mephibosheth heard a death knell in the call to come before the king who was his grandfather’s avowed enemy. He crumbled in fear before the throne, saying, “Here is your servant.”

Imagine his astonishment when David promises to restore Saul’s property to him, and invites him to eat regularly at the royal table.

“What is your servant, that you should regard a dead dog like me?” Mephibosheth gasps. Still, David took the fugitive in as if one of the family, wooing him to a table that would hide his deformed feet. Sitting there, he would look like everyone else.

This is the gospel in story form. A crippled soul, fearing death, is invited into a royal family. He has no native right there. That right was forfeited by his rebellious ancestor. The crippled man is now condemned because of what his grandfather has done and because of his own personal deformity. He responds to the gracious invitation to the royal table by calling himself a dead dog. He knows that, in his flesh, he is worse than nothing-a flea-ridden carcass. But the call to the table is not based on his worthiness. He goes to the table, grateful but undeserving, and becomes a fully restored member of the royal family. He is not there because he is beautiful, gifted or charming. He is there because the king loves him.

The Bible teaches that we are “dead dogs”-condemned-because of Adam’s sin. We no longer have a native right at the banqueting table in heaven. “. . . through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men” Romans 5:18. On the flip side of that coin, we see the restoration of all men in Christ. “. . . even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men.”

Jesus Christ re-lived human history by clothing himself in fallen human flesh, and living a perfect life. In so doing, He qualified himself to be our Savior and High priest (see Hebrews 2:16, 17). He has the right to ask you to eat at that table with him. Will you go? You are nothing but a dead dog in your fallen flesh, but because of Him, and in Him, you are a royal son. Your twisted feet are hidden by the table. Heaven looks at you as if you had never sinned.

We get one more glimpse of Mephiosheth. In it we see what the gospel does to the human heart ultimately. Many years have passed, and the Absalom debacle has forced David to flee Jerusalem. The rebellion is short-lived, and soon David is in the process of resuming his duties in Jerusalem. He has been told by the conniving Ziba, that Mephibosheth has defected with Absalom. David awarded the property of Saul to Ziba when he heard that. Imagine his surprise when Mephibosheth appears, in a posture of mourning, unshaven, unwashed, before the king. David asks, “Why did you not go with me Mephibosheth?” At this the lame man explains that he was unable to go because of his disability. David seems to believe Mephibosheth, but he has given the land to Ziba. In an effort to settle the matter once and for all, he says that Ziba can have half the land and Mephibosheth the other half. But this is not Mephibosheth’s concern. He says, “Let him even take it all, since my Lord the king has come safely into his own house.” In other words, “Let him have it all, I have you.”

This enamored soul cared not for his own winnings. It was enough for him that the king was reinstated to his rightful throne. This is the bottom line of the gospel at work in the heart. When we finally understand who we were in Adam, and who we are in Christ, we will be set free. Our own sense of value will be bound up with that of the King. Because He restored our sense of self-worth when we were nothing but dead dogs, we will love Him wholly.

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins” 1 John 4:10.

The story of Mephibosheth is found in 2 Samuel, chapters 4, 9, 16 and 19.