Creation and Human Value

It is interesting to observe that, generally, people understand that they have value, and will often fight vigorously to defend their own (and/or others’) perceived ‘rights’ derived from stated laws. It’s even more intriguing to discover that most of them cannot give a robust answer as to why they have some kind of inherent value or worth or where their supposed rights originated from.

It is also fascinating that, often, the same person demanding justice against the actions of others, with reams of reasoning as to how he or she has been offended and why recompense is owed to them, will also often claim that human beings are the result of random, materialistic processes—fully endorsing the story of evolution. But are these concepts truly compatible?

Moral Law Demands a Moral Lawgiver

Whenever someone declares that someone has done something ‘wrong,’ they communicate that they believe there is a moral law, that the offending party acknowledges (or should acknowledge) that law, and that the perpetrator of the offense has broken said moral law.

But moral laws must also have an origin—a moral ‘lawmaker.’ If there is no moral lawmaker/lawgiver above and beyond human beings, then who’s to say which human being has the right to impose their beliefs on others? In fact, the mantra often heard in modern society is that people should have the right to decide right and wrong for themselves. But that is clearly not tenable in a society where human beings must live in harmony with one another.

I have often heard moral relativists declare that each society is responsible for determining right and wrong for the people in that society. But in that case (to use the most extreme case to make the point), wasn’t Nazi Germany ‘right’ for butchering seven million Jewish people?

This acquiescence to the concept of societal morality was similar to the way the Nazis argued during the Nuremberg trials. They declared that in their country, at that time, it was legal for these people to be killed, making such actions lawful and therefore not immoral.

However, the argument offered by the Allies against the Nazis’ “societies determine morality” defense was the existence of a higher moral law that made the destruction of innocent people unlawful, illegal, and immoral under any circumstances.

In fact, they argued in defense of an absolute law that transcends simple human reasoning or determination, which, whether acknowledged or not, is ultimately God’s law. Those who have embraced the concept of societal morality should understand that they may find themselves on the wrong end of an imposed ‘moral law’ that dismisses their rights completely (as any ‘rights’ they presently have are ultimately derived from whichever human system they currently belong to).

Where Does Worth Come from?

I remember hearing the tale years ago (I can’t verify whether it is true or not, but which will make my point regardless) of a husband and wife in England fortuitously discovered a vase in a ‘junk shop.” The couple were out browsing when she saw the item, liked it, and purchased it for 10 British pounds (approximately $20 Canadian).

As the story went, the husband didn’t see the point and thought its acquisition was a poor decision—but like many of us husbands often do, decided against protesting his wife’s wishes in the matter too strenuously.

However, once it was home and on their mantle, he often made negative remarks about its looks and presence in their house, mentioning they should get rid of it. His protests fell on deaf ears until one day when they happened to be watching a television program featuring antiques and collectibles. The program showcased a vase remarkably similar to theirs, which sold for over 100,000 pounds!

The husband suddenly became very protective of the item and decided they should investigate its construction and workmanship by getting it appraised by experts. To their delight, the investigators determined that their modest thrift store acquisition was, in fact, very valuable indeed—and they managed to sell it for over 130,000 pounds!

Now the question we could ask is this: what changed the husband’s mind? Why did his perception as to the value and worth of his wife’s impulsive purchase change from thinking it was a frivolous throw-away item to embracing it as the best decision she’d ever made?

Origins Matter

Simply put—he discovered its origin. It had not originated in a junk shop in England. It was molded and manufactured in the Ming Dynasty, made by a master craftsman.

You see, the origin of something determines its meaning, its meaning determines its value, and its value determines what you should do with it.

Similarly, if human beings are just the result of evolutionary forces, if we originated in some primordial swamp with no purpose or meaning behind our existence, then we have no inherent, absolute value. If we have no absolute value, then we also have no absolute rights.

Similarly, if we originated by chance processes, so did our minds. The ideas imposed by minds which are the result of random chance should not be trusted to determine anyone else’s value or rights.

However, the realization that God created man as revealed in Genesis has profound transcendent lawful, moral, and practical ethical implications.

Your Value Comes from Your Creator

Ultimately, human beings have inherent value and worth because of their incredible Creator—Jesus Christ. Even though we are corrupted in nature and sinful in our actions, God deemed us of such value that “he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

The great Scottish theologian Samuel Rutherford once eloquently wrote,

Oh, what love! Christ would not intrust our redemption to angels, to millions of angels; but he would come himself, and in person suffer; he would not give a low and a base price for us clay. He would buy us with a great ransom, so as he might over-buy us, and none could over-bid him in his market for souls.

If there had been millions of more believers, and many heavens, without any new bargain his blood should have bought them all, and all these many heavens should have smelled one rose of life; Christ should have been one and the same tree of life in them all.

Oh, we under-bid, and undervalue that Prince of love, who did overvalue us; we will not sell all we have to buy him; he sold all he had, and himself too, to buy us.1

It is indeed a paradoxical marvel that our gracious God, knowing that his creations would rebel against him, completely unworthy in of themselves, deemed us worthy of the willing sacrifice of his Son from before the foundations of the world. We have ‘rights’ in spite of our wrongs.

God has indeed “over-paid” for us, but, in doing so, has applied even more value to the undeserving souls he has saved.