What is Man?

January 29, 2018

What we believe about human nature really does make a difference. In the biblical story of Job, this godly man found himself suddenly afflicted by the loss of his wealth, the death of his children, and the collapse of his own health. Behind the scenes, we see him almost as a pawn in what might be termed a cosmic pissing match between God and Satan. The problem is, Job isn’t aware of that dimension of his sufferings. All he knows is that calamity has befallen him, and he can’t understand why.

His friends come alongside him to comfort him. For seven days, they sit in silence, just being there with him, which was the most comforting part of their presence. Once they opened their mouths to try to explain the ways of God, everything starts coming unravelled. Instead of giving comfort, in their efforts to make sense of it all, they try to defend God’s ways, and end up blaming Job for some secret sin that in their minds is the reason for his suffering. After all, if we do good, we should be rewarded, and if we do evil, we should be punished. That’s the way they figured life works. It might be how we would like it to work, but life refuses to cooperate, and in the midst of suffering, any attempt to explain God’s ways is bound to sound foolish, if not cruel, in the ears of the sufferer.

In the middle of their diatribes, Bildad, one of Job’s ‘comforters’ makes a revealing statement, “a mortal...is but a maggot; a human being...is only a worm.” (25:6, NIV) With this kind of belief, it really doesn’t matter what happens to someone; after all, human beings are pretty worthless anyway. This kind of belief lies behind every murderous and genocidal atrocity that has ever been perpetrated, from the young man who callously guns down innocent people, to the liquidation of millions under the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, or even Roe v. Wade. As Josef Goebbels said, “The death of one is a tragedy; the death of millions is a statistic.” Whenever human life is seen in purely evolutionist or humanistic terms, life ends up devalued. 

Contrary to this dreary evaluation of the value of a human being is the statement in Psalm 8:4-7:

“What is man, that you are mindful of him? And the son of an, that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.” 

This evaluation of the value of human life is a direct result of the belief that we are made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:26). Our value as human beings is bestowed upon us by God himself. If we believe that, it affects how we treat others; bigotry, racism, human trafficking, slander, murder, adultery, and even demeaning talk are wrong because they destroy or diminish those who have intrinsic value by being made in God’s image. If a human being is little more than a worm, or an accidental conflation of enzymes, or a blob of protoplasm, we can do with it anything we wish. If on the other hand, we are made in God’s image, every person matters. 

I am grateful tonight for the testimony of Scripture telling us that we matter because we matter to God who created us in his own image, and redeemed us by the death of his Son from the distortion of that image wrought by sin.