What Are You Worth? Hebrews 2:5-9; Psalms 8:4
1.INTRODUCTION:
A. All Things Have Value—
1. Our economy is based on our ability to arrive at the value of most commodities.
a. Gold
b. Stocks
c. Cattle & grain d. Real estate
2. That which is prized the most becomes the standard by which the value of other things is established.
a. For many years our economy was on a gold standard. b. Now, the world wants “dollars”.
c. In the future, the standard maybe something else. 3. The value of things changes.
a. In the 1970ʹs oil was high because it was scarce.
b. Gasoline prices are up because demand is high and production is static. c. This in turn affects everything from a gallon of milk to a postage stamp.
B. You Have Value—
1. According to the U.S. Bureau of Chemistry and Soils the human body consists of the following
materials in these approximate proportions: a. 65% Oxygen
b. 18% Carbon
c. 10% Hydrogen d. 3% Nitrogen d. 1.5% Calcium
e. 117o Phosphorous f. 0.35% Potassium g. 0.25% Sulfur
h. 0.15% Sodium
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i. 0.15% Chlorine
j. 0.05% Magnesium k. 0.0004% Iron
l. 0.00004% Iodine
m. Additionally, it was discovered that our bodies contain trace quantities of fluorine, silicon, manganese, zinc, copper, aluminum, and arsenic. Together, all of the above amounts to less than one dollar.
n. Our most valuable asset is our skin. Cut and dried, the average person is the proud owner of fourteen to eighteen square feet of skin. Basing the skins value on the selling price of cowhide, which is approximately $.25 per square foot, the value of an average persons skin is about $3.50.
2. Your worth from an economic perspective is greater.
a. Most of us have life insurance which is based upon what we would expect to earn over the years from when purchased till expected death, in view of an unexpected death.
b. Corporations insure their executives against death because of what they know and could earn for the company (much like car insurance).
c. Thus, at any moment, you are “worth more dead than you are alive.”
3. If you are healthy, your individual organs may have some monetary value.
a. According to Gary Becker, American economist and a Nobel laureate, if the sale of human organs for transplantation were allowed a kidney would be worth about $15,000 and a liver would go for about $35,000 (Becker—Posner Blog, January 1, 2006 (http://www.becker‐ posner‐blog.com/archives/2006/01/should_the_purc.html).
b. In 1983 a Virginia company, headed by H. Barry Jacobs, announced the first scheme to buy and sell human organs. Under his proposed arrangement, a healthy, live, ostensible “donor” would set a price for a kidney up to $10,000 and the recipient would pay this amount, plus a $2000 to $5000 broker commission to Jacobs (Medscape Today, Gwen Mayes, JD, MMSc; http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/465200).
4. However, in view of all these considerations, the fact is we live in a time when that which ought to be prized the most, is prized the least. It is still true that “life is cheap.”
a. To the evolutionist: “a further development”. b. To the materialist: “like the little dog rover”.
c. To the ecologist: “a destabilizing influence on the environment.”
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d. To the industrialist: “a cog in a big machine”. e. To the militarist: “a fighting animal”.
f. To the government: “a taxpayer I.D. number”. g. To the abortionist: “a mass of tissue”.
h. To the euthenist: “something to be put out of its misery”.
3. However, your value is not determined either by your constituent material elements or by the prevailing philosophies of the day. Your real worth is determined by Him who created you.
a. Most of what we buy and sell is manufactured goods, raw materials transformed by a process into that which has additional value (e.g. wheat, cowʹs milk and hen’s eggs become bread).
b. The value of those products is set by the manufacturer and market conditions.
c. Man is the creation of Godʹs hands (Genesis 2:7). He determines the worth. He is the one who has “purchased” man and so He determines what He is willing to give for him.
II.DISCUSSION:
A. “What Is Man That Thou Art Mindful of Him...?” 1. Man is a living soul made in the image of an eternal God
a. “Life” in 2:7 is plural in the Hebrew, literally “breath of lives”.
b. God breathed into man that which constituted him a “living soul” (Genesis 2:7; cf. 1:20, 30). c. However, God also breathed into him that which made him in the image of God (Genesis
1:26‐27; Hebrews 12:9; John 4:24).
d. Man is like the animals in the sense that he, like they, have “life” (Genesis 1:30; 2:7). e. However, there is that in man which is “in the image of God,” a spirit (John 4:24).
f. Scripture makes a distinction between man and the animals (Ecclesiastes 3:19‐21; 12:7).
g. It is this distinction that elevates man above the animals giving him dominion over them. 2. Man is body and soul, flesh and spirit, having both an inner and an outer man.
a. The words soul and spirit may be used interchangeably (1 a Samuel 1:15; Job 7:11; lea. 26:9).
b. The word soul maybe used to refer to the flesh (1 Peter 3:20; Genesis 12:5; Exodus 1:5).
c. The words soul and spirit may be used distinct from one another and the flesh (Hebrews 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:23).
d. While this may be confusing and difficult to understand at times, there is a definite duality to man taught in the Scriptures.
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(1) The body or flesh is the house or tent in which the spirit/soul dwells (2 Peter 1:14; 2 Corinthians 5:1‐9).
(2) Our personality, will and desires are associated with the inner man, the spirit (1 Corinthians 9:27; 2 Corinthians 5:2,4; 2 Peter 1:12‐16).
(3) The inner man will survive the outer man in death (2 Corinthians 4:16; James 2:26; Matthew 10:28; Luke 23:46; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Genesis 3:19).
3. As an order of being, man is “a little lower than the angels” (Psalms 8:5; Hebrews 2:4‐9). a. Meaning our fleshly nature (Hebrews 2:16; James 1:14).
b. Meaning the potentiality of redemption (Hebrews 1:14; 2 Peter 2:4). c. Meaning our mortality (Hebrews 2:15; Genesis 2:17)
C. What Is Man Worth?
1. He is worth more than the sparrows (Hebrews 10:29‐31).
2. He is worth more than the sheep (Matthew 12:10‐13). 3. He is worth more than an ox or an ass (Luke 11:13‐17).
4. He is worth more than the combined wealth of the world (Matthew 16:24‐26). 5. However, God declared the exact value of man on Calvary.
a. Man is so valuable to Him that He was willing to let His only begotten Son die for man (John 3:16; Romans 5:8‐10; 1 John 4:9,10).
b. God’s own Son is the price the He was willing to give (Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 6:19–20). c. Since the value of any commodity is determined by what men are willing to pay, we get
some idea of what worth man is to God. III.CONCLUSION:
A. All Things Have Value—
B. You and 1 Have Value to the God of Heaven— 1. We are worth more than the birds.
2. We are worth more than the sheep.
3. We are more than the beasts of burden.
4. We are worth more than the combined wealth of the world.
C. We Have This Value Because We Are Made in the Image of God— 1. We have an immortal soul.
2. Sin has marred us, and because of it our souls are in jeopardy.
3. But, Jesus has paid the price that will redeem us from loss. “Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.”
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