The Dignity of Human Beings & the Majesty of God

Dying Christian traditions have built increasingly complex doctrines of the worth and ethical treatment of humankind, while neglecting doctrines of the majesty and holiness of God. In other words, “...they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” (Romans 1:25).

Orthodox Christianity, in contrast, values people because they bear the image of God, not because they are in themselves of ultimate value. This is why the Bible prohibits murder and why capital punishment exists: “whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6). It is precisely because of the unsurpassed worth of  God that we place lesser - yet still profound - worth in humankind.

I thought about this as I read a phrase in Deuteronomy that occurs off and on throughout the Old Testament: “worthless fellows.” Moses uses it to describe men who lead Israel in false worship. It’s the kind of phrase that feels blasphemous in our a day that exalts the creature over the Creator. 

But there’s an irony here. Not long after Moses’ words about worthless fellows, he lays out the practices for creditors and debtors during the Sabbatical Year (every seven years, see Deuteronomy 15). Among other things, every seventh year creditors must forgive any remaining debts. Moses takes great pains to make clear how the poor are to be protected, including commanding creditors to not refuse to lend just because it’s the sixth year (and they will have to forgive the debt in a few months). Moses says, “don’t let an unworthy thought come into your heart.” 

This is something I love about Scripture: God is not afraid to describe some deserving class of men as “worthless,” while at the same time revealing his determination to care for the poor—a determination that far exceeds our own. We can be easily dissuaded from compassion by our fear of losing money, but he is never dissuaded. 

The reason the mind of God works this way is because he sees the conduct of his creatures as measured against the ultimate standards of right and wrong, true and false, that reside in himself. People get all confused about how to treat people, because they think ultimate value resides in humankind. And we tend to fail on both ends: we’re increasingly uneasy about punishing the wicked, yet we simultaneously hesitate to serve others if the personal cost is too high. God is not hesitant, nor unclear, in either.