The Worth of a Man
Text: Psalm 8:3-4
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- State the governing philosophical question of the sermon — what is the unit of measure? — and explain why the answer to that question determines whether a human being appears great or insignificant.
- Name the three dimensions of limitation (space, time, law) and explain what each reveals about the smallness of man measured by external standards.
- Explain why the soul, the will, and man's possibilities constitute a different scale of measurement — one by which man is greater than the mountain, the sea, and the sun.
- Articulate what it cost to make man great and what it cost to keep him great, and explain why redemption is the measure of man's ultimate worth.
- Answer David's question in Psalm 8:4 — "What is man that You take thought of him?" — with the answer the sermon provides.
Thesis
The worth of a man is not measured by space, time, or law — dimensions by which he is nothing. It is measured by what it cost to make him and what it cost to keep him: the image of God and the death of Christ.
Burden
Psalm 8 is a psalm of wonder: "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?" (Ps. 8:3-4). The question is not rhetorical contempt for man — it is astonishment at the gap between the vastness of the creation and the attention God gives to the creature within it. the sermon is an extended answer to David's question. What is a man? The answer depends entirely on which end of the telescope you look through.
Introduction
Two sailors stood on the deck of a ship and looked at a sail at sea. One said: "It looks small and far away." The other said: "It looks large and near." The one looked through the big end of the glass; the other through the little end.
Two philosophers stood on a mountain top of vision and looked at a human being. One said: "He looks as great as the universe." The other said: "He looks as insignificant as an atom."
Both sailors looked at the same sail. Both philosophers looked at the same man. The question is not about the object but about the instrument of measurement. "Whether the man is great or insignificant depends upon the unit with which we measure him." Change the unit of measure and you change the answer — not because the man has changed but because what you are comparing him to has changed.
I. The Basis of Greatness
Before the measuring begins, the unit must be established.
What is the unit of measure for greatness? the answers: conscious self-activity. A rock is not great. A mountain is not great. A painting is not great — not in itself. They are large, imposing, and beautiful, but their greatness is borrowed. "They only reflect the greatness of their Creator." The rock did not make itself a rock. The mountain did not choose its height. The painting did not mix its own pigments. None of these can say "I will" or "I will not." They have no agency; they have no will; they are what they are done to them.
"That which limits or determines a thing is greater than the thing." The sculptor who shapes the statue is greater than the statue. The law that governs the planets is greater than the planets. The one who sets the boundaries of the ocean is greater than the ocean (Job 38:8-11). By this principle, the being who can be self-directing — who can say "I will" in relation to its own course — is of a different order than the being that only obeys the forces acting on it.
II. Man's Limitations
Measured by external standards, man is negligible.
Space. Man occupies only one square foot of space. Compared to a mountain or prairie he is very small; to the ocean or continent, a speck; to the earth, sun, or solar system he is nothing. The observable universe extends in every direction at a scale that makes the earth invisible and man immeasurable — a particle of dust on a particle of dust, too small to register.
Time. Man's life spans only three score and ten years. What is that compared to a millennium or eternity? More than two hundred generations have slept in the earth since Adam — a generation is but one swing of the pendulum of the clock of eternity. The sun will outlast every human civilization. The mountains will stand long after the last human name is forgotten. Measured by time, man is a vapor (James 4:14).
Law. Man limited by law is as helpless as the brute. Above the Niagara Falls in a boat are a man, a dog, and a bouquet of flowers — all three go down together, yielding to the law of gravitation. The law asks no questions and gives no free passes. Disease makes no distinction between man and the brute. The spiritual law of sowing and reaping (Gal. 6:7-8) recognizes no privileged class: "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). Wrong is wrong and right is right — gold, power, or genius cannot change one to the other.
By these measures — space, time, law — man is nothing. David's question from the vantage point of the nighttime sky is the appropriate response: what is man, measured against the universe?
III. The Other View of Man
But there is another instrument. And measured by it, man is the greatest thing in the creation.
His intellect. Space and time cannot limit it. "There is something longer than the mile, heavier than the ton, mightier than law — the soul of man." The man sitting in one square foot of space can think about the entire universe, can reason about things that happened before he was born, can plan for things that will happen after he dies. Space is nothing to a full-orbed man — time is nothing; man lives in eternity, past and future. The dimension within which the intellect operates is not spatial or temporal. It is of a different order than the creation it inhabits.
The will of man. Man is greater than the mountain, the sea, or the sun — none of these ever said "I will" or "I will not." The capacity for agency — for the origination of a course of action, for the refusal of one course and the choice of another — is the property that distinguishes man from every other creature in the visible creation. "The most powerful thing in the universe of God is man's will." The rock yields to the pickaxe. The river yields to the dam. The disease is treated or not by the choice of the person with the will to seek treatment or refuse it. Nothing in the created order has this capacity except the one made in the image of the one who said "Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3).
Man's possibilities. The possible greatness of man may be estimated by what it cost to make man great and to keep him great.
It taxed the energies of Omnipotence to make man in the image of God. "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" (Gen. 1:26) — the deliberateness of that phrase, with its divine consultation and purposive intent, marks the creation of man as categorically distinct from everything else. God spoke the rest into existence. He made man in his image. Noble pattern.
It cost the death of Christ to keep man great. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). The worth of a thing is revealed by what someone is willing to pay for it. God was willing to give the Son for the man who had forfeited the position love had given him. That price names the worth. The greatest thing in the universe is that which is most like God — and a redeemed soul is the most like God of anything in the creation. It is made in his image, and through redemption that image is being restored to what it was designed to be (Col. 3:10; 2 Cor. 3:18).
Application
Three recalibrations this sermon requires:
Look at yourself through the right end of the telescope. When you are tempted to measure your life by what you occupy, how long you last, and whether you can escape the law — remember that those measures produce the wrong answer. They measure the container, not the contents.
Take the will seriously. The most powerful thing in the universe of God is your will. You can say "I will" and "I will not" in a way that nothing else in the visible creation can. What you do with that capacity is the hinge on which everything else turns.
Let redemption tell you what you are worth. God did not give the Son for the rocks, the mountains, or the sun. He gave him for you. That price is the most accurate measure of your worth ever stated. It was stated at Golgotha.
Conclusion
"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?" (Ps. 8:3-4). David's question is answered by the rest of the psalm: "Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet" (Ps. 8:5-6).
The answer is not that man is nothing measured against the heavens. The answer is that the God who made the heavens cares for the man underneath them. And the measure of that care is not the stars — it is the cross.
Invitation
The worth that God places on you was stated most clearly in the price he was willing to pay to restore what sin had damaged. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).
The soul that is most like God is the redeemed soul. If you have not yet entered that redemption: believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God — the price paid for your worth. Repent of the life that has not acknowledged what it cost him. Confess his name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). And become the greatest thing in the universe — not because of what you are in yourself, but because of what it cost to make you what you were made to be.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What is man? | mā-'ĕnôš | "what is a mortal?" | the Hebrew 'ĕnôš emphasizes human frailty and mortality | the Hebrew 'ĕnôš emphasizes human frailty and mortality; the question is not disdainful but astonished: given how fragile and small the creature is, why does the infinite God take notice? | Ps. 8:4 |
| Take thought of him | tizkĕrennû | to remember, to be mindful of | the verb implies active, sustained attention | the verb implies active, sustained attention; God is not occasionally reminded of man but continually mindful; this is the wonder of the psalm | Ps. 8:4 |
| Image of God | ṣelem ʾĕlōhîm | the divine likeness in which man was created | the word ṣelem was used for a statue or image that represented the person in their absence | the word ṣelem was used for a statue or image that represented the person in their absence; man was made as the visible representation of the invisible God in the created order; it is this that makes his worth immeasurable by spatial or temporal scales | Gen. 1:26 |
| Redeemed | lytrōthentes | to be released by the payment of a price | the word for redemption is a marketplace term | the word for redemption is a marketplace term; someone bought the slave's freedom at cost; the cost of the redemption of a human soul was "not with perishable things like silver or gold… but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ" (1 Pet. 1:18-19) | — |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| "What is man that You take thought of him?" — the governing question | Intro | Ps. 8:3-4 |
| Man made in the image of God — noble pattern | III.3 | Gen. 1:26-27 |
| "The wages of sin is death" — no privileged class under spiritual law | II.3 | Rom. 6:23 |
| "God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son" — the price | III.3 | John 3:16 |
| "You have made him a little lower than God, crowned with glory" | Concl. | Ps. 8:5-6 |
| "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" — worth declared | Invit. | Rom. 5:8 |
| Baptism for remission of sins — the entry into redemption | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
| "Redeemed… with precious blood, as of a lamb" | Word Study | 1 Pet. 1:18-19 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 98. Primary text: Psalm 8:3-4 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: ".fan" corrected to "Man" (section II.1); "full-orbid" corrected to "full-orbed" (section III.1b); "priviledged" (section II.3e) is Boles's own spelling — corrected to "privileged" in the conversion. Doctrinal audit: man's worth grounded in the image of God (Gen. 1:26) and the cost of redemption (John 3:16; 1 Pet. 1:18-19); no premillennial framing; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
