What is a life worth? Most people’s spontaneous answer is: A person’s life is priceless. Reducing a human being to a mere monetary value contradicts his dignity and seems deeply immoral. Yet countless experts around the world grapple with this question day after day—health economists, actuaries, politicians, and doctors. Human resources departments in large corporations and military strategists can hardly do without similar calculations. We usually measure the value of a thing by its usefulness, its rarity, or by the price someone is willing to pay for it.

The Value of a Person

However, the value of a thing also depends on who is judging it. This is no different for a person’s life. God judges a person’s life very differently than we do. But people’s views also differ in this respect—sometimes considerably.

In the Eyes of People

The chemist estimates a person’s value as the lowest. He calculates an adult’s contents based on the basic components of the human body and, depending on market conditions, arrives at 10 to 15 euros. The economist calculates the average value of a human life in Germany at 1.65 million euros. And the person concerned, whose life is at stake? He sees it quite differently: For him, nothing is more valuable than his life, and he would give anything to preserve it.

One thing is also clear: At his death, a person must leave behind everything he owns and has achieved on earth. He cannot take anything with him into eternity. Whether rich or poor, high or low, great or small—the same applies to all people: “The last shirt has no pockets.” Everything on this earth is subject to transience—with one exception: The human soul is imperishable. And that is what matters.

What does God’s Word say about this topic? Scripture clearly testifies that the value of a soul stands far above every earthly possession and every earthly position. In Mark 8 we read: “For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what could a person give in exchange for his soul?” (v. 36–37). And in Psalm 49: “No man can by any means redeem his brother, or give God a ransom for him—For the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever—” (v. 8–9). We therefore see: The value of a soul cannot be offset by anything on this earth. It is priceless.

In the Eyes of God

In God’s eyes, man has great value. This is shown by the fact that God created man in His image and placed him in the garden of Eden, where he lacked nothing (Genesis 1:27, 29). But man’s value in God’s eyes becomes clearest when we think of the Lord Jesus: God gave His only, beloved Son to redeem man and bring him back into fellowship with Himself. Christians have been “bought for a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23)—this powerfully documents the value of every redeemed person to God.

Romans 5:8 contains the telling words: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God loves people so much that He gave his only begotten Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all (Romans 8:32). With the gift of His Son, God has clearly shown that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but wants them to turn and live (Ezekiel 33:11).

The Value of the Lord Jesus

The Lord Jesus, too, when He lived on earth as a man, was judged and assessed by those who surrounded Him and saw Him every day. These were first and foremost His family, His disciples, the leaders of the people, and the crowds—but also God, who always looked down on Him from heaven. As a result, what people generally thought of the Lord Jesus clearly differed from what God thought of Him.

People in general did not think highly of the Lord Jesus. On the contrary, they despised Him from the beginning. Isaiah writes: “He had no stately form or majesty that we would look at Him, Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.” And: “He was despised and abandoned by men, a Man of great pain and familiar with sickness; And like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him” (Isaiah 53:2–3).

Judas Iscariot, who had remained in the immediate vicinity of his Lord and Master for over three years, betrayed Him to His enemies for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15). That was the price the Lord of glory was worth to them. Zechariah already spoke prophetically (and at the same time ironically, because the opposite is meant) of this “magnificent price”: “So I said to them, ‘If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!’ And they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.’ So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter” (Zechariah 11:12–13).

God’s verdict about His Son, by contrast, turned out completely differently. Both at the beginning and at the end of His public ministry, God expressed from heaven the pleasure He had found in the Lord Jesus: “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; 17:5). And in response to His completed work of redemption on the cross of Golgotha, God raised Him from the dead and, as a man, gave Him the highest place in the universe, the place at His right hand. There we now see Him crowned with glory and honor (Hebrews 2:9). The Father’s heart is filled with His Son, who so highly glorified Him on earth in His life and death.

From these thoughts about the value of a person and the value of the Lord Jesus, two questions arise:

• What is the (eternal) life of your fellow human beings worth to you?

• What is your Savior and Lord worth to you?

Take time to think calmly about these questions. Begin to pray by name for people around you!

Take time to reflect on the so valuable, unique person of the Lord Jesus, His suffering and death, and His glorification!