The Value of One Life

I remember sitting across the table from the lawyer three months after the death of my father and staring blankly at the life insurance check he had just handed my mother and I. It was an amount that by no means made us wealthy, nor provided a financially secure future for a lifetime, it was enough to cover expenses and give a cushion until my mother could find a better paying job that provided for her family. I will never forget looking at the dollar amount and thing, “This is all dad was worth.” I can tell you I would have traded that check for another conversation, another pat on the back, another chance to tell him how much I loved him. No dollar figure could ever, and has never, replaced him.

While we consider all life priceless leave it to the government to determine how much you and I are worth. According to an article in Marketplace dated March 20, 2019 places the value of one human life at $10 million dollars. TEN MILLION SMACKAROOS as Bugs Bunny would say. That may seem like a large amount of money, but to someone who has lost a loved one it is but a pittance. The government uses a formula called the value of statistical life to determine whether the number of lives saved, the benefit, is worth the cost of a regulation. The do this by determining how many risks of death are associated with a job, add up what everyone is paid to take on that risk and you arrive at a numerical value that estimates the value of the loss life.

For God the value of life is beyond a numerical value. To understand how precious one single, solitary life is to Him can only be found in how far He was willing to Go to give us access to eternal life. John 3:16 states For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus Christ shed His blood, giving His life for our ransom from death, hell, and the grave. God so desired to restore the relationship between fallen creation and Himself that He gave of Himself for us. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32 reveals the length God would go to give us the greatest gift of all, everlasting life.

What is the value of one life? It can be summed up in the words of Paul again.

Romans 5:7-8:

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.