Value is not intrinsic, it is not in things. It is within us; it is the way in which man reacts to the conditions of his environment.
-Mises, Human Action, Chapter 3

This statement was in regard to goods and services: the subjective theory of value breathed new life into classical economics – that goods are priced based on how much they are valued by the consumer relative to other goods, and not by any intrinsic worth – hence why diamonds are more expensive than water, despite water being much more necessary. Neither water nor diamonds have any intrinsic value apart from what people can use them for: that is, it doesn’t matter how much it costs to produce a diamond: if no one will buy it, it does not have that value.

One may say that economics is the study of value given the relevance of human valuations. Thus it is self-limiting in its scope, dealing only with value as humans perceive it in the aggregate. But the same principles apply anywhere. Why is the human being valuable? Does a human life have intrinsic worth?

One can easily put an economic price on a life (just look at medical care and the black market of organ transplants), but people seem to have a problem with this idea – preferring that life’s value be nonmonetary. This requires that the valuation of human life be given not by fellow humans (in which case it would simply be another economic good), but by a higher power. Why then is human life valuable? Not of its own merit: this isn’t an argument from total depravity, for even if we were perfect, it must matter to someone for life to be valuable.

Theology then encompasses the study of value given the relevance of God’s valuation, which is necessarily higher than the sum of human valuations, and thus relevant to the question of nonmonetary human value. Human goods are valued based on their purpose or use: the more useful something is in bringing about one’s ends, the more valuable it is to that person. What then are God’s ends, and how do we factor into that?

The end of history is the glory of God. Humans factor into that as the primary recipients of joy through the apprehension of this glory. In this regard, though all of creation is intended for that same purpose (Calvin said “there is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice [in the glory of God]“), we may say that human life is more valuable than animal life or other aspects of creation in that God is glorified in the apprehension of His glory.

But the apprehending aspect of human value does not cease at death. It is wrong to say that God is less glorified in death than in life – indeed, the opposite is more nearly true: resurrection and redemption from death stand out as the most glorious acts of God. Human life is therefore of no value as the soul’s purposes of glorification, whether in election for the mercy of God or in reprobation for the wrath of God, are in no capacity diminished by death.

This is not to justify murder, abortion, or anything of the sort. We do not have that moral authority. But in terms of final valuations, it is a mistake to believe the countless self-esteem messages (especially those purportedly Christian ones) that humans are intrinsically valuable, or that God loves us because of who we are. The love of God for us is not founded in anything about ourselves (heaven help us if it were), but in the ends of God through history for the purpose of His glory.