Take a deep breath. That’s air you’re breathing. You don’t think about it, but you rely on oxygen every moment of your life. You assume it’s always there, and you can’t live without it.
According to author Glen Scrivener, “Christianity is the air we breathe. It is our atmosphere. It’s our environment, both unseen and all-pervasive.” Many of the institutions and values that our society cherishes exist because Christianity has transformed our world. But because we think they’ve always been there, many take them for granted.
One of the most significant events that inaugurated God’s transformation of our world is described in the first chapter of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). That’s the story of Jesus—the Word. He left his heavenly domain and pierced the envelope of our world. By doing so, he forever changed our reality.
But what if Jesus never came? What would our world look like? In 1898, researchers discovered an ancient Roman letter in Egypt. It was written in 1 BC by a Roman solider named Hilarion, who was writing to his pregnant wife, Alis, while working in Alexandria, about 100 miles away from her. Realizing she might give birth while he’s still away, he tells her, “If—may you have good luck—you should give birth; if it is a boy, keep it; if it is a girl, throw it out.”
What? Throw it out? Throw their precious little baby girl out to die? Yes, that’s exactly what he said. In that era, baby girls were occasionally tossed outside and left to die of exposure or be eaten by wild animals. They were considered less valuable than baby boys because they were deemed less capable.
I bet you’re thinking, I could never think that way. I could never kill a baby girl! That’s true, and here’s the reason why. Take a deep breath…. That’s the reason. You can’t fathom having such a state of mind because the air you breathe comes from a culture that draws its values from the Christian worldview. Western civilization has adopted the view that every human being deserves to live and be treated with dignity and respect. But where did that view come from?
You’ve been affected by a singular event—when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus and the Christian worldview have revolutionized our society’s thinking so much that we can’t even begin to imagine thinking like Hilarion and Alis. One of the most significant changes Christianity made was the change to the way we value human life.
Prior to the advent of Christendom, most cultures viewed humans as having instrumental value. This value system treats human beings as a means to an end. In other words, humans are not valuable in and of themselves. Rather, they are only valuable for what they can do: work at a job, raise children, create art, and contribute to society. On this view, human value correlates to human ability. The more you can do, the more valuable you are. The less you can do, the less valuable you are.
The instrumental value system leads to a grim consequence: The moment a person loses his abilities is the precise moment he loses his value. Then he can be thrown away. In Hilarion and Alis’s world, baby girls were viewed as having fewer abilities than baby boys. Therefore, baby girls were less valuable and could be thrown away. In an instrumental value system, the strong prevail and the weak are discarded.
Today, there are parts of the world that are unaffected by the Christian worldview and its values. In rural India, for example, female infanticide is still a problem. Baby girls are starved, smothered, poisoned, or sometimes even strangled by their umbilical cords. Why? Eastern religions and their values still run the day. India operates on an instrumental value system. Children are a means to an end, and girls are deemed less valuable.
With the rise of Christendom, Western society became structured around a fundamentally different system, one that is based on intrinsic value. On this view, something has value if it has value in itself. A person’s value is, therefore, inherent in their own existence. Because intrinsic value does not depend on one’s abilities, a person’s value never changes.
According to this view, human beings have value because they are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Our value is not based on what we can do, what people think of us, or how much we contribute to society. Rather, our value is based on who we are—an image bearer of God.
Furthermore, our value does not diminish if we lose our physical abilities, mental abilities, friendships, or job. Nothing can change our value because it is inherent in us and not dependent on any ability or external factor.
The intrinsic value system has become a core principle of Western civilization. In fact, it was built into the founding documents of the United States. The Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
Notice, we are valuable because—like Scripture tells us—we are made by our Creator and he has endowed us with value. Notice also that we are not just valuable, but every person is equally valuable to everyone else. That’s because being made in God’s image is not a degreed property. You can’t have more of the image of God or less of the image of God. You’re either made in God’s image or you’re not. You’re either valuable or you’re not.
What’s interesting to note about the Declaration’s wording is that it says these truths are “self-evident.” To someone steeped in the Christian worldview, it’s obvious that humans are intrinsically valuable. That truth is part of the air we breathe.
Indeed, the intrinsic value system is one of the greatest gifts the Christian worldview gave our culture. When you consistently apply this value system, you can’t justify the atrocities of history. You can’t justify the gladiatorial games of Rome, because people aren’t mere entertainment. You can’t justify slavery, because people can’t be owned. And you can’t justify throwing baby girls out to die, because no matter their limited economic potential, they are intrinsically valuable and precious image bearers of God.
All these atrocities are unthinkable because the Christian worldview has permeated the institutions of our society. It’s in the air we breathe. We don’t even realize it, but everything around us has been changed by the Word, who became flesh, dwelt among us, and transformed our reality.