PASTOR BEN’S COMMENTS

During construction of Emerson Hall at Harvard University, president Charles Eliot invited the renowned psychologist William James to suggest a suitable inscription for the stone lintel over the doors of the new home of the philosophy department.

After some reflection, James sent Eliot a line from Greek philosopher Protagoras: "Man is the measure of all things."

James never heard back from Eliot, so his curiosity was piqued when he spotted artisans working on a scaffold hidden by a canvas. One morning, the scaffold and canvas were gone. The inscription? "... what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"

Eliot had replaced James's suggestion with words from Psalm 8:4. Between these two lines lies the great distance between the God-centered and human-centered points of view. They are the distance between light and darkness, hope and despair, even life and death.

Contrary to Protagoras and William James, man is not the measure of all things. The Bible informs us it is God who measures man's actions with just standards, and we have all fallen quite short of the mark. We are further informed of our hopeless situation. We need a rescuer, a Savior.

When we learn what sacrifice is required to rescue us, we come to the question David asks in Psalm 8:4. If we look within ourselves for a reason that God should love us and give His Son for us we will come up short--it simply isn't there. Job asked the same question as David, "What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention," (Job 7:17).

The cause for such love and atoning sacrifice is found only in the grace and goodness of our God.