"Man as man is conceivable only within the context of the sovereign will and grace of the Creator. Man as man does not depend upon anything inherent in man, argues the Psalmist (Psalm 8). For what is man compared with the majesty of the heavens -- why should God pay any regard to man?"
"This is not to say that God does not need man's innate abilities to manifest His glory. His glory is His mercy, revealed in His unmerited favor towards His creature man, to whom He gives all the special status man has in creation. What gives glory to God is therefore not man's strength and natural abilities, but his weaknesses, like 'babes and sucklings' wholly dependent upon the Creator. It is in his creatureliness that man is man. As the Russian philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev has said, 'God is more concerned about man's humanity than man is.'"
"It is by election, by the free, sovereign grace of God, his Maker, that man is man."
-- James Houston, I Believe in the Creator, p. 74-75.