They All Have Become ἄχρηστος

 Romans 3:12 argues that humanity all together has become achreiow, a word translated as "worthless." Someone arguing on FB for the inherent value of man found other English glosses that he thought fit his argument better to where it was translated as "unprofitable" or "unserviceable." 

Now, this is a distinction without a difference if this debate is known well. The entire point is that if man is unusable for any service or unprofitable for any service then the word is conveying the same thing by being translated "worthless." 

Here is the BDAG entry for both the verb and noun.

ἀχρειόω (s. ἀχρεῖος) (t.r., S., Vog.; by-form ἀχρεόω Tdf., W-H., M., Bov., N25; SIG 569, 31; s. B-D-F §30, 2) 1 aor. inf. ἀχρειῶσαι LXX; 3 pl. pf. ἠχρείωκαν Da 6:21. Pass. 1 aor. ἠχρεώθην; pf. ptc. ἠχρειωμένος (Philo Mech. 60, 16; Polyb. 3, 64, 8 al.; Vett. Val. 290, 1; OGI 573, 16: LXX; ἠχρειώθησαν Just., D. 27, 3; Theoph. Ant. 2, 35 [p. 188, 29]) in our lit. only pass.

① make useless, outwardly, in symbolism, of damaged sticks Hs 8, 3, 4.

② of becoming a liability to society because of moral depravity become depraved, worthless of pers. Ro 3:12 (Ps 13:3; 52:4).—M-M.

ἄχρηστος, ον (s. χρηστός, χράομαι; Theognis+) pert. to not serving any beneficial purpose (in Gr-Rom. society gener. pert. to lack of responsibility within the larger social structure, s. antonyms εὔχρηστος, χρηστός) useless, worthless, perh. in wordplay on the name Onesimus and certainly w. the term εὔχρηστος (as Hv 3, 6, 7; cp. Hs 9, 26, 4; Jos., Ant. 12, 61) Phlm 11 τόν ποτέ σοι ἄ. who was once useless to you (ἄ. τινι as EpArist 164); ἄ. of a slave Epict. 1, 19, 19 and 22 (cp. wordplay χρήσιμον ἐξ ἀχηρήστου Pla, Rep. 411a). W. περισσός Dg 4:2.—Hv 3, 6, 2; Hs 9, 26, 4; ὀξυχολία ἄ. ἐστιν ill temper leads to no good m 5, 1, 6.—DELG s.v. χρή. M-M. TW.

Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 160). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Man is worthless in terms of his function, and is, therefore, worthless in terms of his form. That is the point of it. 

If gold is no longer valuable due to its servicing function, it is no longer valuable, period. But one might say, "If gold were to lose its monetary value, it could still be used for other things. But that is to say that it is not rendered unserviceable but rather merely had a change of service. So this is not what the word means. Another might say, "Well, even though the gold has no other function, it can still be valuable to the owner. But this is a misunderstanding as well. If it is pleasing in its appearance or just in its existence to the owner then it is serving a function and is, therefore, serviceable/functional/valuable. Changing the translation with other synonyms does not help the case. 

Likewise, the Hebrew word it is translating in Psalm 14:1 is the word שָׁחַת, which is something that is ruined in terms of its function. It is rendered useless as it no longer functions for the purpose it was created. 

Man no longer functions in any good way, which is the point of Romans 3:9-18. He, therefore, does not have value as something that is in some way pleasing to God just by virtue of being man (Rom 8:8). He is not pleasing in function, and therefore, has no value in form. 

This may sound awful to our modern ears but I would suggest it is the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not like gold that simply has no monetary value but is still valued by its owner due to some inherent worth or delight. We are more like garbage that has no value whatsoever and is good for nothing but to be thrown away.

Instead, God, in His great mercy and love has chosen, without being compelled by some inherent worth or value in man, freely and without attraction to man's worthiness, decided to redeem what was without value and give the worth and value of the Son of God to worthless people. Those who have been redeemed are now the most valuable creatures that could ever exist. Those who are called by the gospel are being offered the inexpressible and exclusive riches of Christ's value to God and may now obtain this free gift through faith in His Son. 

Fallen man is no longer valuable as God's image but he may become so through the One who is most valuable, and as the images of God, instruments of creation and life, Christians, our duty is to express this magnificent offer to everyone everywhere. The barren may become fertile again by the magnificent work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this way, I wonder if those who argue so rigorously that man must retain some inherent value realize that they may actually be diminishing the glory of the gospel in doing so. If man is inherently valuable as the image of God then why wouldn't God value him and save him? Who wouldn't buy back some gold? But only a God whose love and mercy is beyond measure buys back garbage and makes it into gold.