The Sanctity of Life

Jer. 1:4-9

In 1970 a Texas woman became pregnant and decided to fight the antiabortion legislation of her state. Using the pseudonym Jane Roe, she took Henry Wade, the Dallas district attorney, to court. The case eventually went to the Supreme Court in January, 1973, and is now the renown Roe vs. Wade case. The Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 that the Texas law banning abortion was unconstitutional. Its judgment inhibited all regulation of abortion during the first three months of pregnancy, and during the second and third trimesters regulated it only in relation to the mother's physical or mental health. This ruling implicitly permitted abortion on demand at every stage of pregnancy. The number of legal abortions in the United States in 1969 was less than 20,000. This year more than one and a half million unborn babies will be aborted. That is 4,250 today, 177 this hour, and three since I began.

1. The abortion question is admittedly complex and emotional. It has physical, social, medical, psychological and spiritual considerations.

2. There are no easy answers to the problem of unwanted pregnancy.

3. But we cannot opt out of making a decision simply because the problem is complex or because the consequences are difficult.

4. What principles can we find in the Bible to help us.

I. Man is Made in the Image of God

1. Gen. 1:26,27 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

2. Man is not like any other creature, cannot be compared to animals

3. Gen. 9:6 says: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."

4. Psalm 8 reminds us: God views man as special—God is “mindful of him.” Every person, male or female, young or old, handicapped or whole, mentally challenged or not, diseased or not, has a valued life

5. Acts 17:28 tells us “we are His offspring.” Heb. 12:9 says God is “the father of our spirits.”

6. Luke 3:38 Adam is called the “son of God”

II. Jesus Loved and Cared for Little Children

1. Abortion proponents argue the taking of a preborn child’s life is not wrong since the unborn do not measure up to the definition of a person.

2. A person to them is “one who has good mental and physical health and the ability to socialize.” A fetus would not measure up.

3. The Scriptures view infants and children as a blessing from God (Psalm 127). He provided laws to protect them even when they were not fully developed.

4. Jesus loved little children and blessed them (Mt. 19:13-15) Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." And after laying His hands on them, He departed from there.

5. It is significant to note that the New Testament uses the same word to describe and unborn child as is used to describe a little child--brefoV

a. used of John the Baptist in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:41,44)

b. used of Jesus as a newborn baby (Luke 2:12,16)

c. used of the little children Jesus prayed for (Luke 18:15)

III. God’s Word Contains A Very High View of Life

1. Gen. 2:7 "the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."

2. Acts 17:25 “He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things;

3. Acts 17:28 for in Him we live and move and exist,

4. Life has to do with the whole person—mind, body and soul

5. To take a life is to rob a person of himself; abortion is robber of the life that already is and life that is to be.

6. When people decide they have a right to decide who lives and who dies and who has a right to live, they presume the place of God.

7. They also presume a wisdom about the future they may not have.

8. Some ill-timed pregnancies:

a. Sarah and Elizabeth were too old to have children. If they had not, where would Isaac and John the Baptist be?

b. If Jesse and his wife had thought seven sons were enough, there would have been no David.

c. If Deborah or Esther’s parents had wanted boys and aborted them, where would Israel be?

d. We all those 33 million aborted babies since 1973 worthless? No scholars, no musicians, no scientists, no authors, no doctors?

e. Where would you be if your parents had had some reason to abort you?

IV. God Considers the Beginning of Life to Be at Conception

1. Some 40 times the Scriptures speak of conception as the start of life.

2. In Genesis alone, we have the phrase “and she conceived and bore” eleven times.

3. Jer. 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you"

4. Gal. 1:15 Paul says God had set him apart “even from my mother’s womb”

5. Psalm 139:13-16

For You created my inmost being;

You knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from You

when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

Your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in Your book

before one of them came to be.

6. Abortion is an interference with God’s work in the making of a person

7. A fetus in a woman’s body is not mere tissue

a. No one mourns the loss of tonsils, appendicts, or gall bladder

b. Pain and bills we dislike, but we do not need comfort from grief

c. When some dear lady has a miscarriage we do mourn for her and the unborn child. Why, if this is not a person?

8. Abortion can burden a person for life: Nancy Carmel wrote:

"A burden? Women undergoing abortion have no idea what suffering they will encounter after the abortion, and daily for the rest of their lives, when it suddenly dawns on them that they chose to extinguish a precious life.

"Twenty-three years ago, as a frightened young girl, alone, seeing no way out, I opted for a legal abortion that left me infertile to suffer an eternal hell on earth, constantly aching for a child of my own to nurture.

"The guilt of killing your child eats away at your soul continually, like a ravenous cancer, causing one to pray for a quick demise. You will always wonder if the fetus was male or female, what he or she would look like. Yearly, you will mournfully recall the day your baby was ripped from your body, only to be carelessly tossed into a garbage pail at your side.

"If only someone had mentioned adoption to me as a viable alternative to a temporary condition, my child would be alive today, perhaps making a difference in someone's life." (USA Today, March 21, 1994, p. 10A)

9. Technically speaking, a fetus is not merely the mother's tissue. Within a short period of time, an unborn baby has its own circulatory and nervous systems. Genetically speaking, the baby and mother and clearly not identical. A fetus is the product not just of the mother but also of the father. The new baby is the result of the union of two people. Women do not produce babies alone.

10. Prov. 6:16-19 God hates “hands that shed innocent blood” God will not hold guiltless those who shed innocent blood.

Conclusion:

1. Those who have fallen to the temptation of a choice often think they have done terrible things, but there is hope.

2. Sin is great, but the blood of Christ is greater still!

3. We cannot change the past, but we can be forgiven of it.

4. 1 Tim. 1:12-16 God’s grace is greater than all our sin

5. God can forgive you.