(I gave this message on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday at Pines Baptist Church in Pembroke Pines, January 22, 2017. You can listen to this message online HERE under the title "The Value of Life" and view the PowerPoint slides Here.)
Let me
say at the outset of this message that I am aware that in any audience I speak
to, there will be those whose lives have been touched by abortion in some way.
Therefore I know that dealing with this subject could be difficult, even
painful for some here this morning.
However,
as followers of Jesus Christ, we must be willing to address this subject from
the authority of Scripture. But, we do so in the context of two very important
Biblical truths. Perhaps you remember this illustration I shared with you four
years ago. There are two things a train must have to safely reach its
destination. Two tracks, two tracks running parallel to each other all the way
to its destination. A train will go nowhere without riding on both tracks, at the
same time, all the way to the end of the rail line. In the same way, we must communicate
what God says about abortion in the context of God's grace and God's truth.
You see,
theologically grace and truth always go together. In fact, they are
theologically inseparable. They are like the two sides of the same coin. You
cannot have one without the other.
And
here's why this is important. As I've shared with you before, Pastor Randy
Alcorn has written, "Grace without truth deceives people. Truth without
grace, crushes people." You see, we will never understand God's grace apart
from God's truth. But God's truth will always lead us to God's grace.
So as we
begin this morning let me impress this upon you. If your life has been touched
by an abortion, while you cannot escape the truth about abortion nor some of
its consequences, please know that there is forgiveness, there is healing and
restoration in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is a way to resolve the guilt,
shame and hurt that abortion will bring to the human experience. And I want you
to know that you are in the right place to hear that Good News. If your life
has been touched by abortion in any way, you are in a safe place in this church.
Today,
January 22, 2017 should be a day of national mourning, for it is the 44th
anniversary of two landmark decisions of the United States Supreme Court, Roe
v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. These two
rulings of the court legalized the deliberate, premeditated killing of unborn
children at anytime
during all nine months of pregnancy right up to the moment of natural child
birth for virtually any reason. In other words, the Supreme Court gave women
the right to "choose" whether to
keep or kill their unborn child. Therefore a "women's right to
choose" or "reproductive rights" have become the code words used
by the proponents of abortion to frame the debate, while those who deny the
validity of the Court's decision and advocate for the life of the unborn, are
referred to as "prolife."
Is God
pro-life? That is the question that should concern those on either side of the
abortion debate. The answer to that question depends on who you ask.
On the website
"EvilBible.com" which describes itself as, "Fighting Immorality
In Religion" you will find an article entitled "God is not
Pro-Life" subtitled, "The Biblical God is NOT pro-life, he advocates
child murder, infanticide, child abuse and abortion." That conclusion, I
might add, comes from
very questionable hermeneutics and interpretation of Scripture, leading to an entirely
false characterization of the God revealed in the Bible.
Planned
Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider, taking the lives of 915
children every day, over 300,000 per year. Earlier this month, Planned
Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington and the Religious Coalition For
Reproductive Choice, sponsored an event to "bless" Planned
Parenthood's newest clinic in Washington D.C. The event was organized by a
husband-wife pastoral team from a local Baptist church.
It is
reported that before the opening ceremony the religious leaders met in a prayer
circle, and were called upon by one of the leaders to "make it [the
clinic] whole and holy." Pastor Stephen Broden reports, that these
religious leaders of several different faiths "...blessed Planned
Parenthood and called it a 'sacred work.'" (Black Community News,
01-19-17)
About ten
years ago, Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, President of the Episcopal
Divinity School in New England, in a sermon given in Birmingham Alabama said, “When
a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides
she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to safe, affordable abortion –
there is not a tragedy in sight – only blessing.”
You see,
there are professing Christians who justify a mother's right to abort her child.
Abortion is now legal because the Supreme Court has ruled that a preborn baby is
not a person, and therefore lies outside of the protection of the U. S.
Constitution. The Court was willing to set aside the opinion of our Founding
fathers who wrote in the Declaration of Independence "...that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
The
authors of the Declaration evidently looked to the Scriptures in determining
the value of human life. And so must we, acknowledging both the Biblical
creation account of man, and in
particular the declaration that man was created in the image of God. It is the
failure to acknowledge this truth that has allowed the government and our
courts to sanctioned the killing of 60 million unborn children since 1973 and
perhaps has even contributed to the church remaining largely silent and ambivalent
to the plight of the most innocent and defenseless among us, our unborn
children.
What
value does God place on human life? To answer that question, we must first
answer another question. "Who is man?" So today we focus on Biblical
truth that man was created in the Image of God.
The
Christian response to abortion depends on knowing who man is. If we fail to
understand this we will never be able to determine what value to place upon the
life of the unborn. Understanding that man was created in the image and
likeness of God is at the very core of why we hold to the sanctity of human
life in or out of the womb.
The very
fist incident of "shedding innocent blood", which is the most
accurate Biblical terminology for abortion, took place very early in human
history, when Eve's firstborn son, Cain, took the life of his own brother Abel.
The first human being ever born on earth murdered the first sibling ever born
on earth, his younger brother!
When God
confronted Cain, He asked, "What have you done? The voice of your
brother's blood is crying to me from the ground." (Genesis 4:10 ESV) You
see, the shed blood of Abel had a voice, the Scriptures says that cried out to
God. What is the significance of innocent blood crying out to God?
As I
shared with you two years ago, it is God's way of expressing both his
displeasure with the shedding of innocent blood and implies that He is bound to
respond to the taking of innocent human life in a manner consistent with the
value He has placed upon human life having created man in His image and
likeness.
This is
stated just a few chapters later. In the opening verses of Genesis chapter
nine, we have God giving Noah instructions as civilization makes a new
beginning after the flood. Notice verses five and six, "And for your
lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and
from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of a man. Whoever
sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his
own image. (Genesis 9:5-6 ESV)
Notice
that God formally announces His demand for an accounting for the shedding of innocent
blood. If a man takes another man's life, God said, "I will require a
reckoning." In other
words, God saw the need to restrain evil behavior therefore he makes provision for
the protector of human life through capital punishment.
Notice
the reason God demands justice for the shedding of innocent blood. "Whoever
sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his
own image." Back to Genesis one. The protection of innocent human life all
stems from the fact, that human life bears the image of its Creator, and when
we unjustly extinguish that life, it constitutes a personal affront to a Holy and Righteous God.
At this
point it is well to remember as I shared with you three years ago, there are ultimately only two
prevailing world views from which we determine what value we place on human
life. The
Biblical worldview is rooted in the creation account,
"Then
God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the
livestock and
over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and
female he created them."
Genesis
1:26-27 (ESV) "...then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living
creature. Genesis 2.7 (ESV)
Fast
forward to the apostle Paul who makes creation foundational to a Biblical
worldview. In Romans
chapter one, he describes the process whereby man has suppressed the truth that
God graciously reveals to him through his conscience the created world. Verse eighteen,
"For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth."
What truth does man suppress? "For what can
be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely,
his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since
the creation of the world, in
the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:19-20
ESV)
God has revealed Himself to man through his
creation, natural revelation. As Griffith Thomas has written, "There is
thus no valid reason for ignorance of God, for that which is a matter of knowledge
concerning God has been manifested in them by conscience and through
nature." (St. Paul's
Epistle to the Romans, pg. 68) Paul continues,
"For although they knew God, they did not
honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their
thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise they
became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling
mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of
their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves…" (Romans
1:21-24 ESV)
Then Paul identifies the source of the two
competing worldviews, in verse twenty-five, "...they exchanged
the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than
the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." (Romans 1:25 ESV)
Having
suppressed the truth about God revealed to them in their conscience and in God's
creation, man turns to idolatry, and inevitably the worship of self. There are
ultimately only two worldviews. One denies there is a Creator and worships the
creation. The other acknowledges the Creator and worships the Creator.
You see,
modern evolutionary theory, that governs the thinking of 21st century America, denies
the existence of the Creator and therefore postulates that man was the
product of
a meaningless, random evolutionary process over billions of years, the result of
a cosmic accident. And this is the inevitable result. Man is seen as just
another animal who has risen to the top of the evolutionary chain having
succeeded in the survival of the fittest. Having denied the
existence of his Creator man is therefore believed to be the product of mere
chance, time and matter with no inherent intrinsic value by virtue of his
origin.
He is
therefore accountable to no one but himself. In essence, the result is the
self-deification of man. Having denied the existence of God, man becomes his
own god and answers to no one but himself. Dr. Francis Schaeffer, defined this
worldview over thirty years ago in his book, A Christian Manifesto writing,
"The
term humanism...means Man beginning from himself, with no knowledge except what
he himself can discover and no standard outside of himself. In this view Man is
the measure of all things, as the Enlightenment expressed it." (page 24)
And this
worldview, rooted in secular humanism and moral relativism, brings a
devastating consequence with regard to the value it places on human life in or
out of the womb, at the beginning of life or at the end. Dr. Schaeffer explains,
"Those
who hold the material-energy, chance concept of reality...not only do not know
the truth of the final reality, God, they do not know who Man is...They have
reduced Man to even less than his natural finiteness by seeing him only as a
complex arrangement of molecules, made complex by blind chance. Instead of
seeing him as something great who is significant even in his sinning, they see
Man in his essence only as an intrinsically competitive animal, that has no
other basic operating principle than natural selection brought about by the
strongest, the fittest, ending on top. And they see Man as acting in this way
both individually and collectively as society." (Christian Manifesto, pages 25-26)
This worldview
explains how seven men on the Supreme Court could deny the intrinsic value of
preborn human life for political or other self-serving reasons disregarding the transcendent truth acknowledged
by the Founding Fathers when they declared, that every person has an unalienable right to life given to them not by
the Supreme Court, not by Congress, not the Federal government, not the State
of Florida, but by their Creator! This worldview has had enormous impact on our
culture and society with regard to abortion.
Pastor
John Ensor in his book Innocent Blood writes,
"The
times and the context determine what must be emphasized in the gospel. Our
times are marked by the blood guilt of abortion. It is the hallmark of our relativism
and subjectivism. We define our own truth. We define our own morality. We
define our own sexuality. We re-define personhood, marriage and God himself in
order to make things match up to our personal liking. Abortion is central to
this worldview. It is the practical glue that holds it together. You cannot
'have sex' like you 'have a hamburger' without some means of washing away the
immediate consequences. Self-centered men especially covet legal abortion. Self-centered
women see it as the very touchstone of their freedom and dignity. We even redefine
the truth about abortion itself when the stark reality is that it is
child-killing. It is child-sacrifice--we kill one thing in order to get or keep
something we want more. By sticking exclusively to the medical term 'abortion' we
sanitize these uncooperative facts to meet our needs and to keep guilt at
bay."
But, the
Scriptures not only identify God as the creator of humanity but insist man is created
in God's image and likeness. That cannot be said about anything else He
created! That in itself sets mankind apart from the rest of the created world. As
Mike Leake as written,
"...the
triune God created man in His image, and after His likeness. We are the only
part of creation that has His stamp on us. Animals, birds, livestock and all
the creatures that crawl upon the ground are not made in His image. No trees, mountains, stars, or oceans are made after His likeness. In a world without sin
humanity accurately reflected the beauty of God." (Sermon: Created in
God's Image - Genesis- Colossians)
And after
creating Adam and Eve, in his image and likeness God then gave them dominion over
the rest of creation,
"So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and
female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living
thing that moves on the earth.'" (Genesis 1:27-28 ESV)
Theologian
Louis Berkhof, man "...is distinguished from all other creatures and
stands supreme as the head and crown of the entire creation." (Systematic Theology - L Berkhof, III. Man as the Image of God" page
205)
Adam and
Eve were to act as God's vice-regents over the created world because they were made
in the image of the God who created that world. T. Desmond Alexander writes,
"Traditionally
the image has been seen as the capacities that set man apart from the other animals--ways
in which humans resemble God, such as in the characteristics of reason, morality,
language, a capacity for relationships governed by love and commitment, and creativity
in all forms of art. All these insights can be put together by observing that
the resemblances (man is like God in a series of ways) allow mankind to
represent God in ruling, and to establish worthy relationships with God, with
one another, and with the rest of the creation." (ESV Study Bible - Genesis, page 51 - T. Desmond Alexander)
As we explore
more closely what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God, it
is helpful to note as Berkhof points out, the words "image" and
"likeness" are used synonymously. In other words, they're
interchangeable. (Systematic Theology - L
Berkhof III. Man
as the Image of God" page 203)
Gordon
Clark points out that while the image consists of things like rationality and righteousness,
knowledge or holiness, he cautions us against dividing the single or
"unitary image" as he calls it, into parts, pointing out that "the
image is man." (Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics,
pg. 312 "Image of God" - Gordon H. Clark)
That
being said, it is helpful to identify more closely some of the various
capacities or characteristics or resemblances that are included when we refer
to concept of man in the image of God. Along that line, pediatrician, Dr. John Rendle-Short, M.D. in his book, Man: The Image of God refers
to some of the attributes that God shares with man. Intelligence or rationality.
Man can think. He can reason. He can understand.
Not only is he a rational being, he can think in the abstract. For example, he
can compute complex mathematical, chemical and engineering formulas.
You
realize that man could not know God if he lacked the capacity to think and
reason and understand and process truth and knowledge. Paul wrote,
"...if
you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one
believes and is justifies, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."
(Romans 10:9-10 ESV)
Griffith
Thomas explains, "The term 'heart' in Scripture always means the centre of
the moral being, and invariably includes the three elements of intellect,
feeling, and will. We never find in the Bible that contrast between 'head' and
'heart,' between 'intellect' and 'emotion' ...Trust always includes the
intellect and the confidence of the heart. Saving faith dominates the entire
being, mind, feelings, and will, and as a consequence, this faith will express
itself in confession." (St. Paul's
Epistle to the Romans, page 278)
It's for
a good reason that Ravi Zacharias who is both a Christian apologist and evangelist, has a radio broadcast called "Let My People Think." The
truth of the Gospel is processed through the mind. It is through the mind and
intellect of man that a person can respond to the claims of the gospel, understanding
that his sin separates him from a Holy God. And as the Holy Spirit draws him
to Himself and opens his eyes to acknowledge that Jesus Christ, God's Son died
a substitutionary death on the cross, paying the penalty for his sin, he then
can call upon the Lord in repentance and faith and believe unto salvation.
Gordon
Clark, "Reason makes possible both sin and fellowship with God. Sin has
caused a malfunctioning of man's mind, but redemption will renew men in
knowledge, righteousness, and
holiness, so that in heaven we shall no longer make mistakes even in arithmetic."
(Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics,
page 313 "Image of God" - Gordon H. Clark)
You
cannot live the Christian life without rational thought and reason. Paul admonishes us to "...be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what
is the will of God what is good acceptable and perfect." (Romans
12:3 ESV)
Closely
related to man's intelligence is his capacity for language. Humans can communicate because they are rational beings. My dog Maggie can bark, whine,
and growl, but I have yet to hear her utter a single word, no less a complete sentence.
We communicate with each other and have been created with the ability to communicate with God.
Consider the world God has created. We marvel at the complexity
of the human body. We cannot comprehend the vast universe God set in motion at
creation and continues to sustain moment by moment, day after day, year after year. The sun rises
in the morning and sets at dusk with exact precision. The sun gives life and
the rains sustain our crops. In a similar way, man resembles God in his creativity. Man's intelligence allows him to create
sophisticated products, sending a man to the moon and back, and speak instantly
around the world on a cell phone or the internet. The marvels of modern
medicine...I could go on and on. Man possesses creative abilities because he is
created in God's image and likeness.
When I lived in Japan as a boy, I had a dog named Frisky. He was
an outdoor dog as were all dogs in Japan. I did not wake up one morning and
find that Frisky had built himself a dog house! No, I built the dog house!
Man shares God's capacity to love. Imperfect as man is, he is a
social creature living in relationships. He can live in fellowship and
community with others. He has the ability to love and be loved; to care and nurture his young; to live in
committed life long relationships not only with a spouse but with His Creator through
faith in Jesus Christ. This is because He is created in the image of his God!
Man shares a moral likeness to God. He has a moral conscience, the
ability to tell right from wrong. A H. Strong writes, " Since holiness is the
fundamental attribute of God, this must of necessity be the chief attribute of
his image in the moral beings who he creates." (Systematic Theology, Augustus H. Strong, pages 516-517 I Essentials of Man's Original
State.)
This holiness
allowed Adam and Eve lived in perfect fellowship with God before the Fall and
though marred by sin after the Fall has remained a part of the image of God in
man. Again Dr. Berkhof, "...man has
a rational and moral nature, which he did not lose by sin and which he could
not lose without ceasing to be man. This part of the image of God has indeed
been vitiated [spoiled] by sin, but still remains in man even after his fall
into sin." (Systematic Theology
page 204)
Man
created in the image of God has freedom, freedom to make choices. As Gordon
Clark points out, though sin has caused the image to "malfunction" it
has not eradicated it so it can be restored. And the Good news is that the
Gospel provides a remedy for the image marred by sin. To the Romans Paul writes,
"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the
image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And
those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also
justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." (Romans 8:29 ESV)
Paul
reminds the believer that he has, "...put off the old self with its
practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after
the image of its creator." (Colossians 3:10 ESV) And
since man is an eternal being unlike the rest of the animal world, he will live
forever. Those who believe in Christ will one day live in perfect fellowship with
God for eternity. While those who choose to reject Christ and go their own way an
eternity separated from God.
"What
value does God place on human life?" was the question we began with. Against
the backdrop of what we have seen this morning perhaps, one the Bible's most
quoted verses helps to answer that question. "For God so loved the world"
(human beings created in his image) "that he gave his only Son," (to
die a substitutionary death on the cross) "that whoever believes in him may
have eternal life." (John 3:16 ESV)
A few
chapters later Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone
lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13 ESV) The death of Jesus
Christ is the solution to the sin of abortion. And the love Christ demonstrated
by his atoning death on the cross to save us from our sin is the love we are to
demonstrate in rescuing the unborn sentenced to death. Abortion ends the life of
an unborn human being made in the image and likeness of God.
12,095 unborn children lost their lives to abortion in Broward County in 2016. Again Pastor
John Ensor, "The day we stop nurturing respect for human life is the day
we begin diminishing the value of human life. The day we stop reminding
ourselves of the preeminent value of human life is the day we begin submitting to
the priorities of this sinful world. Where we are not fighting for life, we are
making peace with death. Where we are not pained by the death of the innocent, we
are growing hard-hearted to the holy will of God. Feel the pain and prepare for
the fight." (Innocent Blood,
page 53)
May God
help us.
© James P
McGarvey All Rights Reserved
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