Life Is God’s to Give and God’s to Take

Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday – a day when many believers in Christ focus on the sacredness of life from conception through old age.

Let’s look at what Scripture has to say about the value of human life, when it starts, and who has the right to end it:

  • For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:13-16
  • do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. Exodus 23:7
  • “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5
  • When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. Exodus 21:22-25

(verses about murder)

God forms and ordains every human life. Yes, He involves human parents, but He is ultimately the Creator of life. A fertilized egg has all of the DNA of a whole person. Obviously, this embryo grows into a full-term baby.

(You can track the growth of a baby during every week of pregnancy here to see how amazing God’s work is that is hidden in the womb.)

I know our culture has tried to convince us of a number of things like:

  • a baby isn’t a real person, it’s just a mass of tissue.
  • a mom’s right to choose is more important than her baby’s right to live even if a baby is a real human being.
  • children are inconvenient and burdensome and may be discarded.
  • abortion is no big deal.
  • an unborn baby isn’t a person until it is born.

The truth of God’s Word is that:

  • God creates babies in their mothers’  wombs. God alone has the authority to create life and to bring about death (Psalm 139:13-16).
  • God knows every life of every person He will ever create and how many days He has ordained for them to live (Jeremiah 1:5).
  • Each life is precious to God (Exodus 20:13).
  • Children are a blessing and a “heritage from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3)..
  • Sex is for marriage only, sex outside of marriage is sin in God’s eyes and is destructive to our relationships (Hebrews 13:4).
  • It is a parent’s duty to protect and provide for his/her children (2 Corinthians 12:14).

Some of you may be considering an abortion now or may think about it in the future.

Please, please study what the Bible says about the sanctity of human life.

Be sure you understand God’s perspective on abortion before going through with one.

I believe that if a mother’s life is endangered, and both the mother and baby are going to be lost, there are times when abortion may be required to save the mother’s life if both can’t be saved – although some moms may choose to save the baby instead if that is an option.

There is forgiveness available in Christ for all sins, including abortion!

But if you haven’t had an abortion yet, you can spare yourself so much pain, guilt, shame, and depression by seeking to honor God with this baby’s life and by asking God for His wisdom and provision for you and this precious baby.

Avoiding sin is always the best way to go, even if it is difficult and painful. It is less difficult and less painful than going through with it. 

Some of you have had abortions in the past – I pray that if you are in that situation, you might turn to Christ and find forgiveness and healing in His blood on the cross that He shed for you. You are not beyond the reach of Jesus!

You are precious in His sight. He can save and heal you, my precious friend! If you need to talk about how you can experience the grace, forgiveness, and gift of eternal life available through Jesus, please let me know. 🙂 We can hash through this together.

“Talk about countercultural. In a world where everything revolves around yourself—protect yourself, promote yourself, comfort yourself, and take care of yourself—Jesus says,

“Crucify yourself. Put aside all self-preservation in order to live for God’s glorification, no matter what that means for you in the culture around you.”

― David Platt, Counter Culture: A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography

What about hormonal birth control?

To me, the abortion issue is pretty black and white. Where this issue gets even more tricky, in my view now as a pharmacist and mom – is – what does God think about birth control pills?

When I was in pharmacy school, they taught us that estrogen/progesterone pills “always prevented ovulation” so the mechanism of action was always to prevent conception.

I took the pill without question for years earlier in our marriage. I also never even questioned the idea of birth control.

Now, in the medical community, we know that sometimes ovulation does happen with the pill – even the estrogen/progesterone combo pill. We already knew that ovulation occurs at times with progesterone only pills. For many of us, that brings up a host of ethical and moral questions:

  • What does God think about this? Does He look at this as abortion? How can we know for sure?
  • Is it wrong to try to prevent implantation?
  • Is it wrong to try to prevent conception?
  • Does God approve of any birth control methods? If so, which ones and under what circumstances?
  • What are my motivations in wanting to prevent pregnancy in marriage?

These are tough questions. They are important things for us to question and with which we must wrestle in prayer and come to God-honoring decisions as individuals and married couples.

I don’t claim to have all of the answers to these questions, but I think they are things about which we need to think, pray, and seek God’s wisdom rather than us just accepting what our culture embraces.

Much love to each of you!

RELATED:

What Does the Bible Say about Abortion? – from Got Questions?

How Can I Find Healing and Recovery after an Abortion? – from Got Questions?

What Does the Bible Say about Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide? – from Got Questions?

What Does the Bible Say about Birth Control? – from Got Questions?

David Platt sermons about abortion

The Most Important Question in the Abortion Debate – David Platt video

Focus on the Family’s Position Statement on Birth Control