SCRIPTURE AND THE SANCTITY OF LIFE

Are we not to use Scripture to interpret itself? From beginning to end, Scripture declares the value of the human being, born and unborn alike. However, in all of Scripture, there is not a single verse that either explicitly or implicitly states that an individual may end the life of an unborn child. There is not a single verse that condones the abortive act.

The Creator: Our Maker, Our Sovereign

• Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

• Psalm 95:6: “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.”

• Isaiah 45:18: “For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: ‘I am the LORD, and there is no other.’”

• Isaiah 64:8: “But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.”

• John 1:3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

The Value of Human Life

• Genesis 1:26-27: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over 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.”

• Psalm 139:13-16: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

• Genesis 9:5b-6: “…From the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.”

• Ezekiel 16:20-21: “‘And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols []…You slaughtered My children and sacrificed them to the idols.”

• John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

The Unborn Described

The Greek word “brephos” (lit. “babe” or “baby”) is used to describe the pre-born and the born.

BORN

• Luke 2:12: “And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe (“brephos”) wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

• Acts 7:19: “This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live.”

PRE-BORN

• Luke 1:41-44: “And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe (“brephos”) leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.’”

"We are His Workmanship..."

We are not merely human beings. We are human beings created in the image of GOD. We are creatures who possess intrinsic value. We are created. It is the LORD that causes sperm and egg to fertilize. It is the LORD that causes a zygote to form. It is the LORD that causes an embryo to develop.

In the Psalms, David spoke of the value of the unborn – even while he was yet unformed and forming. “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (Psalm 139: 13-16).

David is not speaking metaphorically. He is speaking quite literally about the care with which the LORD crafted his being. When was David unformed? At fertilization.

Throughout the entirety of Scripture, the value of all life, born and unborn, is proclaimed. In the Old Testament, our Creator declared that man was created in His image, and in the New Testament, the intrinsic value of the human being was fortified forevermore. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Our LORD established the individual’s value at Creation and fortified it at the Cross.

Those facts are not mere hyperbole. The Creator of the universe proclaimed the individual’s value with His very blood. Through that act, He entrenched the worth of each and every human being for all eternity. The message of the Bible, and of our Church, is not simply that “Jesus died,” but that Jesus died for those He created. Being fearfully and wonderfully made was not for David alone. It applies to every human being.