Christians have no higher authority than the truths of God derived from the scriptures. It is to these scriptures that Christians turn to consult God’s purposes for his creation; his intent and his character; and his laws and boundaries. On issues of moral importance—such as, When does human life begin?—the scriptures are of paramount importance in helping us arrive at conclusions based on God’s ideas and not mankind’s own prejudicial thoughts.
If you’re interested in reading a road map for churches and communities to follow in the wake of a Roe v. Wade decision the following article is still relevant: https://petra.church/blog/sanctity-of-human-life/. For this present article we are concentrating on scriptural texts and principles that will help us understand human life from a Biblical perspective. Let’s dive in.
#1. All things were created by God and for God.
Nothing was created apart from God. “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3). Colossians also says, “In (the Son) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…(1:16). Nothing materially or spiritually were created by other deities, or demons. There are no demi-gods, or creative evil forces that formed bad things alongside of the good things God made. There are only God-created things that are acting according to or outside of the good God had intended for them. Therefore everything is created to serve God’s design and not our own.
#2. Human life is distinct from all other animal life.
The scriptures do not record many details of the creation of animal life and human life, but what it does declare is interesting. Animals are spoken into existence by God: “Let the land produce living creatures” (Genesis 1:24). But in Genesis 2:7 the scriptures depict God intimately stooping down in the dirt and forming mankind with his hands and breathing into his nostrils. Human life is exceptionally intimate and precious. The psalmist, building on the Mosaic revelation, intones “what is man that you are mindful of him…you made him a little lower than the angels you crowned him glory and honor…you made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet” (Psalms 8:5-6).
#3. Male and female were both endowed with God’s image.
God verbally expresses his intent towards humans in Genesis 1:26 when he says, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule…” And the historical account explicitly records, “So God created mankind in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Men are not superior creations to women. Women are not superior creations to men. Women are not afterthoughts of God’s original creation. They were created distinctly so that the man would see his dependence upon the woman. Both have inherently unique worth and are designed to compliment and rely on the other. They lead and rule over the earth together.
#4. God gave men and women the mandate to bear children together.
God’s mission to mankind was “to be fruitful and increase in number” (Genesis 1:28). There is an authority granted by God to have children and inhabit the earth. God never expresses concern about overpopulation, or depletion of earthly resources, or mankind’s existential threat to nature. God confidently commands mankind to procreate, fill the earth, and subdue it. The sexual reproduction of man and woman into God-breathed children formed in God’s image is one of the most sublime symbols. Bringing a novel and eternal life into the world has unparalleled value—creators resembling their Creator in the most literal way possible.
#5. The Hebrew midwives refused to abort children.
It was for this reason that Yahweh worshipping Hebrew culture elevated family life and refused to participate in abortions. There is an interesting textual link in the language of “be fruitful and increase in number” in Genesis 1:28, and the enslaved Israelite people numerically increasing in Egypt despite their bitter bondage, “the Israelites have become too numerous…but the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread” (Exodus 1:9,12).
The author is leading the reader to see the protective service the midwives rendered to the Hebrew babies in (Exodus 1:15-17). “The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives…’When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.’ The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do”. Notice the emphasis on the fear of the Lord attached to the Biblical language of multiplication and respect for life. Nowhere else in the ancient world will you find such concern or respect for the yet-to-be-born children. In fact, most cultures practiced the systematic selection of children by abandoning babies of deformities or unwanted gender, which leans into the next point.
#6. The Mosaic law clearly condemned child sacrifice as morally abhorrent.
Deuteronomy 12:31 states explicitly, “You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshipping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifice to their gods.” Some may claim this was an argument against idolatry, or that the infliction of intentional pain by burning a newborn is different from the surgical termination of a child in the womb. Is it? The Bible clearly states that the behavior of child sacrifice unto Yahweh is forbidden. And it clearly draws no distinction between motive of the parent, or pain level of the baby. The only distinction is in the moral behavior of deciding certain human life was worth sacrificing. Other texts that expressly forbid the practice of child sacrifice are Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 18:10.
#7. God knows a soul as it is forming in the womb, and his justice towards souls continues after mortality.
The prophets took comfort in the fact of God knowing their identity and destiny before they were born. Isaiah stated, “before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name” (Isaiah 49:1). God encouraged Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” (Jeremiah 1:5). The psalmist also marveled at God’s mysterious design which began at conception and unfolded in a developing progression, “you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…I am fearfully and wonderfully made…my frame was not hidden from you” (Psalms 139:13-15).
This same principle applies at the end of life. Job declared of his redeemer, “and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” The Apostle John saw the souls of saints in heaven who had been persecuted for Jesus, “They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’…they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed…had been completed” (Revelation 6:9,11). So God’s justice for human life is completed over a timeline that transcends mortality.
#8. The Laws of Moses were more protective of human life than any prior civilizations in the Near East.
There was a legal framework in the Law of Moses that recognized the inherent dignity of all persons regardless of social class, ethnic background, or units of merit. Laws were designed to dissuade violence, restrict economic privation, eliminate blood feuds, and retard the brutality of mutilation or violence in the name of justice. A complete category of law also protected the at-risk citizens whose social voice was too weak to provide them protection from the injustice of powerful elites. These laws protecting the poor, orphan, widow, and foreigner continued into the early Christian communities and cemented the reputation of Yahweh as a compassionate Father who gives inestimable value to every one of his children regardless of their societal merits.
Final Thoughts
The United States Declaration of Independence summarizes the import of the scriptures quiet well: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…Life…” Life, personhood, and value all begin in the eternal mind of God and are established as scientific and moral facts at conception. Human life, has always been precious, fragile, broken, and in need of protection. Yet for all of the abuses men and women suffer under social mistreatment, or legal prejudice, or even personal neglect, nothing can change the nature of God’s eternal love for each of his children. That was sealed on the cross two thousand years ago when Jesus paid full price to buy us back from our moral miscalculations and social abuses. He loves. Oh, how he loves us. The Psalmist said, “as high as the heavens are above the earth, that’s how great is his love for you” and for every unborn baby our Creator is knitting together in her mother’s womb.
Tags: value, abortion, children, creation, justice, human, life, glory, protection, creator, baby, womb, newborn, god's image
