Family & The Sanctity of Life

Worship Service, message by Kevin Russel 

For the Facebook Live video of this message, click here. 

Welcome family

Let's now turn our attention to the theological concept of family. During His three-year ministry, Jesus shattered some prevailing notions of what it meant to be part of a family: READ Matthew 12:46-50

Now we must clear up some misconceptions with this passage. Jesus is not saying that biological family isn't important; He is not dismissing His mother and brothers.

What He is doing is making the clear theological point that in the Kingdom of Heaven, the most important family connection is spiritual, not physical.

This is a truth made explicitly clear in John's Gospel, when he says, "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God" (John 1:12-13).

God has chosen the framework of the family to help us understand authority and His plan in our life. The structure of the family is vital to so many other laws, principles and teachings in the Bible.

If it is so important, it is also important to understand what God’s plan for the family is so that we can understand the rest of His Word as it applies to us today.

God instituted the family in Genesis 2:18 when He said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” He then formed Eve from a rib of Adam as told in verses 21-24 part of which says, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

Then in Ephesians 5:31 God says the same thing in the New Testament. “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.”

God brought Adam and Eve together and established the basis for the family. This basis is a man and a woman.

Even though Adam and Eve did not have parents, God instituted at that time the principle that a man and woman would depart from their parents and family unit to begin a new family unit.

Without a man and a woman coming together in marriage, there is no family.

God’s desire for the family is that it reproduce and multiply.  Read Genesis 1:27-28

The family has come under heavy attack in today's society.  On television, father's are often depicted as buffoons.  Mothers are typically depicted as career minded and in control.  Parents in general are characterized as dim wits who aren't "with it.”

In too many families, in order to make ends meet, the mother must work and entrust the care of her children to strangers.  Children are independent, arrogant, and disrespectful.  Everywhere you look society is offering quick and easy fixes, sexual promiscuity, "safe sex," and promises of freedom without penalty.

--Divorce destroys 50% of all marriages.

--Gangs are growing.

--Over 55 million American children have been killed through abortion since the Roe v Wade Supreme Court Decision in 1973.

Amidst all the depressing facts there is a ray of hope: the Bible.  God has given us the instruction book for families.  He has defined the family, taught us the roles of each of the family members, and has promised to bless those who adhere to His will.  Praise God!  We need it!

As I mentioned last week in our sneak peek of the Family Series” God has something He wants to reveal  to us about family with regard to the sanctity of life. 

I want to approach this challenging/explosive and divisive topic from the vantage point of “Authority & Rights”. 

Sanctity of life and abortion are not something I have any real depth of knowledge or experience in and so I had to spend some time in God’s Word and researching. 

This morning I want to share what I have learned from the Bible and this research.

One of my professors, Dr Mark Eckel, once wrote the following “essay”:

Teaching the biblical basis for government I have had students read The American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man.  I asked students to notice the similarities and difference between the documents.  Students discovered the same ideas each time.

The French document premised its authority on “the people” (or “citizens”). The American document based its authority on “Nature’s God,” “The Creator,” “The Supreme Judge of the world,” and “Divine Providence.” 

The French document concedes a “Supreme Being” but one who is only “present.” The French declaration says government “recognizes and declares the rights of citizens.” Notice it is the government (“the National Assembly”) which gives rights.

Students were surprised at the human-centered French document. Statement #6 always stood out: “Law is the expression of the general will.”

They would often ask after reflection, “If people are the sole authority—the “law”—how do we know which people should have authority?”

More reflection and discussion brought out the basic belief: the French declaration assumes humans are basically good and have the authority to grant rights.

But what happens when people disagree? Who grants “rights” then? And if I’m in authority, don’t I get to decide who gets rights and whose rights get taken away?

The room always fell silent when I told them that 30,000 people were killed—their right to life taken away—during the French Revolution. They were considered “enemies of the state.”

To summarize:

If rights are given by government, government can take away rights.

If rights are given by God, government’s role is to protect those rights.

“Reproductive rights” and “reproductive justice” are phrases used today by those who want to decide their rights. Pro-choice advocates say only the woman should decide to keep or kill her baby.

If humans are the authority, they can decide their own rights, making any pregnancy choice they desire.

If rights are my “choice,” then my choices can be imposed on an unborn child without restraint.

 End Quote

President Ronald Reagan in his book “Reagan, In His Own Hand”  tells about his experiences as governor of California.

In 1968 a bill was introduced in the California legislature to make abortion available on demand.  Then Governor Reagan intently studied the subject, discovering something strange.  A California law made it murder to abuse a pregnant woman, causing the death of her unborn child. 

Further research also revealed the unborn have property rights protected by law.  So, a man can leave his estate to any of his children yet to be born.  Reagan then set the following hypothetical situation before his lawyers.  A woman becomes a widow during her pregnancy.  In her husband’s will, he leaves an equal amount of his estate to both his wife and his unborn child.  Reagan then reasoned, if abortion on demand is acceptable, the woman could kill her unborn child and inherit the whole of her husband’s estate. 

Addressing his lawyers Reagan asked, wouldn’t that act of abortion be murder for financial gain?  The end result of President Reagan’s deliberation over abortion based his pro-life policies on the property rights of the unborn.

So what does the Bible say about abortion?  Well the Bible never directly addresses the issue of abortion. However, there are numerous teachings in Scripture that make it abundantly clear what God’s view of abortion and the sanctity of life is.

Jeremiah 1:5 tells us that God knows us before He forms us in the womb. Psalm 139:13-16 speaks of God’s active role in our creation and formation in the womb.

Exodus 21:22-25 prescribes the same penalty—death—for someone who causes the death of a baby in the womb as for someone who commits murder. This clearly indicates that God considers a baby in the womb to be as human as a full-grown adult.

For the Christian, abortion is not a matter of a woman’s right to choose. It is a matter of the life or death of a human being made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27; 9:6). 

The Bible is clear about the fact that murder is wrong (Exodus 20:13).  The Bible condemns murder repeatedly as a characteristic of a wicked society (Deuteronomy 5:17; Isaiah 1:21; Hosea 4:2; Matthew 5:21).

So I want to close with 2 take-aways:

1)I’m speaking to believers now: If we profess faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, then the Bible is the supreme authority over us.  It is never trumped by any opinion, law or document created by man. 

1 Corinthians 10:23 warns us that just because something is permissible i.e. I have a legal right to do it, doesn't make it right or beneficial.  So I challenge us to look heavily at our lives, not just at the sanctity of life but any area where we might have stepped out of the realm of what God prescribes as His way and into what I believe is right, or what my state or national government says I can do.

2) For those who have had an abortion, remember that the sin of abortion is no less forgivable than any other sin. Through faith in Christ, all sins can be forgiven (Romans 8:1; Colossians 1:13-14). A woman who has had an abortion, a man who has encouraged an abortion, or even a doctor who has performed one—can all be forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ.