Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE SANCTITY OF ALL HUMAN LIFE”
“On Friday, June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark piece of legislation that made access to an abortion a federal right in the United States. The decision dismantled 50 years of legal protection and paved the way for individual states to curtail or outright ban abortion rights.”[1]
Think about what I just read. Two sentences displayed after a Google search of the words “overturning Roe. v. Wade,” the name of the Supreme Court case that opened the floodgates for abortion on demand in the United States. If you did not immediately detect the bias of the two sentences, you are likely among the overwhelming majority of Americans who are somewhat unconsciously propagandized by the dominant culture, specifically the mainstream media and the tech giants that control the flow and distortion of information to suit their agenda. Let me parse the sentences for you to illustrate what I am suggesting.
Reflect with me on how the first sentence begins. “On Friday, June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark piece of legislation ....” The only problem is that the Roe v. Wade ruling was not a landmark piece of legislation. It was a bizarre court ruling in which seven Supreme Court Associate Justices wearing black robes ruled in favor of what had up to that point been an illegal practice, murdering an unborn baby, while the two remaining Supreme Court Justices wearing black robes vehemently opposed the ruling.
The sentence continues, “that made access to an abortion a federal right in the United States.” For the first time in the history of the United States of America, the United States Supreme Court ruled a previously illegal act to not only no longer be illegal but conferred on that murderous deed the status of a federal right. Think of it. One day it is a crime to savagely end the life of a little baby, either by ripping the child apart limb from limb or by chemically scalding the baby. But the next day, it was not only legal; it became a legal right! And almost no one notices the irony of what happened. It was a masterstroke of propaganda.
What a travesty of jurisprudence, akin to the infamous Dred Scott case of 1857, in which the U. S. Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts.[2] So much for the imaginations of people who think that whatever the Supreme Court rules must always be right. SCOTUS was wrong about Dred Scott, and they were wrong about Roe v. Wade.
The second sentence begins, “The decision dismantled 50 years of legal protection.” Think about that for a moment. Claiming a right to privacy that was never previously noticed by legal scholars and suggesting it was a constitutional right spun out of thin air, the Roe v. Wade ruling did protect abortionists and people who wanted to have sex without the consequence of offspring.
But was the protection legal? And by legal, I mean, did the ruling reflect the spirit of the U. S. Constitution and the development of a thousand years of English Common Law that reached its pinnacle in our Constitution? I would argue the answer to my question is “No.”
The second sentence ends, “and paved the way for individual states to curtail or outright ban abortion rights.” This phrase exposes the reality that even without Roe v. Wade in force at the federal level, abortions are performed in most of the fifty states and that the contest in the courts and among the electorate to curtail or outright ban abortions is on in every state.
And how did the Joe Biden administration react to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the illegality of abortions under federal law? The U. S. Department of Defense announced a policy “to provide additional support to service members and dependents who must travel out of state to receive an abortion, including allowing up to three weeks of administrative leave.”[3] “Democrats are scrambling to put state abortion-rights initiatives on the ballot this year in the hope that the measures will drive turnout and boost their candidates in national and local elections.”[4] And have you noticed, as I have, the local politicians running for the state assembly and state senate, buying YouTube advertising in which they insinuate that evil Republicans are on the verge of depriving them of their precious right to kill their babies before they are born?
Sadly, abortions are being performed every day in California, and not only are most Democrats happy with that gory state of affairs, but most self-described conservatives (while they may not be happy about abortion on demand in our state) seem to not be bothered at all by the ongoing slaughter of the innocents. The problem with that? Edmund Burke accurately observed, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
My goal this morning is not to persuade you to do something but to seize the opportunity to clarify your thinking, to make some of you aware of essential facts, to till the soil of your minds so that the truth of God’s Word grows and bears fruit. Mark it down and verify with your own reading and study of God’s Word, but anything that physically, emotionally, or spiritually harms children has its origin among demons.
Be it a loud and obnoxious woman who berates her husband around her children or grandchildren, or the ill-tempered woman who hates any man she cannot bully, or the man who will play his part in making a baby but has no concern for protecting his child’s life before, during, and after being born, to those who pretend to terminate a pregnancy and murdering a helpless baby is prenatal health care, I pronounce God’s curse upon those who do not repent of the wickedness of harming little children.
Let me stir your thoughts under four headings on this Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. And it is likely that it is now named the Sanctity Of Human Life Sunday because our culture has declined to such a state that some people value animals more than human beings and are more committed to the rescue of pets from mistreatment than they are to rescuing unborn babies from abortions and orphans from lives without loving parents.
I will compare and contrast views of life and human life, viewed from different perspectives.
First, THE SANCTITY OF LIFE
Please be mindful that I refer not to the sanctity of men’s lives, women’s lives, children’s lives, or unborn baby’s lives. I refer to the sanctity of the lives of all human beings. By sanctity, I refer to that which is sacred.[5] What does sacred refer to? Webster’s dictionary reads, “Entitled to the highest reverence or respect.”[6] The question, of course, is whether a human being’s life is sacred and deserves the highest reverence or respect. I think it is, and I am on solid Bible footing.
Consider several declarations in God’s Word that bear directly on this consideration. In Genesis 1.26 and 27 and Genesis 9.6, it is declared that God would and did create Adam and Eve in His image and after His likeness and that all humanity bears the image and likeness of God, even after mankind’s fall into sin. Thus, you and I and everyone else bear God’s image, even though that image has been marred by sin. Whatever that image of God happens to be, under the Mosaic Law, it was expressly forbidden too many times to recount here that under penalty of death, no attempt was to be made to in any way replicate God’s image. Meaning? The only image of God that God will allow to exist without stirring His hostility and provoking His wrath is the image of Him that He brought into existence and allowed to reproduce. That would be you and me and other human beings.
And if you are wondering about the importance to God of us bearing His image, take note with me that He has prescribed toward those who harm His image bearers. Genesis 9.6 prescribes the death penalty for homicide. In the Ten Commandments, God prohibits any attempt to fashion a graven image bearing any resemblance or “any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” Exodus 20.4. We are God’s image bearers, and the price of taking an image bearer’s life is supposed to be death. The price of fashioning anything resembling God, or anything associated with God is also death. Thus, God retaliates against those who take the life of an image bearer, as well as those who fashion an image He did not bring into existence. What about image bearers who have not yet been born, babies? Exodus 21.22-23 is quite clear:
22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life.
Thus, if any man, for any reason, accidentally causes the miscarriage of a pregnant woman’s baby and the baby dies, the man is to suffer death. And what is a baby’s accidental miscarriage but an unintentional abortion? Would you imagine God’s retaliation would be any less for an intentional abortion than for an unintentional one? Judging from the explicit declarations of God’s Word, and also the retaliation God determines against those who harm God’s image bearers, both children and adults after they are born and infants before they are born, the Bible demonstrates the sanctity of human life. Treat human life with respect. Treat your life with respect. Treat others’ lives with respect. We bear God’s image.
Next, THE CONVENIENCE OF HUMAN LIFE
If the sanctity of human life is a matter of objective fact based upon the trustworthiness and reliability of God’s Word, God alone is the deciding factor in a human being’s sacredness, and God has decided. But human beings, for the most part, have little or no concern for truth, for reality, for God’s declaration about anything, or God’s regard for anything.
The concern for most human beings, with me being guilty of this pragmatism too often, is our evaluation of the convenience of our lives. What God says about the sacredness of that person’s life is, with most people, a secondary consideration to how that person’s life affects my estimation of the convenience of my life, the happiness of my life, the ease of my life, and the comfort of my life. We are an entitled culture.
We once had a wheelchair-bound Church member. The ramp and landing at the North door were installed for him. He came to Christ, I baptized him, and he was a delightful and much-loved fellow. Of course, he was very susceptible to urinary tract infections, a common problem in the lives of those confined to wheelchairs.
I will remember the final time for the rest of my life. I was sitting next to his grandmother, who was the only person who seemed expertly skilled at putting in his catheter. As his life was quickly slipping away in that hospital room, she said to me, “I saw the nurse put the catheter in. She didn’t do it right. That’s why his UTI got worse.”
Suffering a spinal cord injury when he was seven years old, he was immediately abandoned by his mother, who left and promptly divorced his dad. His dad held out for several years before delivering him to his grandparents’ house. For more than twenty years, they, mostly she, took care of him, tending to every need and being paid by the state of California.
But as she aged, she grew weary of the daily grind. And when his final urinary tract infection sent him to the hospital, his grandmother watched the nurse replace his catheter incorrectly. And Grandma said nothing! Her silence sealed his fate. Hours matter in such cases, and that was all it took. A couple of hours passed before another nurse discovered the problem. His grandmother could have fixed the problem at any time, as she had done countless times before. Yet, she did nothing.
I was flabbergasted when she confessed to me that she was complicit in her grandson’s death. But why? She had no concern for the sanctity of his life, only her own convenience. She was better than most, better than her daughter-in-law, and better than her son. But better than some is not good enough when it results in letting your grandson die because you don’t want to look after him anymore.
The same is true with unborn babies. Or no babies at all. The consideration of so many has nothing to do with the sanctity of life, the sacredness of the life brought into the world. The only thing that seems to matter to so many people, to those with no Biblical set of values and convictions, is how inconvenient will that baby be to my pursuit of convenience in life?
Third, THE QUALITY OF HUMAN LIFE
When Sarah was less than a year old, Pam and I took her to visit missionaries in Thailand. While there, we were introduced to another missionary couple faced with a unique challenge: a newborn with Down Syndrome. Down Syndrome is a condition in which a person is conceived with an extra chromosome, producing obvious physical characteristics and also the likelihood of physical and mental challenges. The missionary couple’s challenge was living on a mission field and needing their baby to learn to speak Thai. Not a problem so far. But at that time, no Down Syndrome baby was known to be able to learn two languages.
What if something happened to mom and dad, and the baby had to be raised by extended family back in the United States, but the baby could only speak Thai and was unable to learn English? Thankfully, they prayed and stayed, and their baby became one of the first with Down Syndrome to learn two languages. That couple had convictions stronger than the desire for convenience, and the sanctity of their baby’s life meant more to them than the quality of their life.
Another couple I knew in the Bay area was told when the wife was about three months pregnant that an amniocentesis test confirmed their baby would be born with Down Syndrome. They were shocked. Horrified. They did not want a disabled baby. Yet, they did not want to schedule an abortion. They called and sought my counsel. Sometimes, people do that when they have a wayward child, face a personal crisis, or face a monumental test of faith.
“Trust God,” I said to them. They prayed and prayed. For months, they were in agony. Throughout, they were determined to do right. And then their baby was born, perfectly normal. Two couples who valued the sanctity of another’s life over the convenience of their life, and God mercifully spared them greater suffering.
Yet it turns out badly far more often than well, especially in Iceland or California. Iceland is remote and with a very small population, so the likelihood of intermarrying people related to you is higher than in most countries. Therefore, when Icelanders meet someone, they almost immediately use a phone app to see if they are closely related since they are very likely to be related.
Iceland is also a country with one of the highest rates of Down Syndrome, likely due to parents being more closely related than almost anywhere else in the world. So, tests are conducted with every pregnant woman, and if the test is positive for Down Syndrome, the pregnancy is terminated, which is to say the baby is killed. Couldn’t people just make sure they dated people they are not related to and marry only those not cousins? You might do that unless your concerns in life are geared only to the quality-of-life issues, both the quality of your life and the quality of your baby’s life. If there is no regard for what is important to God, you kill the baby.
Quality of life concerns are not confined to Iceland. Most people in the United States convince themselves that they are not focused on their own convenience of life issues, or their own quality of life issues. Oh, no. Their concern is for the baby’s quality of life. So, if the test shows the baby will be born with some issue, or in China back in the day if the test showed the baby was a girl and not a boy, or if you have the quality of life concerns related to global warming, or the rising sea level, or some other such justification, you make a quality of life decision for the baby. You decide the baby’s life would not be worth living. So, the baby dies, an expression of your values, that life is not sacred.
Is it really a concern for the unborn baby’s quality of life they are concerned about? Or the quality of their life tending to an inconvenient child, which is the definition of almost every child for the first part of life. What child is not profoundly inconvenient for about eighteen years? Maybe twenty-five?
Finally, THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE
So many people ignore the significance of sanctity and sacredness in favor of their own convenience of life or the child’s expected quality of life. Is that simply a personal choice? Or should other factors be considered when ascertaining the value of human life, either in or outside the womb?
Does not God ascribe to human life value, sacredness, and the importance of showing respect and reverence? Those of you familiar with the Bible will answer in the affirmative, so my observations are for those unfamiliar with the Bible or whose focus could use a sharpening.
Because you bear God’s image and likeness, there is an importance and value to your life that is infinitely greater than you could hope to understand. The logical consequence of your importance is treating your life as important rather than unimportant. But will you? You are too important to rely on stupid and uninformed decisions about your future. You are too important to engage in stupid and reckless behavior that risks your life and welfare. You are too important to imagine that this life you are presently experiencing is all there is for you, ignoring that an eternity awaits you to prepare for.
Your importance is shown by too many passages in God’s Word, John 3.16 being only one of many:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Thus, you are not just important as an abstract concept. You are important to God, and you ought to be important to yourself. Important how? Important, as in loved. Loved enough by God to give His Son, Jesus Christ, for you.
In addition to God loving you, the Bible shows that Jesus loves you. He loved you enough to leave heaven’s glory to be born of a virgin. He loved you enough to walk among men before dying on the cross of Calvary. And He loved you enough to urge you to consider Him and come to Him, Matthew 11.28:
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
If God loves you, you are important. If God loves you, you are significant. If God loves you, you have value. And the value God placed on you is the value of His Son’s sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. Add to that the fact of Christ’s love for you and what do you have? You have significance. You have importance. You have value. Do you act like you are someone with value? Do the decisions you make, and the plans you implement, reflect an appreciation of the sanctity of your life?
That God loves you is wonderful. That Jesus loves you is also astonishing. Why so? Because we deserve neither God’s love not Jesus’ love. But God is gracious and merciful, and we are loved without deserving to be loved. And you can be saved from your sins without deserving to be saved from your sins. The problem, of course, is sinfulness. In John 5.40, Jesus said to some who opposed Him,
“... ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”
Is the same true of you? Will your sin prevent you from coming to Jesus. I hope not. I hope you are among those who come to Christ for salvation full and free. You are valuable to God and to Jesus. He paid a very high price for those who come to Him, the payment of His blood.
The Bible shows that we are made in the image of God and that our concern ought to be the sanctity of life rather than merely convenience or the quality of life. The sanctity of life is reflected by the value of life.
Is it not amazing that so many people prefer the company of those who deny the sanctity of their life, who place no value on it? They prefer considerations of convenience or quality, which is to say, how fun life is or how comfortable life is.
On this Sanctity Of Human Life Sunday, I hope you will reflect on your sacredness, your value, and what God might have in store for you.
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[1] https://www.google.com/search?client=avast-a-1&q=overturnign+roe+v+wade&oq=overturnign+roe+v+wade&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYQNIBBTJqMGoxqAIAsAIA&ie=UTF-8
[2] https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/dred-scott-v-sandford
[3] https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/politics/pentagon-abortion-policy-reproductive-rights/index.html
[4] https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/03/abortion-democrats-2024-election-00133506
[5] Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1996), page 1603.
[6] Ibid., page 1593.
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.
Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church