The Sanctity of Life

National Sanctity of Human Life Day will be celebrated this Sunday, January 19, 2014. National Sanctity of Human Life Day is an observance declared by several U.S. Presidents who opposed abortion. President Ronald Reagan designated January 22, 1984 as the first National Sanctity of Human Life Day. The date was chosen to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case that first recognized the constitutionally-protected status of abortion in the United States. Reagan issued the proclamation annually thereafter, designating Sanctity of Human Life Day to be the third Sunday in January, which represents the closest Sunday to the original January 22 date. His successor, George H. W. Bush, continued the annual proclamation throughout his presidency. Bush’s successor, Bill Clinton, discontinued the practice throughout his eight years in office, but Bush’s son and Clinton’s successor, George W. Bush, resumed the proclamation, and did so every year of his presidency. (With material from: Wikipedia) http://www.cute-calendar.com/event/national-sanctity-of-human-life-day/18142.html  To date, President Obama has declined to proclaim National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.

Each year this day is celebrated, the belief that we are created by God in his image, that life is sacred, and that all human life from the time of conception ought to be treated with dignity and respect is echoed by Christians nationwide.

One of the Bible references used to point out that all human life is sacred is Psalm 139. For example,  

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-16 Good News Translation (GNT)
139 Lord, you have examined me and you know me.
² You know everything I do; from far away you understand all my thoughts.
³ You see me, whether I am working or resting;     you know all my actions.
⁴ Even before I speak, you already know what I will say.
⁵ You are all around me on every side; you protect me with your power.
⁶ Your knowledge of me is too deep; it is beyond my understanding.
¹³You created every part of me; you put me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because you are to be feared; all you do is strange and wonderful. I know it with all my heart.
¹⁵ When my bones were being formed, carefully put together in my mother’s womb, when I was growing there in secret,     you knew that I was there—
¹⁶ you saw me before I was born. The days allotted to me had all been recorded in your book, before any of them ever began.

This Psalm of David depicts our Creator as having perfect attributes—all knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful. God’s super-powerful ability to form us as well as see us in our mother’s womb before we are even born proves that human life begins from conception.

Numerous Bible verses support the teaching that God highly prizes life and has a special purpose for each of us even before we are born. Note what was written by and about some of the most prominent persons in the Bible, including Christ himself, concerning their lives from the time of their conception:

• Jeremiah 1:4-5 Before you were born I consecrated you.
• Isaiah 49:4-5 He formed me from the womb.
• Genesis 25:22-26 Two nations are in your womb; two peoples from within you shall be divided.
• Judges 13:2-5 You shall conceive and bear a son…the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb.
• Luke 1:44 The Baby leaped in my womb for joy.
• Psalm 22:9-10 From my mother’s womb you have been my God. (NOTE: This Davidic Psalm is a Messianic Psalm with a prophetic view toward the life of Jesus Christ. Psalm 22 is a portrait of Jesus’s earthly ministry. Jesus, himself, was indeed shaped and formed in his mother’s womb. God was the God of Jesus, his only begotten Son from the time he was miraculously conceived through God’s Power: Luke 1:31, Thou shalt conceive….)
• Matthew 1:20 That being formed in her is by the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:35) (NOTE: Spoken to Joseph re: the fact that Jesus had already been conceived for Mary his mother was already found to be pregnant: v.18; also Luke 1:35; Jesus’ conception was predicted by the prophets: Isaiah 7:14. 

As God values life, he values each of us very highly. So highly, in fact, that he gave his only begotten Son to die in our place so that whosoever believes in him may receive everlasting life: John 3:16. Therefore, we are careful not to take life for granted but to hold it in as much reverence as one would a holy temple. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit [breath of life] dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple, (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; [See also 1 Cor. 6:15-20]).

As Bible believers, we recognize the sanctity of human life since God is the Creator of life and worthy to be praised. As it says in Psalm 8:4-5,  What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor, (Cp. Hebrews 2:6-9.  Jesus, too, “was made.”). Each one of us is fearfully and wonderfully made in his image (Gen. 1:26-27; 2:7) not only to honour him with our lives but to honour the sanctity of all life, even when it is in the mother’s womb. 

Good News to you!
Pastor Michael