By Pastor Greg
Human life has always been considered sacred, at least from God's perspective, but not from a human perspective. From the world's perspective human life has been and probably always will be viewed as expendable if that other life stands between what the person of this world wants and desires. In ancient cultures, where selfishness and self-preservation ruled, a person felt free to kill another person for no other reason than the other person stood between what the killer wanted or felt they needed. King and tribal leaders, when ascending to the throne, would kill all remaining family members of the former king. At best a person’s disregard for human life only extended beyond their own family. The life of an outsider had little value in ancient cultures.
We do not need to study the history books to learn of this behavior. We can be sure of this disregard for human life simply by looking at the Bible. We can see this in the stories. We can see this when God calls the people of Israel together as well. When God calls Israel out of the world, He instructs them to begin acting in ways contrary to the rest of the world. They were to be His holy people - set apart from all the rest. Several of God's commands to the people of Israel concerned the taking of life, be it on purpose (murder) or accidental (killing). God clearly commanded that His people look at His people through His eyes, for the Lord has said, "Look, every life belongs to Me. The life of the father is like the life of the son—both belong to Me" (Ezekiel 18:4).
As Christ walked the earth He demonstrated just how valuable everyone is to God. He demonstrated dignity and concern even toward those the world would not - even those the world would cast aside. So as His followers, it seems appropriate that we would share that same view; that everyone’s life has value and worth. As a follower of Christ a Christian's actions and attitudes toward another human being should stand apart from the attitudes of the world. The people of the world should be shocked at just how much different our attitudes are when compared to their own. Like David's grace, love, and concern extended to Mephibosheth, our grace, love, and concern for all people should become the talk of the town. It should cause people to stand up and take notice.
Today on the front lawn of the church there stands 3,300 flags - a memorial to the babies aborted each day in the United States. This becomes one more testimony of how indifferent the world still is toward human life. Now, not all abortions are performed out of hate for the child or because the pregnancy was unwanted or inconvenient. But many of them are. The option of abortion has become a way to keep a person's life from being inconvenienced or interrupted. A baby's life is terminated for no other reason than it is simply not wanted. Truly nothing has changed in this world. One human life is often sacrificed so another human life can get what it wants. Nothing has changed, except maybe the witness of the church.
In ancient Ephesus, archeologists have uncovered a section of the city known as the "Baby Dump". In that pagan society unwanted newborn babies were thrown away. Some were rescued by slave traders, raising the child until they were old enough to be sold. But Christians, oh those wonderful Christians! They would visit the dump, rescue the babies, and adopt them as their own. Perhaps this is why Paul wrote "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:5). Just as God saw value in us while we were still sinners, the Christians were seeing value in those whom the world would throw away.
In order to justify itself, the world has tried to determine when life begins. But rather than getting caught up in the debate, maybe we just need to start realizing that life does not begin at conception but rather that there is life at conception. The seed of a man and the seed of a woman are not dead when they combine, but fully alive. A new life is not created, but life is recreated. The chromosomes combine completely alive and another human begins to form - an extension of mother and father. If the world wants to debate anything it should be when this recreated life gains consciousness. But let's stop debating about whether it is alive. The child has always been alive.
Here's where the real problem lies. The problem is not whether we are pro-choice or pro-life. The problem facing the church today is how to respond to the abortion epidemic. Unlike the church at Ephesus, babies today are killed before they are thrown away. It’s difficult to adopt what is not alive. And we just have not been able to convince people to keep the baby full term because of how easy abortion has become. Truthfully I see a need not to create a new law or repeal an old one, but a need to preach Christ.
What can the Church do to stop abortions? The answer is found not in protesting abortion clinics, but in being a witness for Christ. This is the greatest need facing the world today. The world needs Jesus. And perhaps just as important, the world needs to see Jesus in you and me. Rather than making someone feel guilty about their choice, maybe we need to help them make the most important choice of their life, and that is to choose Jesus. He is the hope they need. He is the hope these innocent babies need. He alone can change the heart of someone, and transform them into someone who makes a choice for life.
The little flags on the front lawn should become a wakeup call to the church, not to judge the world for its blatant evil and disregard for human life, but to realize the great need to preach Christ to those still living in darkness. Those little flags should stir the church to action, not to protest or complaining, but to evangelism. The flags testify that our work in this world is not done. They become a testimony that there are far more important things we need to be doing in this world than balancing a budget or printing bulletins or identifying who is a sinner and who is not. For the sake of the baby not yet conceived we need to share Jesus with the people of this world who don't know Jesus. Then, when Christ transforms their heart they will not need some law to tell them what to choose, for guided by the Lord Himself, they will choose life.
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