Sanctitiy of Human Life

What is the sanctity of human life Sunday?

President Ronald Reagan issued a presidential proclamation on January 13, 1984, designating Sunday, January 22, 1984 as National Sanctity of Human Life Day, noting that it was the 11th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, in which the Supreme Court issued a ruling that guaranteed women access to abortion. President Reagan was a strong anti-abortion advocate who said that in Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court "struck down our laws protecting the lives of unborn children".

As we celebrate the sanctity of human life this morning, we must recognize it is a battle for truth. The first passage that comes to mind in is John

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is the way, not a way but the only way and He is the truth. This is our only source of truth! So what does the Bible say about abortion?

We know what the world thinks, right. The world tells us the baby isn’t really a baby. The world says it is just a clump of cells. And if your aren’t ready for a child. It’s A little inconvence they can take care of with a simpple medical procedure. Like getting your tonsouls out if they are giving you trouble. But the real question is what does the Bible say?

Genesis 1:26–27 (ESV)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

What separates humans from animals? We were created in God’s image. What does that mean?

Another important question this morning is when does life begin? The world says at birth. While the baby is in the womb, even minutes from being delivered at full term isn’t a baby and can still be aborted. What does the Word of God say?

Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV)

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Psalm 139:13–16 (ESV)

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

God knows in the womb, God knits us together in the womb. World says life begins at birth, the Word of God says it begins at conception which will you believe?

As I look at the number of abortions in America it’s staggering. It’s hard to believe over 63 million babies have been aborted in the US since 1973. As I pondering the depth of the tragedy, my heart turned to the women. 10s of millions of women and men have suffered the after effects of abortion. Living with the pain and regret. But there is hope right? That is the beauty of the gospel, There is forgiveness in Jesus. It doesn’t matter what we have done. In Jesus, there is grace and forgiveness and freedom. Why did Jesus come?

John 3:17 ESV

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Jesus came to have compassion on us and forgive us. The truth is we are all wicked vile sinners. All of our hearts are capable of the vilest of sins. It is only by the grace of God that we are held back. The word that comes to mind is deceived. We are all deceived by our own desires.

Ephesians 4:22 ESV

to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

So our own sinful desires deceive us and our enemy Satan deceives us. I want to close with a story that I think sums this all up.

Former Planned Parent employee-turned pro-life activist Abby Johnson, whose testimony and memoir inspired the movie “Unplanned,” challenged students in Friday’s Convocation to be bold amidst a daunting secular culture that promotes abortion.

Years ago, Johnson volunteered at Planned Parenthood and eventually became the director of the clinic. Over her eight-year career in the industry, Johnson helped facilitate more than 22,000 abortions.

“I really didn’t even know how I got to that point,” she told students. “It just happened in a blink of an eye.”

Her transition to pro-life advocacy started when she assisted with an ultrasound-guided abortion procedure. At 13 weeks, the pre-born baby had every bodily function and anatomy as a fully grown adult.

For the first time, Johnson witnessed the true nature of her work as she saw the unborn baby suffer at the hands of a suction tube.

“I knew in that moment that what I saw in just those few seconds was not choice, was not reproductive justice; it was not justice of any kind,” she said. “It was certainly not health care. I knew that what I witnessed in those moments was murder. Murder of an innocent human being in the womb. And I knew I could not participate in that again.”

Johnson grew up in a Christian conservative household, attended church every Sunday, and participated in weekly youth groups.

She told students that her downward spiral was a slow fade, beginning with immodesty in her language, behavior, and attire. Those habits ultimately steered her down a dark path of sin, leading to premarital sex, unplanned pregnancies, and abortions.

“There are many sins that lead up to the sin of abortion,” she said. “I didn’t go to bed one night, this good Christian kid, and wake up working in an abortion clinic. … Sin comes into your life one compromise, one justification, one lie at a time. It creeps in slowly, a little bit at a time. You are all just one sin away from walking down the path that I walked down. And it is not the path that you want.”

“I was a compassionate person,” she added, noting that her intentions to help women were genuine. “I was a person who was seeking justice. But they perverted that sense of justice that was inside of me, and they used it against the innocent human being that I should have been trying to protect.”

Johnson encouraged students to live counter-cultural lives because she said the secular world aims to misguide and manipulate the vulnerable minds of young people.

“At the end of your life, you’re going to be face-to-face with the one true God. And He is not going to ask you how many friends you had on Instagram,” she said. “He is not going to ask you how many people followed you on Tik Tok. He will ask you what you did for the least of these.”

The pro-life movement has seen tremendous strides in improvements in America, most recently in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

Johnson challenged students to continue fighting for life, despite the ruling tilting in the favor of the pro-life movement.

“This is the beginning,” she declared before exiting the Convocation stage. “Now is the time for us to stand up. Now, more than ever. … I can’t end abortion on my own. I will not end abortion on my own. It’s going to take all of you to help us do it.”