Life Is Precious

“When a child loses his parent, they are called an orphan. When a spouse loses her or his partner, they are called a widow or widower. When parents lose their child, there isn’t a word to describe them. This month recognizes the loss so many parents experience across the United States and around the world. It is also meant to inform and provide resources for parents who have lost children due to miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, stillbirths, birth defects, SIDS, and other causes.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the month of October as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.” If you or someone you care about has lost a child to stillbirth, miscarriage, SIDS, or any other cause at any point during pregnancy or infancy, please join us in raising awareness this October for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month.

Life is Precious

I. God Begins Life at Conception

A. Babies have an immortal soul

1. They Can Be Filled with the Holy Spirit

Luke 1:15 NASB95

15 “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.

Luke 1:41 NASB95

41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

2. They Can Be Chosen by God for Ministry

Psalm 22:10 NASB95

10 Upon You I was cast from birth; You have been my God from my mother’s womb.

Jeremiah 1:5 NASB95

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

B. Babies are Human Beings

1. They have the Same Genetic Makeup as any Other Human

Randy Alcorn in His book, Why Pro-Life? Caring for the Unborn and Their Mothers.

Dr. Jerome LeJeune, then genetics professor at the University of Descates in Paris, stated, “After fertilization has taken place a new human being has come into being.” He said, this “is no longer a matter of taste or opinion. Each individual has a very neat beginning, at conception.”

Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth of Harvard University Medical School said, “It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception.”

It’s not merely pro-life people who believe this. The owner of Oregon’s largest abortion clinic testified under oath, “Of course human life begins at conception.” The award winning secular book From Conception to Birth documents the child’s beginning at conception and his movement toward birth.

The newly fertilized egg contains a staggering amount of genetic information, sufficient to control the individual’s growth and development for his entire lifetime. A single thread of DNA from a human cell contains information equivalent to a library of one thousand volumes.

The cells for the new individual divide and multiply rapidly, resulting in phenomenal growth. There’s growth because there’s life. Long before a woman knows she’s pregnant there is within her a living, growing human being.

Between five and nine days after conception the new person burrows into the womb’s wall for safety and nourishment. Already his or her gender can be determined by scientific means. It will be two more weeks before clearly human features are discernible, and three more before they’re obvious. Still, he is a full-fledged member of the human race.

At conception the unborn doesn’t appear human to us who are used to judging humanity by appearance. Nevertheless, in the objective scientific sense he is every bit as human as any older child or adult. He looks like a human being ought to at his stage of development.

At eighteen days after conception the heart is forming and the eyes start to develop. By twenty-one days the heart is pumping blood throughout the body. By twenty-eight days the unborn has budding arms and legs. By thirty days she has a brain and has multiplied in size ten thousand times.

By thirty-five days, her mouth, ears, and nose are taking shape. At forty days the preborn child’s brain waves can be recorded and her heartbeat, which began three weeks earlier, can already be detected by an ultrasonic stethoscope. By forty-two days her skeleton is formed and her brain is controlling the movement of muscles and organs.

Famous photographer of unborn children Lennart Nilsson says in his book “Drama of Life Before Birth,” Though the embryo (at 45 days) now weighs only 1/30 of an ounce, it has all the internal organs of the adult in various stages of development. It already has a little mouth with lips, and early tongue and buds for 20 milk teeth.

By eight weeks hands and feet are almost perfectly formed. By nine weeks a child will bend fingers around and object placed in the palm. Fingernails are forming and the child is sucking his thumb. The nine-week baby has “already perfected a somersault, back flip and scissor kick.”

The unborn responds to stimulus and may already be capable of feeling pain.

By ten weeks the child squints, swallows, and frowns. By elven weeks he urinates, makes a wide variety of facial expressions, and even smiles. By twelve weeks the child is kicking, turning his feet, curling and fanning his toes, making a fist, moving thumbs, bending wrists, and opening his mouth.

All this happens in the first trimester, the first three months of life. In the remaining six months in the womb nothing new develops or begins functioning. The fully intact child only grows and matures unless her life is lost by miscarriage or taken through abortion.

2. They Have the Same Value as any Other Human

Exodus 21:22–25 NASB95

22 “If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. 23 “But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

Psalm 139:13–16 NASB95

13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

The unborn baby is a unique individual and is not just a part of a woman’s body. Again, Randy Alcorn, A body part is defined by the common genetic code it shares with the rest of its body. Every cell of the mother’s tonsils, appendix, heart, and lungs shares the same genetic code. The unborn child also has a genetic code, but it is distinctly different from his mother’s. Every cell of his body is uniquely his, each different from every cell of his mother’s body. Often his blood type is also different, and half the time his gender is different.

A Chinese zygote implanted in a Swedish woman will always be Chinese, not Swedish, because his identity is based on his genetic code, not that of the body in which he resides.

A child may die and the mother live, or the mother may die and the child live, proving they are two separate individuals.

In prenatal surgeries, the unborn, still connected to her mother by the umbilical cord, is removed, given anesthesia, operated on, and reinserted into her mother. The child is called a patient, is operated on, and has her own medical records, indicating blood type and vital signs.

3. They Have a Sin Nature like Other Humans

Psalm 51:5 NASB95

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

Application: How should the life of a human be honored in death? If a person has been enlightened to these truths, there are many ways. Personally, I couldn’t bring myself to dispose of a human as medical bio-waste.

II. God Will Do What is Right With The Life that He Creates.

A. God is Good

This is where the real hope comes in.

Isaiah 46:9–10 NASB95

9 “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;

His pleasure is good. He is good. He has proven His goodness by sending His Son, Jesus, to die on our behalf.

Isaiah 53:10 NASB95

10 But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

2 Samuel 12:14–23 NASB95

14 “However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.” 15 So Nathan went to his house. Then the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s widow bore to David, so that he was very sick. 16 David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them. 18 Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to our voice. How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might do himself harm!” 19 But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; so David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.” 20 So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he came into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he came to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate. 21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” 22 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me, that the child may live.’ 23 “But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

Age of accountability:

Isaiah 7:14–16 NASB95

14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. 15 “He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. 16 “For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

What do we do when a precious life is over?

For those going through it:

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 NASB95

16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

For those watching someone going through it:

Romans 12:15 NASB95

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

The hope we have in Christ Jesus comforts us.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 NASB95

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

This is His grace to us. He sustains us through the difficulties with this grace. [Vandegrift video]

It is His goodness and His grace that allows us to say like Job…

Job 1:21 NASB95

21 He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

My you too hold all human life that God has given as precious even if He takes it away sooner than you desired.

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