All Life is Sacred - Value the Image of God

Introduction

I want to be with a rather troubling story I came across while preparing for this message. It is from the Themelios journal and is from the year 2003. It truly is shocking, so much so that I tried to find so news sources that may have followed up but couldn’t locate any. I then realized this was likely told anonymously for legal reasons. Brace yourself for what you are about to hear. It goes like this: “One night a nurse on my shift came up to me and said, ‘Jennifer, you need to see the Garcia baby’. There was something suspicious about the way she said it, … She led me to a room the nurses used for their breaks. Women were smoking and drinking coffee, their feet up on the stainless steel counter. There, lying on the metal, was the naked body of a newborn baby. ‘What is the baby doing here on this counter?’, I asked timidly. ‘That’s a preemie born at 19 weeks’, she said. ‘We don’t do anything to save them unless they are 20 weeks.’ I noticed the chest fluttering rapidly. I picked him up for a closer look. ‘This baby is alive!’ I exclaimed. I thought they hadn’t noticed. Then I learned the horrible truth. The nurses knew, and it didn’t matter. They had presented the baby to its mother as a dead, premature child. Then they took him and tossed him on the cold, steel counter in the lunch room. I did the one thing I could think of. I held him in his last moments so he’d at least have some warmth and love before he died. Just then one of the nurses—a large harsh woman—burst into the room. ‘Jennifer, what are you doing with that baby?’ she yelled. ‘He’s still alive …’, I pleaded. ‘He’s still alive because you are holding him’, she said. Grabbing him by the back with one hand, she snatched him from me, opened one of the stainless steel cabinets, and pulled out a specimen container with formaldehyde in it. She tossed the baby in and snapped the lid on it. It was over in an instant. Jennifer went on to say, ‘To them this child wasn’t human. In seven more days he would have qualified, but at 19 weeks he was just trash’.”[1]

Background

Every society in the ANE had and today has laws against homicide and other forms of the taking of human life. They seems to be an understanding that the ending of life is no small thing. The question is why? Do human societies today truly understand why this should be so and the broader implications of this. What about things such as war, capital punishment, euthanasia, suicide, and abortion? These are some of the things we will discuss today as we bring forth what scripture says about the value of human life?

Exposition

What is the meaning of “murder”? The Hebrew word ‘ratzach’ refers to the unjustified or unlawful taking of a human life, intentional or unintentional. All of its uses in the OT refer to one of these two scenarios. It is never used in the context of capital punishment, except for reference to the offender (i.e. murderer). Killing in warfare is also outside the context of usage. The LORD commands Israel to war and its soldiers are never described as murderers. For this reason, the KJV translation of ‘kill’ doesn’t accurately represent the intent of the command. There are scenarios where the taking of life in scripture is not condemned (Ex. 22:2, Romans 13:4). This is not to say that ‘kill’ may not have been accurate at the time. It just isn’t now. The next question is what is being commanded in these four English words, or two Hebrew words?

The Westminster Large Catechism gives us great answer. It tells us the sixth commandment forbids: “all taking away the life of ourselves, or of others, except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defence; the neglecting or withdrawing the lawful and necessary means of preservation of life; sinful anger, hatred, envy, desire of revenge; all excessive passions, distracting cares; immoderate use of meat, drink, labour, and recreations; provoking words, oppression, quarrelling, striking, wounding, and whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life of any.”[2] All this means reckless and negligent actions, evil thoughts and desires, as well as intentional acts are enjoined by this commandment. Examples include Deut. 22:8 and Ex. 21:28-29. This view is supported by Christ and his apostles in the NT.

In Matthew 5:22 Christ makes clear the prohibition starts in the heart. Desiring the harm of another person is that same in God’s eyes as committing the action, through this doesn’t mean its okay to go forward with the action itself. The Apostle John, repeating the teaching of our Lord, makes it more explicit. You are guilty of murder if you hate your brother (1 John 3:15). Remember that sin becomes internally before it manifests externally. All this is the negative stating. What is the positive?

The positive stating would be Israelites were required to act in a way that protects and cherishes life. They are to seek the good of their fellow Israelites. Human life is life in the image of God, albeit marred by sin, and has infinite value. This is to be respected. This was / is pleasing in the sight of God. This is still true for us today. As Luther said: “Therefore it is God’s ultimate purpose that we suffer harm to befall no man, but show him all good and love; and, as we have said it is specially directed toward those who are our enemies.” Life is a gift from God and is to be treated as such. But why is this so? The image of God is the answer and to this we know turn.

Made in His Image

What separates mankind from everything else in creation is we alone are described in scripture as made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27;9:6). What does it mean? To understand the sanctify of life we need to understand what this means. Traditionally, this has been described in different ways:

Men and women possess “God-consciousness,” while the animals do not have. There is no concept of sin in the animal kingdom. They don’t consciously seek “glorify God, and enjoy him forever.”[3]

Men and women possess have personalities, just like God Himself does[4], but plants, and other matter don’t. Animals do, but not on the level of humans.

Plants and other animate objects don’t have emotions. Humans do, as do animals to an extent.

Mankind acts according to a moral standard, albeit an increasing subjective one.

These are all true, partially. Our list describes functions or features of the image. None of these makes us the image. What then does it mean to be made in God’s image. Humanity alone represents God on earth. Humanity alone is ‘like’ Him in some ways. Michael Heiser puts it nicely: “The image is not an ability we have, but a status. We are God’s representatives on earth. To be human is to image God.”[5] Theologian Owen Strachan: “He is made by God to display God to the world God has formed. To one another, to the birds, to the heavens themselves, the human race is a testament to the reality of divinity. To look at man is to confront, however distantly, the Almighty.” [6]He goes on the say: “The human race is the race made to display the glory of God in all the earth in a special way. The human race reflects and represents the person of God even after the fall (Gen 5:1–2, 9).[7]

Precious is His Image

For the reasons we have outlined above, the image of God, and therefore the image bearer, is precious. Life is precious. Life is a gift for the Sovereign God. He alone defines it parameters and fully controls when it begins and ends. These truths are described in the psalter by David in Ps 139:13 -16. The language in these verses is incredible. The implications are clear as day.

Striking the image of the God is no light matter, nor should it be treated as such. That is why we have this command and the final penalty provided both before and after. The penalty for murder is the OT was death (Ex. 21:12, Lev. 24:17). There was no sacrifice or ransom for murder provided in the law (Num. 35:31). The reason was clear. An unjustified attack of the image of God is an attack upon God Himself (Gen. 9:6). At the same time, while it was commanded for murder, the death penalty couldn’t be administered easily or lightly. One witness was insufficient for its administration (Num. 35:30, Deut. 17:6). This again affirms the value and importance of human life and the image of God. To quote Themelios again: “Life is not our absolute possession to do with as we see fit, but a gift to be treasured as God has decreed.”[8]

His Incarnation Image

The ultimate demonstration of the value of human life was the Son of God. He is the ultimate image of God (Heb. 1:3, Col 1:15) and took on human flesh in order to redeem us. God the Son did say, ‘I need another form to use.’ No, the form He created was good enough to use. This shows the error of the gnostics who saw the body as evil and the spirit as good. Christ became like us, the image of God in human form, to save us. Human life is sacred.

Practical Application

What are some of the ways in which our teaching on the image of God should be out in our lives. Let me suggest three things:

We must have a basis toward life - Any intentional act to bring about the end of life, without cause, must be fought against. Things such as suicide, abortion and euthanasia are ruled out based on our discussion today. We have not said much about war but engaging in that horrible act for unjust reasons would be prohibited as well. Any intentional act that would cause someone to harm themselves must be fought against.

We must make the case for life - It is never enough to only argue against something. We can’t ever stop with a negative cause. We must the positive case for our position. This is what I have tried to do this morning.

We must make the case that life’s fulness is only realized in Christ - We were made to worship Him.

Gospel Application

Do you acknowledge the image creator, the one whom is responsible for your existence and to whom you owe worship and allegiance?

Bibliography

1. Tinker, M. (2003). Living in a World Where Life is Cheap. Themelios, 29(1), 6.

2. Westminster Assembly. (1851). The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition (pp. 294–296). Philadelphia: William S. Young.

3. Luther, M. (2003). The Large Catechism. (F. Bente & W. H. T. Dau, Trans.). n.p.: WORDsearch

3. Boice, J. M. (1998). Genesis: an expositional commentary (p. 88). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

4. ibid Pg 90

5. Heiser, M. S. (2015). The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (First Edition, pp. 42–43). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

6. Strachan, O. (2019). Reenchanting Humanity: A Theology of Mankind (p. 15). Ross-shire: Mentor.

7. ibid. p. 30

8. Tinker, M. (2003). Living in a World Where Life is Cheap. Themelios, 29(1), 10.