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“If you’re able...” Reading Genesis 1:26–31. “...Thanks be to God.”
On Friday was the March for Life in Washington, DC. Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life said, “We are not done. We will keep marching every January at the national level, as well as in our states, until our nation's laws reflect the basic truth that all human life is created equal and is worthy of protection. We will march until abortion is unthinkable.”
Another marcher from Maryland, Leszek Syski, attending his 50th March for Life, said, “Ultimately, we don't want to just make abortion illegal. We want to make it unthinkable.”
The March for Life this year is the second one since the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court in June, 2022. That decision effectively took away the federal ban on abortion and pushed the issue to the states.
Since that time, the 50 states in the US have enacted a wide variety of legislation. Many states immediately went to laws already in the books prior to Roe v. Wade in 1973. Most of these laws ban abortion. Some changed their laws to become more friendly to abortions. Others became more restrictive.
14 states ban abortion entirely with a few exceptions allowed. 2 states ban abortions at 6 weeks.
North Carolina is considered by a major pro-abortion website to be “hostile” to abortion.[1] But another major pro-life website called our state protective of the unborn.[2] North Carolina allows abortion up to 12 weeks. But since 93% of abortions take place at or before 13 weeks,[3] our 12-week ban is only slightly encouraging. In a divided state where you need a majority to pass legislation and sometimes a super-majority, you do your best and then keep working for more.
That’s where we are. Clearly there’s more work to do. In our state and in our country.
In our time this morning we want to think about that idea from the March for Life, to make abortion not just illegal but “unthinkable.”
We’ve been in Genesis 1–11 for the last several months of sermons. Today we’ll look at what these opening chapters of Genesis teach us about the Sanctity of Life. We’ll look at The Sanctity of Life Right from the Start.
The Sanctity of Life is there as part of a vision for how we are to live as the people of God. Within this broad vision, we see that life is sacred and this world is fallen.
Sermon: In this vision for our lives as God’s people (and all people!), we’ll look at (1) Personhood from the beginning, (2) parenting after the fall, (3) protecting life after the flood, and (4) purpose in our labor.
Prayer
We start with the beginning of things. Before sin had entered the world. Before anything like abortion had become part of the human experience. Before any relationships were ruined or a victim was ever exploited.
We start with what God says about us as people. As persons. Personhood from the beginning.
First, all people are made in the image of God.
Mankind is unique among all creatures—earthly and heavenly. We are made in God’s image. And all of us are made in God’s image. Not just Adam and Eve, who were made as mature adults.
But every person is a person made in the image of God. Like John taught us from Dr. Seuss last week, “A person’s a person, no matter how small!” (Horton Hears a Who). What we need to add to Dr. Seuss, though, is this, “And if a person’s a person, then that person is made in the image of God.”
You can hear this truth in the words to Noah:
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (Gen 9:6)
Being a person in the image of God is not a matter of a certain level of development or capacity. It’s not something that becomes true of us when we reach a certain age. It’s true from the very beginning. Because personhood is true from the very beginning of our existence.
Psalm 139. “A Psalm of David.” King David. David reflecting on God’s work and presence in his life. He’s aware that God knows everything about him—all his words, all his thoughts, everywhere he goes. And he knows God is always and fully present wherever he is.
But in Psalm 139 he also lets his mind go back in time to his own beginnings. And he’s aware that from the first moment of his existence, God was actively engaged in his life. From the first moment of his existence, he was a person and the living God was working in his life:
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)
When did King David go from an “it” to a “me”? From an appendage on his mother’s body to an independent person? He didn’t. He was always a “me.” In the womb, he was a “me” and not an it: “You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”
When David’s cells were multiplying and producing body parts. When David’s DNA was there and determined his skin color and hair color and height and whether he would be good in math or languages, it was the work of God the Master Craftsman, “KNITTING ME together in my mother’s womb.”
Yes, he was physically connected to his “mother’s womb,” but he was also distinct from his mother’s womb. Because he was a person from conception. Not a fully developed person. But a person made in God’s image.
A second aspect of our personhood from the beginning: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 1:28).
This verse represents a command but also a vision of things. It is to represent our attitude toward children and families.
A pro-life mentality at a very deep level. We work to make things grow—right there in the Garden. But Eve as “the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20).
Doesn’t mean that the goal is for each woman to give birth as many times as possible. But it does capture an attitude and set of values we are to have. When it comes to having children, we are to be positive and hopeful and eager. Like the Bible indicates, children are part of God’s blessing. You see this in places like Psalm 127 and 128.
Right now around the world there are a lot of governments trying to figure out how to solve the problem of decades of declining birthrates. It’s not just China. Or Europe. A US Senator recently spoke of an open border policy as a way to solve America’s birthrate problem.
Catherine Pakaluk, a Harvard professor and PhD, who had 8 children of her own, says the reality is that it’s “religious people” who have more babies. She said people who don’t believe in God often aren’t willing to make the sacrifices necessary to build their lives around children and families.[4]
When it comes to the abortion issue it matters not just what we’re AGAINST, but also what we’re FOR. We are for being fruitful and multiplying as God’s providence directs us and allows.
A third aspect of our personhood from the beginning: “it was all very good” (Gen 1:31).
When all is created and set in motion, God says it was all “very good.” You have a man living as a man, a woman living as a woman. Marriage is established. Work is given to them. They are to work to make things grow in the Garden and to expand that Garden throughout the earth.
They are to have children and disciple those children according to God’s Word.
They are to live in communion with God and in obedience to God.
And when this whole world is completed and its purposes defined, God says, “it was all very good.”
The world as God made it was “very good.”
APPLICATION: This vision for how to live as the people of God means (1) all people made in the image of God, from conception; (2) pro-children, pro-family, and even having children as God’s providence guides us and allows; (3) a sense that God’s vision of the family is “very good.” Not “bad.” Not even just “good.” But “very good.”
Things did not remain “very good” for very long. Right after Genesis 2 the serpent shows up, and things go bad quickly. Eve listens to the serpent and takes some of the forbidden fruit. She gives some to Adam, who was there with her. He eats, and then the world is plunged into a state of death, darkness, and decay.
Things that should be only blessings are now made profoundly difficult. Sin and death enter the world, and everything we are and do gets harder.
Parenting is one of the things that changes after the fall. As God speaks to each party involved in the fall—serpent, woman, man—what he says to the woman about parenting is profound.
Genesis 3:16:
To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” (Gen 3:16)
We don’t know what labor and delivery would have been like in the Garden of Eden before the sin of Adam. But after the fall we know it will include “pain,” a word repeated twice in God’s first sentence to the woman: “I will multiply your pain...in pain.”
Commentator John Currid:
Woman’s condition...has been greatly altered because of sin and a fallen world. Her role is the same as it was before the Fall, but it has become hard, painful and frustrating....In 1:28, man and woman had been given the task of begetting children. Because of mankind’s fall into sin, this duty will become laborious and difficult.
John Currid, Genesis[5]
But the pain of parenting doesn’t stop there. Because sin is in the world, now there is a whole new kind of pain into our parenting. And Genesis makes that clear.
The first son of Adam and Eve, Cain, kills their second son, Abel. Then Cain becomes an outlaw. With the sons of Noah, we encounter the foolish Ham who is cursed for disrespecting his father—and his brothers are blessed.
It’s clear that after the fall parents will feel the impact and destructiveness of sin.
It’s a reminder that “pain” and parenting go together. Parenting begins with the pain of labor. And then heartache and parenting are never far apart.
As a parent we feel the ups and downs our children experience. Their disappointments and hardships.
With the abortion issue we need to be honest about what we’re saying. No one is saying that bringing a child into the world is a pain-free decision. And for many people, there are financial and relational challenges that make it a very difficult decision.
This isn’t the Garden of Eden. And this isn’t the new heavens and new earth. Parenting is truly difficult. But God’s grace is here to be able to raise our children in a way that will honor God and bless them.
The reason to mention this in the context of the Sanctity of Life is to say we’re not naïve about the realities of bringing a baby into the world. To do that is to invite a lot of difficulty and hardship into your life.
But we do this because a person is uniquely made in the image of God from conception. We do this because we are called to “be fruitful and multiply.”
And we do this because our God condemns the wrongful taking of a life. Our next point...
In Genesis 6–8 we read about the flood of Noah. God’s massive statement that he is a holy Judge and sin is deeply offensive to him.
But after the flood, God makes a covenant with Noah that remains in effect today. It is for all people—not just those who identify as Christians.
On God’s part, it’s a kind of “covenant of preservation.” He promises to preserve the world as it is until Christ returns. He won’t bring another global event like the flood until the plan of redemption is complete.
In this covenant he gives humanity a set of commands about how it is to organize itself.
Genesis 9:4–7:
4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. 7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” (Gen 9:4–7)
Don’t eat blood like you would eat vegetables and meat. There’s something almost sacred about blood. The “life” of a creature is in its blood. Don’t eat its “life.”
But then is the command against murder, a command that will get repeated in the Ten Commandments, in the teaching of Jesus, in the teaching of the apostles. And already in Genesis this sin has been communicated. With Cain and Abel and the generations after them, murder was forbidden.
When a person takes the life of another without just cause, it is wrong. When that happens, God tells Noah that “by man shall his blood be shed” (Gen 9:7). In other words, capital punishment is the fitting justice for this capital crime. A monetary fine isn’t enough. The sacrifice of an animal isn’t enough. In this case it is to be a life for a life.
This commitment to protect life has a positive dimension, too. God restates what he said to Adam and Eve: “And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” (Gen 9:7)
Don’t wrongfully take a life. And be those who multiply and produce life—throughout the whole earth.
Samuel Renihan reflects on how the command against murder and the command to “be fruitful and multiply” carve out a constitution for societies:
In the Noahic Covenant, human societies...have two basic and related jobs: to preserve life, and to preserve the family. Mankind is to be fruitful and multiply. Society, man looking out for man, should promote human fruitfulness and multiplication. And that multiplication takes place in the context of families. As a result, any society or government that corrupts the family or murders the innocent is a government in direct treason and disobedience to the God of the universe. They are abusing the sword entrusted to them by turning it on the innocent, rather than the guilty. And is there not a more poignant, convicting, and blatantly sinful example of this in our society than the active, government-funded, government-supported, legal status, pursuit, and protection of abortion? Is there anything more contrary to mankind’s basic commission to be fruitful and multiply than to murder our own children, and to protect that murder by law?...Countries have constitutions or similar founding documents. But there is a more fundamental constitution by which we are all to live, and that is the Noahic Covenant governing the common kingdom of mankind. As a society we must promote, preserve, and protect the life of individuals, and the life of the family. These are our most basic commitments. As a result, we must punish the wicked,...and we must seek, with God’s help, to exemplify and manifest real loving thriving families in our own homes.”
Samuel Renihan, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom[6]
Defenders of abortion routinely speak of things like “autonomy over our sexual and reproductive lives.” The right to an abortion is presented as “reproductive rights.”
The issue of bodily autonomy and personal freedoms would be exactly correct if you were talking about your favorite cheesecake or your preferred clothing or favorite kind of exercise. We have a certain amount of “bodily autonomy” and personal freedom to do those things.
But the category of personal or bodily freedom is absolutely wrong when you’re talking about abortion, because it’s not just the woman’s body that’s involved. It’s the baby’s life.
This is totally obvious to us after the baby is born and everyone gets to hold it and see it.
But the difference between a baby born and being held and one in the womb is hardly different at all. It’s a difference of a few inches, a few days, a slight bit of development.
That’s why it makes perfect sense that the same Greek word (brephos) in the New Testament would be used in these two verses (which summarize the different ways this word gets used in the NT):
And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. (Luke 1:41)
Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. (Luke 18:15)
A “baby” in the womb or an “infant” being prayed for by Jesus are the same kind of person. They aren’t different, even though they’re in a different amount of development.
It’s just like the difference between a six-week old and a six-year old. The six-year old is more developed, more independent, and larger. But that doesn’t make the six-year old more of a person.
Once again...
“A person’s a person, no matter how small!”
Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who!
In our final look at Genesis 1–11, we’ll look at a part of the Tower of Babel narrative. As humanity is growing in its numbers and sophistication after the flood, they lose sight of their purpose. They begin to forget their mission to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Instead, they want to settle somewhere and make a name for themselves.
We get a view into their hearts in Genesis 11:4:
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (Gen 11:4)
Reaching for heaven, making a name for ourselves. A lot of human activity can be captured by that idea. Except it’s not “reaching for heaven” to seek the true and living God. It’s “reaching for heaven” to become gods.
And “making a name for ourselves.” That also captures a lot. A lot of human endeavor is an attempt to make a name for ourselves. To be significant. To be remembered. To build our own legacy.
But they went about it in the absolute wrong way.
In the storyline of Genesis, this comes as a total contrast to the man Noah:
In chapter 6:
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. (Gen 6:9)
Then God tells him to build the ark. And at the end of the chapter:
Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. (Gen 6:22)
The Bible holds up people like that to teach us how to live. To teach us the right way to make a name for ourselves and to reach for heaven. We do it by pursuing the Lord and obeying his commandments. By walking “with God.”
In the end the right way to make a name for ourselves is by making a name for Christ. It is his name that is above all names. We do all things for the glory of his name.
Sanctity of Life: One of the sad realities of those seeking abortions is that some of them see a child as a hindrance to the life they imagined, to the life they’re seeking.
It’s a kind of Tower of Babel they’re building, and a child is a hindrance to that.
On the Planned Parenthood website, they have a series of questions to help a person decide if having an abortion is right for them. These include:
It’s one thing to ask these questions before you become pregnant or before you adopt: Are you ready for the responsibility? But once there’s a person growing inside you, a baby inside you, that’s not the time to ask yourself if your “career goals” allow for this pregnancy.
Your life is not your own. You belong to God. First as a creature made in his image. You are here to make much of God’s name, not make a name for yourself.
The purpose of our labor and of everything we are, is to make a name for Christ.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31)
Throughout these early chapters we get challenging commands and a comprehensive vision of being pro-life and busy about making a name for Christ and not ourselves.
We get challenging commands about protecting life.
As Christians living in an age of abortion, how should we respond:
But as we close, I know some of us need to see something else from God’s Word. We need to hear about God’s mercy. Maybe we carry the regrets of having some part in an abortion. Or some other sin in our past that we carry around like a 500-lb weight.
You need to hear about God’s mercy. God’s mercy is bigger than our sin. Our sin is big! But God’s mercy is bigger than our sin.
We can’t change our past. It is fixed. But we can let God redeem it. Let me say that again, We can’t change our past. But we can let God redeem it.
Our God is in the business of redemption. He takes sinners and broken vessels, and he repairs them. He takes lost and empty things, and he fills them.
One of the great moments in the ministry of Jesus is when he encounters the Samaritan woman in John 4. Jesus initiates a conversation with her. He knows she’s had five husbands and is living with a man who isn’t her husband (John 4:18). That’s her life. At that point her life can’t be changed. But it can be redeemed.
Likely her life experiences are ones that have ongoing consequences. And sometimes we can’t get out of those consequences.
But we can still be redeemed. Jesus says to her in John 4:
13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)
He offers her living water. He is the living water. He is offering himself to her. She takes it! She is redeemed and never the same again.
Her past remains her past—but it’s a past that’s redeemed by Christ. It’s a past that will be part of her testimony of God’s grace. It’s a past that will inspire humility and prayer in her.
There is no past that is beyond the reach of Christ’s redemption. Turn to Christ for the living water that he offers to thirsty souls.
Prayer and closing song (“Not in Me”)
[1]https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/state-policies-later-abortions
[2] https://www.nrlc.org/wp-content/uploads/PostDobbsfactsheetwherestatesstand.pdf
[3] https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/index.htm
[4]https://www.wsj.com/articles/musk-says-make-more-italians-fertility-rate-religion-feminism-c8fdf9ba.
[5] John Currid, Genesis, Vol 1, 132.
[6] Samuel Renihan, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2020), 81.
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