Why I Believe in Sanctity of Human Life

 Why I Believe in Sanctity of Human Life  Psalm 139

 
            This morning I want to introduce you to the Tricia and Nathan Lawrenson of Kill Devil Hills.  They are a young couple in their late 20s.  Two weeks ago, God saw fit to give them a family.  When we plan to bring a child in the world, usually we are thinking of going into the hospital, staying a couple of days, and bringing the baby home to his or her new home surrounded by relatives and proud grandparents.  Unfortunately, this is not the case for everybody, and was not for the Lawrensons.  The picture of the baby that you see there is a tiny, premature baby by the name of Gwenneth Rose Lawrenson.  She was born on January 8 at Duke University Medical Center.  The reason I am telling her story is because she is a local miracle.  Nathan is the minister of music at the church where his father is the pastor:  Nags Head Church.  Tricia, the child’s mother, is a victim of cystic fibrosis.   She has struggled with this disease all her life.  Nathan and Tricia wanted children since they were married while students at Liberty University, but they have been told that it would be a medical impossibility, for it would endanger Tricias life.   Despite their plans to the contrary, God conceived a baby in Tricia’s womb while Tricia was on the list for a double-lung transplant.   The doctors said that the baby’s chances of making it to term would be very slim, and that she would weaken her mother’s already very delicate condition.   The medical team suggested very strongly that the pregnancy be terminated- and that the baby be aborted.  Nathan and Tricia would not hear of it.  Its one thing to be pro-life when you aren’t involved in a decision like the Lawrenson’s, but they elected to go ahead with the pregnancy.  In the meantime, over the Christmas holidays, Tricia’s health took a severe downturn.  An infection entered her lungs.  For a time it appeared that both the mother and the baby would die.  Tricia was placed on a respirator immediately, and placed on a drug induced coma so she would not struggle.   Again, the doctors urged her to have an abortion, to which she refused.   The doctors then elected to try to increase the viability of the baby.   She was delivered, extremely premature, but nonetheless a miracle at 6 ½ months.   She is not completely out of the woods yet, but she continues to grow and develop normally.  In the meantime, Tricia has come out of the coma- though still on the respirator.

 

           Why am I telling you this story? Because God is the author of life.  If this event had happened just 5 years ago, it is likely baby Gwenneth would not have survived.    I know that the costs and the money involved is exorbitant.  But what is the value of a life?  Who is it who determines whether a life is worthwhile to be lived? 

 

I.  Human life is sanctified by God.   (Psalm 139:16)

 

The image of God means that only human beings can fellowship with the Creator

(Genesis 1:26-27). Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."  27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

 

The image of God means that only human beings are crowned by God with glory and majesty (Psalm 8:4-5). You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:

The image of God means therefore that  God should determine life's beginning and end (Psalm 139:16). your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me  were written in your book before one of them came to be.

 

II.  Our Lives Belong to God.  (Psalm 139:13-14)

 

The image of God means that we are not only subservient to God, but that also, contrary to popular belief, our bodies are not ours to dispose of as we please.  Since God made us, gave life to us, and sanctified us, it is our responsibility to please God with the use of this sanctified body that he has given us.  We don’t have the right to abuse it, and we don’t have the right to say when it ends and when it begins.   No life is a throwaway, no precious life is disposable. Paul clearly teaches us I Cor 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.  

 

            The fact that our bodies and everything about our lives belongs to God.  In fact we don’t have one thing that God hasn’t given to us in the first place.  This can be illustrated in a conversation I had with one of my children when they were very small.  I took them to McDonalds when they were toddlers so Robin could get out and go get her hair done.  So I bundled them up and let them play in the little playground, and then ordered their meal.  When we were finishing up, it didn’t appear that one of them was going to finish her French fries.  She was too distracted about playing with the other kids in the ball pen.  So, not wanting to waste them or let them get cold, I reached over and picked a couple of French fries out of her bag, and put them in my mouth.  She took her thumb out of her mouth and glared at me, and then said, “Hey!  Those are my French fries!  You can’t eat my French fries!  Gimme back my French fries!” she said.   I thought, “Why you little rascal you, I bought those French fries.  If I want to eat one, I’ll eat one.”  But I didn’t waste that argument on her because she couldn’t have understood the concept of what’s mine is mine and what’s is mine…but anyway.”   God gave us our bodies.  He gave us not only His breath but has provided every means to sustain it.  If He gives life, He gives it, if He takes life, He takes it- and that is up to Him. 

 

Psalm 139: 13-14  For You formed my inward parts;You covered me in my mother’s womb.14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 

 

         Marvelous are your works- the Psalmist says.  That means that God don’t make a mistake.  He doesn’t goof up.  He doesn’t say “Sorry, my bad!”  There’s nothing “my-bad” about God- as though God has to explain Himself to any of us.  I know what you are thinking, “What about the people who are born with mental deficiencies.  What about the ones who are born with physical deformities?  What about kids who are born as Conjoined twins, or have Down syndrome, or born with gross abnormalities?  Did they somehow fall through the cracks of God’s sovereign quality control?

 

         I can’t begin to explain all that.  I wouldn’t even if I could.  I know that infirmity and death were not part of God’s original creation.  They were a direct result of the fall and man’s disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden.  But I do know this.  If God gives us His grace to bear up under our own infirmities, He gives us sufficient grace to love and to deal with the infirmities of others. 

2 Corinthians 12:7-9. To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

 

        I have a first cousin whose first child was born with Down’s Syndrome.  His name is Mark.  Mark is now 26 years old.  But along with Mark’s deficiencies came all of the love and the joy of what it means to have a kid like Mark around.  Mark has enriched all of our lives, and his parents are a wonderful testimony to the strength and sufficiency of the grace of God.  God gave 3 other brothers and sisters in that home to care for Mark should Mark outlive his mom and dad.  

 

         God in His wonderful Providence, demonstrates and declares His image and creative genius in us everytime we come up with a breakthrough in medical technology to sustain life and give it hope.  If we have the means to sustain life through medical technology, the fact that it is a possibility is a gift from God.   Jesus said in Luke 12:48  For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

 

            There’s so much more I can share about the Sanctity of Human Life- but let me conclude by saying that this issue is not some isolated thing that we don’t have to deal with.  This issue affects all of us.   It is very likely that if it doesn’t affect you personally, it affects someone you know and love.  Because of this, we bear the witness of a loving, personal God who gets involved personally at every level of life to help us in our times of greatest need.   Remember that all of us came into this world deformed- deformed by sin and alienated from God.  Yet God spared no expense to save us and to give us eternal life.  The gift of everlasting life is the basis by which we define the value of every human life, whether born or unborn, whole or not, because we were made in the image of God to reflect the love and grace of God that He has gives every single one of us. 

Continue to pray for Tricia and Nathan and Gwenneth, Lawrenson, and for my cousin Darla and her husband Steve, and for Mark.  They know God, and they fully believe that He was greater than their rights, their plans or their inconveniences.