Calvary Road Baptist Church

“HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED”

(a response to the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg) 

Unless you live under a rock or you are entirely off the grid, you know that associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at the age of 87 Friday, setting the stage for a monumental struggle in the United States Senate to confirm her successor before the upcoming presidential election. In the hours after her death, it seems as though people on the political left and right are bending over backward to extol the virtues of only the second woman ever to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.

I find myself annoyed that so many members of the chattering class contort themselves to complement a recently deceased person who embraced such bloodthirsty and brutal personal convictions. She spent her entire professional career, before being appointed to the bench, as a practicing attorney and law school professor who strongly advocated for women’s rights. This meant, of course, that she exhibited no small measure of irrational thinking as both a lawyer and as a judge.

On the one hand, she was vigorous in her insistence that women be afforded not only equal protection under the law but also an equal outcome of results. Yet, on the other hand, she endorsed abortion-rights for women and upheld the 1973 Roe v. Wade U. S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion on demand. This even though history has shown, in the United States and in every other country of the world where abortion is legal, that significantly greater numbers of unborn girls are murdered before birth than are unborn boys. It is termed gendercide.[1]

To argue for equality under the law and equal outcome in society is very much at odds with the real-world results of abortion on demand, as irrefutable data shows. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was, for all of her intellectual might and determination to succeed in her chosen profession, a fatally flawed woman. She advocated for women whenever and wherever she could, but only women who had successfully passed through the birth canal. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was most definitely not an advocate for the safety of women in their mother’s wombs. I would guess she had never seen the dismembered body of a baby girl in a plastic bag.

How could a woman who was so brilliant be so tragically and ignorantly wrong about so fundamentally important an issue as protecting the lives of unborn females? It is a simple issue when approached correctly. It is a matter of one’s philosophical starting point. Everyone, you see, has a philosophical starting point, basic worldview assumptions from which all the issues of life are understood. A person’s philosophical starting point can be compared to a filter through which all the information that comes to you is filtered, analyzed, categorized, and stored for use by a thinking individual. But if your starting point is wrong, you cannot help but be wrong all along the way.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as with so many other people, believed that certain people’s lives were significant and should be protected. However, she did not think that every person’s life is essential and worthy of protection. This is because, concerning her starting point assumption, she was fatally flawed. She had confidence in her gifted intellect. She did not imagine that her ability to understand, to think, and to make value judgments was marred by the influence of sin.[2]

So, one might ask, what is the proper starting point assumption? What is to be presumed? What is to be assumed is that God, being God, is true. That was David’s position (Second Samuel 7.28), the prophet Jeremiah’s position (Jeremiah 10.10; 42.5), the Lord Jesus Christ’s view (John 3.33; 7.28), and the Apostle Paul’s understanding (First Thessalonians 1.9).

And if God is true, which is a reasonable conviction corroborated by Scripture, then God’s Word is true. Is God’s Word true? David was so convinced (Second Samuel 7.28 and Psalm 119.160). The Lord Jesus Christ was so confident (John 17.17). The Apostle Paul was so confident (Ephesians 1.13 and Second Timothy 2.15). Likewise, James held to that conviction (James 1.18).

Let me be clear. Every human being has a philosophical starting point, a set of assumptions that are subject to ongoing revision and review, forming the framework within which is processed all that you gather through your five senses and evaluate. The appropriate starting point with which to understand life and all the issues of life is the truthfulness of God’s Word. God’s Word is true. It is true because God is true.

I cannot prove that the Bible is true. No one can prove that the Bible is true. But those of us who believe the Bible are willing to subject Scripture to ongoing verification of its authenticity and reliability. Having been a believer in Jesus Christ for 46 years, my testimony is that as a student of Scripture for almost a half-century, I have never seen evidence that the Bible is faulty, error-prone, or unreliable. It is the foundation upon which a life can and should be built. The Bible is reliable. The Bible is true.

Based on this assumption, I declare to you that human life is sacred. The reason so many people are divided in this country about so many things is because of the assumptions made concerning the Word of God. Some people assume the Word of God to be true, while other people believe the Word of God to be false.

I wish to focus on one conclusion that results from the assumption that the Bible is true. Human life is sacred.

My message features seven main points: 

#1, HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED BECAUSE WE BEAR GOD’S IMAGE 

God’s image is first mentioned in Genesis 1.26, where God states His intention to create man in His image and after His likeness and to give mankind 

“dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” 

It is in the next verse that we read, 

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

I will not in this message attempt to explain what is meant by the phrase “the image of God,” but will confine myself to pointing out that whatever is represented by the words, bearing God’s image is significant. Genesis 5.3 mentions that Adam and Eve’s son Seth bore the image of Adam, which is hardly a surprise. However, it is noteworthy that Genesis 9.6 refers to capital punishment as the appropriate consequence for homicide. Why so? Because the victim of homicide bore God’s image.

Thus, there is no question that human life is sacred because human beings bear God’s image. So significant is being an image-bearer of God that the punishment called for by God for the crime of homicide, taking a human life, is the death penalty. 

#2, HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED BECAUSE GOD CREATED US 

We are told that Adam and Eve were made in the image and likeness of God. And we find from Genesis chapter 9 that human beings, even after the fall into sin, continue to bear the image and likeness of God. The image of God in us is marred by sin, but it remains the image of God still.

However, it is not only because we bear the image and likeness of God that human life is sacred. Human life is sacred because God made us. We are His. We belong to Him by right of creation. Therefore, it does not matter at all whether your life is sacred to you, or anyone else’s life is sacred to you. That does not matter one whit.

Sacred has to do with belonging to God. Sacred has to do with set apart for God. Sacred has to do with important to God. Therefore, the sacredness of human life is not at all a matter of someone’s life being important to you, but whether or not someone’s life is important to God.

Therefore, let us set aside the issue of bearing the image of God and the issue of the importance of something that is symbolic. We no longer live in a nation that universally values the symbol of our nation, which is our nation’s flag. Our flag is utterly disregarded as an item of importance to a huge proportion of our population.

In like manner, I suspect that an astonishingly large percentage of our nation’s population has no concern whatsoever about this matter of bearing God’s image and likeness. Okay. Let’s set that aside for now and focus on an entirely different issue, the issue of humanity being sacred because God created us. Do you not like God’s ownership of mankind? Do you not appreciate God’s ownership of you? Would you rather be an insignificant and utterly meaningless spec in a remote corner of the vast universe, without value? Too bad. You are someone who is valued, by God if not by you, because He created you. 

#3, HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED BECAUSE GOD LOVES US 

The most familiar verse in the entire Bible is John 3.16: 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 

Another important verse is Ephesians 1.4: 

“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” 

These are only two of many verses in the Bible that convey the profound truth that the infinite Creator and Sustainer of all things has chosen to love His otherwise insignificant creatures. We recognize that the Bible teaches God’s love for us to be something that is not deserved and certainly not earned. However, it is the profoundest kind of blessing.

Have you ever given thought to this issue of you being sacred, valuable, important to God, and set aside by God for God? You are sacred because you bear God’s image. You are sacred because you are God’s creation. There is value to you because of the One who made you. And you are sacred because you are the object of God’s love. God loves you. 

#4, HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED BECAUSE GOD WANTS US 

It is one thing to bear God’s image. It is one thing to be God’s creation. It is one thing to be the object of God’s love. But what can be said about these three realities coming together in the mind and heart of God so that He wants you? You heard me correctly. He wants you.

The human race in the person of Adam rejected God by sinning against Him in the Garden of Eden. Because God is holy and cannot look upon sin, and to bar Adam’s access to the tree of life, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden and the face of God. But that was not the end of it for the human race, but the beginning. For, since then, God has wanted us restored to Him.

Some may doubt this, but Second Peter 3.9 is very clear: 

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 

There is no doubt if God’s Word is true (and it is). God does not want you to perish in your sins. He wants you to repent, which is to say, turn away from your sins and trust Christ as your Savior.

Understand, that is your only way back to God. Because God is holy, righteous, and just, He cannot violate His nature by pretending you are not sinful. Therefore, He has devised a way to redeem you from your sins without compromising His holiness, His righteousness, or His justice. How does He do this? He does this through the ministry of His precious Son, Jesus Christ.

Remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said in John 14.6: 

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” 

The way back to God is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way, the only way. He is the truth, as much as God is true and God’s Word is true, the Lord Jesus Christ is truth. As well, He is the life. In Him is eternal life. Thus, it can only be that salvation from your sins is in and through the eternal Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, the Lord.

The question is whether He wants you. Does the Lord Jesus Christ want you? Does the Lord Jesus Christ want sinners? Consider what He said in Matthew 11.28: 

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” 

Can He be more clear than this? Consider this verse. Notice that it is not a question. The Lord Jesus Christ is not with this asking any sinner to come to Him. He is not asking you to come to Him. The Lord Jesus Christ is with this statement directing you to come to Him. Thus, the issue is no longer whether or not He wants you. That is abundantly clear. He wants you. The issue is whether you will obey.

You might wonder how all of this is accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of God the Father to bring about your restoration to God through the forgiveness of your sins? The answer is provided by the Apostle Peter in First Peter 1.18-21: 

18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

20  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

21  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 

When the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary, He shed his blood for the remission of your sins. You become the beneficiary of His shed blood when you turn from your sins to trust Christ as your Savior, and by Him believe in God. Therefore, because we bear God’s image, because God created us, because God loves us, and because God wants us, let us draw three reasonable and rational conclusions. 

First, MURDER IS WRONG 

Can there be any doubt that murder is wrong? Every civilized society that has ever existed has recognized the criminality of murder. However, only the Word of God establishes the universal sanctity of life. Only the Bible declares that we bear the image of God, that we have been created by God, that God loves us, and God wants us.

One must wonder about those who believe in a woman’s right to choose to slaughter her unborn child. They claim to believe that it is wrong to murder those born while insisting upon the absolute right to determine the life or death of those unborn. More and more, those who place a high price on abortion are coming to insist on a mother’s right to kill her baby moments before the baby is born, with ever more people determined to establish the right to take a baby’s life even after the child has been born.

I wonder how anyone could claim to be a civilized human being and maintain such a position? If human life is not sacred, if it is not immoral to take the life of an unborn child for no other reason than convenience, then at what point will it be established that one person has the right to murder another human being for no other reason than personal convenience? Murder is wrong. It is shameful to both speak and to think otherwise. 

Second, LIFE IS IMPORTANT 

This is the flip side of the coin. On one side of the coin, we see murder is wrong. On the other side of the coin, we see that life is important. Both are true, though some people are so confused in their thinking, so distorted in their irrationality, with a conscience that is so seared by sin, that they neither recognize the wrongness of murder nor the importance of human life.

Though the outworking of this philosophy is seen among all age groups, it is most prevalent in the lives of those who are young, who imagine that a long life ahead of them is somehow guaranteed, who give no thought to mortality. They engage in immoral conduct, committing spiritual, emotional, and psychological suicide, if not physical suicide.

They do not imagine that thoughts or conduct always result in consequences. These are people who engage in sex with those they are not married to and imagine no lasting and long term damage to their soul. These same people will use, which is to say abuse, beverage alcohol, and drugs, without ever considering the long-term damage both physically and spiritually.

They do not treat their lives as meaningful, therefore it is impossible for them to treat other people’s lives as meaningful. They are incapable of concerning themselves with the spiritual welfare of members of their own family, be it a spouse or children. They live only to derive pleasure and have no thought for the eternal and undying souls of either themselves or those they claim to love.

However, I am here to tell you that your life is essential. I am here to tell you that your life is significant. Even though it is not a life that belongs entirely to you, but God, your life should be valued and treasured because it will never end. When you pass from this life, you will go through death’s door to eternity, an eternity of bliss with God forever in heaven, or an eternity of torment with the damned in Hell and then the lake of fire forever and ever. 

Finally, TIME IS VALUABLE 

Near the end of his life, and from Roman imprisonment, the Apostle Paul wrote letters to the Ephesian congregation and the Colossian congregation.[3] The same phrase is found in both letters, “redeeming the time.” The meaning? “Make the best use of your time.”[4] Why would the Apostle Paul so urgently press those congregations to stop wasting their time and to make the best use of the time they had remaining?

I can think of two answers to that question, depending on your spiritual condition:

First, make the best use of your time to prepare for eternity. We live in a post-Christian culture, in which advances in technology and medical care have served to both prolong our life spans and to separate us from the pain and suffering of those who are gravely ill and dying. During the days of the First and Second Great Awakenings in our country, almost everyone, including small children, was experienced with death and had no illusions about their mortality. They had mothers or fathers or brothers or sisters or cousins or friends at Church who had died. They understood back then what people in Third World countries understand today, but few of us in our country are willing to admit.

We are mortal. Every one of us is going to die. You have never known anyone who has not died or will not die. We all know people who pooh-pooh the idea of being afraid of death. But these same people are unwilling to discuss the realities of not only life but also eternity. They don’t want to deal with fact that eternity is a long time to be wrong. And they do not want to come to grips with the fact that God has given to you this span of life on this side of eternity for only one reason, to prepare for the other side, to prepare for eternity. The soul that sins shall surely die. To die in sins means an eternity of torment in the next life. But God sent His Son because He wants you. Jesus Christ died on Calvary’s cross to redeem sinners. I urge you, while there is time, to consider the claims of Christ and turn from your sins to trust the Savior. He will receive you unto himself, will forgive your sins, and give you the gift of eternal life.

But that is not all. For those who already know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we need to redeem the time to prepare others for eternity. This we do by witnessing to people. This we do by inviting folks to Church. This we do by being good neighbors. This we do by praying for them and loving on them. Why else would the Lord Jesus Christ give us the Great Commission? Why else would the Lord Jesus Christ leave us here to live out our lives in this evil world, with its suffering and heartache? We’ve a story to tell to the nations. We must make Christ’s name known among the nations. Every congregation has their own Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. Every Church has a community to reach, and beyond. 

A simple message. Very straightforward. Blunt and direct. But I think directness is needful. I think we need to go over foundational terrain to recalibrate our thinking.

Murder is wrong. Anyone who advocates or facilitates murder is evil. And murdering unborn children, who are in a place that ought to be safe, is the worst.

Life is sacred. My life is sacred. Your life is sacred. Are you living as though your life is sacred? Are you living as though the lives of others is sacred?

You do this, first, by settling things with God, by turning from your sins and trusting Christ.

You do this, second, by seeking the salvation of others now that you are a believer in Jesus Christ, most especially by your commitment to serving God as the member of a Gospel preaching and Christ honoring Church.

__________

[1]https://www.livescience.com/33491-male-female-sex-ratio.html and https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2539648/Thousands-girls-aborted-gender-Study-finds-couples-cultures-sons-deemed-desirable-terminating-female-pregnancies.html

[2] Romans 1.21-22

[3] Ephesians 5.16; Colossians 4.6

[4] J. B. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistle To The Colossians and to Philemon, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, revised 1979 edition), page 233 and Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians, World Biblical Commentary Volume 42, (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher, 1990), page 341.

Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.

Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church