Introduction: This past summer the nation was clamouring over fetal tissue cell research. As I pondered the question I turned to the Scriptures to see what the Word of God really had to say about unborn life. I believe the Lord led me to this passage of Scripture in Jeremiah. Jeremiah is receiving his call from God to the office of Prophet. Before the call is stated the preceeding verse says, "The Word of the Lord came to me saying...". This is what God says about the unborn. In the final analysis this is all that matters. Political parties will have their opinions, doctors and medical organizations will have theirs, you and I will have ours, but all of them will be judged by the "Word of the Lord". Let God be true and every man a liar. What does God say about the unborn in this verse.
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."
God says three things about the unborn here.
I. THE UNBORN ARE PERSONS BEFORE GOD
Many terms are used to describe unborn life today; fetus, tissue, embryo, etc... All sound so cold and frankly inhuman. But God says "before I formed you I knew you." The word "before" here is very significant. God is saying, "before I began to create the person who would later come to be known as Jeremiah I knew Him." In the mind of God, before Jeremiah was even concieved God considered him a person. Before he began his creative work God considered him a person. How much more was Jeremiah a person after conception. The point seems very clear to me. If God considers the unborn life to be a person before he even begins to create him in the womb, we should certainly consider him or her a person after that creative process has begun. There are other Scriptural examples that testify to the fact that God considers the unborn child a human,a person.
So human is unborn life to God that he filled a second trimester baby named John the Baptist with the Holy Spirit. Tissues are not filled with the Spirit people are. So human is unborn life that the two sons of Rebecca, as they strove together in the womb were considered by God, "two nations". God not only saw them as individuals before Him, He saw the children that would spring forth from their loins. So human is unborn life that Jesus Christ the eternal "Word" of God, who existed before time began, experienced all stages of human development in the womb from conception to birth. Was Jesus not a person when he was in the womb? If life does not begin at conception then Jesus ceased to exist as a person for some time as he was a developing fetus. How rediculous!
This is an important argument because the first thing that any society does if it is going to mistreat a particular class of people either because of hatred or convenience is to dehumanize them. Some theologians in the 19th century espoused the idea that black africans had no souls in order to justify the enslavement of the black man. How much easier is it for our society to do it today when the voice and even the form of those who are being dehumanized and mistreated cannot be heard or seen. Their cries are silent. How wonderful it was a couple of years ago when time magazine put on the front cover a picture of a little child, I believe 21 weeks in development in his mother’s womb, as fetal surgeory is taking place, reach up through the incision in his mothers womb and hold the surgeons finger. The world saw what God has always said to be true. The unborn life is a person before God. Not only is the Unborn a Person, God says
II. THE UNBORN IS A PRODUCT OF HIS CREATIVE WORK
God said to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you." The word "form" in the Hebrew is a word used to describe the creative work of a potter as he molds and shapes a vessel. It is the same word used in Genesis when the Bible says that God "formed man from the dust of the earth." The same purposeful act of God that took place in the dust of the earth when Adam was formed takes place in the womb when God forms life there. You see the unborn is not an accident, he or she is not the product of random chance, he or she is the product of God’s creative work.
Is this not what David echos in Psalm 139? "For you FORMED my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed...." Human life in the womb, regardless of the circumstances involved is a product of God’s creative work.
Unborn human life is set above the rest of God’s creation because it is made in the very "image of God" Himself. This is what makes the unborn more valuable than snell darters, and spotted owls, and seals..
This vessel that God is forming in the womb is so honorable because it is the only creation of God designed to house the very presence of God Himself. "What know ye not that your bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit."
Unborn life is so valuable because it is the object of God’s love. Christ died for the unborn. He died for me before I was ever even a thought in the mind of any man. The same is true of you, and the same is true of any child yet to be born.
Is the unborn a product of chance, maybe at times the result of an unfortunate set of human circumstances, or is he or she a purposeful product of God’s creative work? The bible says that God saw that Leah was unloved so "He opened her womb", of Hannah it says, "He closed her womb", of Ruth it says, "He granted her conception". The overwhelming testimony of the Word of God is that He is soveriegn even over the womb. He is responsible for the creation of human life. Thirdly the text says.
III. THE UNBORN LIFE HAS PURPOSE FROM GOD
"Before you were born I sanctified you, I ordained you a prophet to the nations." While Jeremiah was yet to be born God had already set him apart and appointed him to be a prophet to the nations. Jeremiahs mother no doubt reflected upon the unborn baby in her womb, but God considered him a prophet.
Oh! A critic may say, this is true of Jeremiah a prophet but he is a special case. Not all children are created with such a lofty purpose. While it is true that not all children share such a lofty purpose in God’s plan, to say that all unborn children do not have divine purpose is to contradict God’s Word. The bible says that God is "no respector of persons". If all children are a product of God’s purposeful creation, does God make mistakes, or does God make junk. No every unborn child has a divine purpose. Whether they fulfill that purpose or not is another question. But should they not be afforded the opportunity to do so?
Because of circumstances sometimes its hard for us to see any purpose for the birth of some children. Sometimes we feel that some children would not have a chance if they were brought into this world. But this choice is better left in the hands of God. We are not God.
I was given an interesting article that illustrates this point. It asks the question. Would you consider an abortion in any of these circumstances?
1) A preacher and his wife living in extreme poverty. They have 14 children and she is pregnant again.
2) A mother has TB and a the father has the sniffles. The family has four children already. One has TB, two are deaf and one is blind. Would you consider abortion?
3) A thirteen year old black girl is raped by a white man.
4) A teenage girl becomes pregnant but not by her fiancee. He is very upset. Would you consider abortion.
If you aborted in the first case you have killed John Wesley. If you aborted in the second case you killed Betoven. If you aborted in the third case you killed Ethel Waters the black gospel singer. If in the third case you aborted you killed Jesus of Nazareth.
You see we don’t have the ability to play God. Out of the millions of aborted children over the past thirty years who knows what great purposes of God, what great potential was snuffed out depriving mankind of great blessing. The unborn child has great God given purpose and potential.
What shall we do. First we should agree with God about what he says about the unborn. Secondly we should pray for the unborn and their plight in our country and around the world. Thirdly we should use our voices to speak out and speak up for those who cannot defend themselves. Fourthly, we should use our right and responsibility in a democratic society to vote for candidates that support the sanctity of the unborn. Finally, if we have not yet, we should begin to realize our own God given purpose and potential by coming to the cross of Jesus Christ and allowing him to cleanse us of our sin, trusting in the resurrected Christ to give us new life.
