In the Image of God
TCF Sermon
January 22, 2006
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
There’s no better place to start a message on this particular Sunday, than with this verse, which tells us very clearly that we are made in the image of God. That’s because on this passage of scripture hangs everything we should know and think about the issues of life.
Everything we hear about the great life and death-related issues of our day, flows in some significant way from how we see this passage of scripture. There are many other passages of scripture which deal with life issues. Let’s take a quick survey of these.
Acts 17:25 (NIV) And he (God) is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Isaiah 44:24 (NIV) "This is what the LORD says-- your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,
Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV) "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Job 10:8-12 (NIV) "Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? 9Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? 10Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, 11clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? 12You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.
These passages of scripture only serve to enhance, and add to the strength of the key verse we read from Genesis. We are made by God, in the image of God.
This particular Sunday marks a day that will live in infamy among those who love life, and see life primarily through the lens of this particular passage of scripture. That’s because 33 years ago today, the Supreme Court of this one nation under God, the God we say we trust even on our currency, our money, the very same nation whose Declaration of Independence speaks of this passage of scripture when it declares,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
This great United States of America in which we live, declared it legal to destroy life in the womb, 33 years ago today, dooming, to date, close to 50 million unborn to their deaths.
Of course, we’re talking about the infamous Roe v Wade decision, which made abortion legal in the United States on Jan. 22, 1973. Since that day, the church has been awakened and mobilized, and despite the well-funded and highly-placed anti-life forces at work, despite the fact that in much of the rest of the world, there’s no longer even a significant debate about these issues, because it’s become, not just commonplace, but largely accepted. Here in America,
abortion and other life-related issues are still a battleground in our land.
Abortion and life issues are battleground issues in nearly every political race, and every branch of government. They’re battleground issues in the scientific and medical communities. They’re battleground issues in business, they’re battleground issues in education.
Across our culture, life issues are a battleground. It’s even reflected in our entertainment.
As much as Planned Parenthood, as much as the National Abortion Rights Action League, as much as big business abortion clinics, as much as many big biotechnology companies would like to see the debate on this issue go away, we Christians cannot let it go away.
Just as we mark Persecuted Church Sunday each year, but always note that this is not something to be contained in one Sunday a year, and then we forget about it, these life issues may be something we discuss from this pulpit in a significant way, just once a year or even less often, but should also be something about which we think, pray, work, and learn, all year round.
Whether we’re winning or losing the battle, and we’ll see as we move along this morning, that we’re doing some of both on the various battlefronts, we must stay the course.
We must know the issues. We must give of our time, our resources, our prayers, to see that this battle is not conceded, not given up in any way. There are anti-life people like Peter Singer who think we will give up, and we will lose this battle for the hearts and minds of our culture.
World Magazine reported last October:
Just in time for scary Halloween masks, Princeton professor Peter Singer—notorious for his approval of euthanasia and some kinds of infanticide, bestiality, and necrophilia—is at it again. He predicts in the Sept.-Oct. issue of Foreign Policy that by 2040 "only a rump of hard-core, know-nothing religious fundamentalists will defend the view that every human life, from conception to death, is sacrosanct. During the next 35 years, the traditional view of the sanctity of human life will collapse under pressure from scientific, technological, and demographic developments."
The reason we must not give up this battle is found in our opening passage of scripture. We, you and I, are made in the image and likeness of God. Because of that, we are, as our nation’s declaration of independence says, endowed by our Creator with an unalienable right to life. Unalienable means, “Not to be separated, given away, or taken away;”
Our right to life is not something we earn over time. Our right to life is not something we keep by our ability to contribute to society. It’s given by God. It’s part of His creation.
A side note:
If you think another battle going on in our culture, the battle of origins, is not important, this is just one example of why it is critically important. If you don’t believe we are created by God, if you think we humans have simply evolved from a lower form of life, and are the product of natural forces, then it’s a very natural conclusion to draw that we don’t have a right to life. It’s the logical conclusion to come to, if you don’t believe that we are created by God, in His image.
That’s why any discussion of life among Christians has to begin with Genesis. But, even science says that life begins at conception. Science textbooks will tell you that when a sperm joins with an egg, life begins. But that’s clearly not enough for our culture.
The sanctity of life is derived from who we are…creatures created in the image and likeness of God. That very fact, and that fact alone, makes life precious. And it doesn’t just start at conception. It makes life precious from that moment of conception, until the moment of death.
This morning, I want to take a broad overview, a sort of a state of the union, on where we are as a culture with life issues, and then I want us to consider where we fit in. How God would have us respond.
First of all, as we’ve already hinted at, the life issues being debated in our culture are not limited to abortion. From conception to death, the sanctity of life is being attacked. So, let’s try briefly to touch on these issues. Let me tell you that there’s no way we can do it all justice in a 40 minute sermon this morning. I collected more than 55 pages of notes in study for this morning’s message…and I could have gathered so much more – I just had to stop.
By necessity, I must hit just a few highlights. So with that understanding, let me encourage you to be a student of life. That is, take the time and effort to learn what these issues entail. And also let me encourage you not to simply listen to what the mainstream media tells you about these issues. We can start our survey of life issues with an example of why reading the Tulsa World, or watching CBS or CNN, is not enough to keep up to speed with what’s really going on.
All over the news these days is talk of stem cell research. If you got all your news from NBC, for example, you’d think that there’s a government ban on stem cell research, and Christians are standing in the way of medical cures for the sick. That’s because you’ve got popular Hollywood actors like Michael J. Fox, who’s afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, up on Capitol Hill, testifying before Congress about the need for stem cell research, so that scientists can find a cure for Parkinsons.
Now, don’t get me wrong here. I’d love to see progress toward a cure for Parkinsons. I’ve watched TCF’s first pastor, brother Bill Sanders, deteriorate over the years from his battle with Parkinsons. It’s a tragic, debilitating disease.
But there is no ban on stem cell research. The ban is on government funding of embryonic stem cell research. That’s a crucial distinction never adequately explained in most news stories. In fact, less than a month ago, President Bush signed a bill authorizing federal funding of adult stem cell research. I’ll bet very few of you heard about that in the news.
It’s embryonic stem cell research that people who care about life have a big problem with. The difference is critical here, and reveals a lot about the battle we’re in, and I’m kind of assuming most of us here would call ourselves pro-life…but it’s critical that we pro-lifers understand these terms and what they really mean.
So, stem cell research is OK. Stem cells can be drawn from almost any tissue from your body. They can even be drawn from umbilical cord blood, after a baby is born. They offer much promise in medical research.
In fact, to date, some 65 human conditions – from brain cancer to Crohn’s disease have seen some successful treatment with adult stem cell therapy.
You want to know how many have been successfully treated by embryonic stem cell therapy?
Exactly zero. Not one. Zip. Nada…after more than two decades of research using embryonic stem cells. (See www.stemcellresearch.org) But what does the media, what does Hollywood hype? Embryonic stem cells.
To shed a little more light on this, let me read this rather lengthy quote from an article in the St Paul Pioneer Press:
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) used for research are extracted from 5- to 6-day-old embryos and then multiplied. Under normal conditions, ESCs would eventually develop into the fetus and baby. Sources of original ESCs include excess in vitro fertilization embryos and, potentially, cloned embryos created for research.
Nonembryonic stem cells found in human umbilical cord blood and throughout the human body are often referred to collectively as adult stem cells (ASCs). They form specific cells to replace old or damaged cells. For example, bone marrow stem cells continually replenish needed blood cells. Obtaining ASCs is fairly easy and harmless.
ESCs are more "pluripotent" than most ASCs, meaning they can more readily become any type of cell during embryonic and fetal development.
Science and media’s focus on "pluripotency" implies that pluripotent cells are necessary for human therapies. However, this ability to readily form any cell type is precisely why ESCs are not safe or effective for human treatments.
Because ESCs are designed for rapid, pluripotent growth in embryos, they are unstable and unpredictable when implanted in adults. In fact, ESCs often create teratomas or "monster tumors" containing different cell types such as hair, bone, and teeth.
Because ASCs are not as volatile as ESCs, they are better suited for human medical treatments. Patients need stable and reliable sources of stem cells that can repair and replace specific adult body cells in a controlled manner, which ASCs are designed to do.
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So, stem cell research is not a bad thing. Embryonic stem cell research is a different story. That’s because these treatments require taking an embryo just days old, and removing cells, thereby destroying that beginning human life. What’s worse, we have people resorting to many morally problematic means of gaining access to these ESCs, as if just the very use of embryonic stem cells wasn’t enough of a moral issue.
Have you ever heard of cloning? That’s when you take the cells of a living creature and essentially copy them, for the purpose of making a duplicate of that living creature. Now, I know that’s not a precise definition, so please, scientists among us, don’t give me grief about this.
Years ago, it seemed like the stuff of science fiction. But now it’s fact.
There’s Dolly the sheep. There’s Snuppy the dog. And now, there’s so-called “therapeutic cloning.”
Now, so far, most everybody says that actually cloning a human being would be wrong. It’s pretty much outlawed everywhere. But what’s outlawed is allowing the embryo of a cloned human being to continue to develop into a baby that’s actually born into this world.
What so-called “therapeutic cloning” is…is cloning a new embryo, and then using that cloned embryo to harvest embryonic stem cells. Of course, when you take stem cells from an embryo, the embryo dies. Amazingly, there are many in our culture who seem to have no problem with this.
Here are the remarks of California Senator Dianne Feinstein, made in support of a bill authorizing cloning for medical research.
"The beauty of our legislation is that it would allow this most promising form of stem cell research, somatic cell nuclear transplantation, to be conducted on a human egg for up to 14 days only, under strict standards of Federal regulation. The reason for this 14 days is to limit any research before the so-called primitive streak [the beginning of the nervous system] can take over that egg. This stem cell research can only take place on an unfertilized egg. An unfertilized egg is not capable of becoming a human being. Therefore we limit stem cell research to unfertilized eggs."
Now, you don’t have to be a scientist to recognize how much nonsense this is to begin with, quite apart from the morality of the procedure.
The distinguished Senator from California is trying to tell us that this embryonic stem cell research is limited to unfertilized eggs. But an unfertilized egg is not an embryo – biology 101. If it’s not an embryo, it cannot yield embryonic stem cells.
One of the best thinkers on life issues, a writer named Wesley J Smith, comments on this:
"Pretending that a cloned embryo is merely an unfertilized egg distorts the moral stakes in the debate through the use of false definitions and junk science."
Smith has hit on one of the big problems in sorting through this fog: Euphemisms and distortion are the hallmark of those who are against life. Where do you think that the amazing marketing phrase “pro-choice” came from?
You’ll note that I will not use that phrase in describing these people. Why should we give them the benefit of their euphemism? Ask them to tell you what they’re choosing.
Anti-life people know that once people realize what they’re really talking about, they’ll say, wait a minute – we’re talking about a life here…perhaps unborn, unformed, not fully developed, but still a life. And that’s exactly what the pro-death lobby is afraid of. They’re afraid of the truth.
That’s why they’re becoming more vocal in opposition against pregnancy centers, which are more and more using ultrasound machines to provide a window into the womb.
Ask (our own) Lynn Clutter about the power of this tool. Lynn volunteers for Mend Pregnancy Resource Center, doing ultrasounds. She’ll tell you that when women see this undeniable evidence…this picture of their living, moving baby inside themselves, even those who are heavily leaning toward abortion, change their minds and decide to give those babies life, at a rate of 70-90%. This has pro-aborts running scared.
So, they’re involved on several fronts trying to change the argument, and trying to desensitize people to what’s actually happening. This use of inaccurate words to describe what’s really happening is part of the strategy.
So, listen critically and carefully when these people talk. The pro-abortion movement is beginning to move from denial to desensitization in strategy. That’s because exactly the opposite of what Peter Singer is saying will happen is happening. And that’s good news, for now.
Remember what he said?
"During the next 35 years, the traditional view of the sanctity of human life will collapse under pressure from scientific, technological, and demographic developments."
Technology is actually changing the view of life. It’s making it increasingly difficult for pro-aborts to say, it’s not a baby, it’s just a lump of tissue. But I believe part of the strategy of pro-aborts is to cry all the louder…Personal choice…. Personal autonomy….It’s OK for you to be against abortion, but it’s my body and my choice.
Susanne Martinez, vice president of public policy at Planned Parenthood told The New York Times that the use of such images by pregnancy centers "is coercive."
Martinez was quoted: "From the time they walk into these centers, they are inundated with information that is propaganda and that has one goal in mind. And that is to have women continue with their pregnancies."
So, let’s get this straight. When women are persuaded to continue their pregnancies, it’s a bad thing?!? Whatever happened to the talk of choice? Pro-aborts just don’t like that choice – giving the baby life. In my mind, that takes away their right to call themselves pro-choice, and gives us every right to call them anti-life.
A writer named Jack Kinsella wrote:
The sonogram cannot ’badger or coerce’ anyone. It is a picture. It may be a picture of a living being, but it is, itself, a picture, an inanimate thing, incapable of doing anything more than transmit accurate information. An eyewitness account, so to speak.
Accurate information has no agenda, it simply is. What scares the pro-death crowd is the fact that once women see the baby living in their womb, abortion is revealed for what it is.
He notes that no pro-aborts are challenging the accuracy of these pictures. If they are coercive, it’s because they are too accurate. So, when it comes to the unborn, we’re winning on this one front.
But it seems the pro-abort crowd has opened another front with the question of embryonic stem cells. They’re too small to see. But from the pro-life perspective, they’re still created in the image of God.
When the elders were talking about this in our meeting this past Tuesday, Joel Vesanen asked what I thought was a pretty perceptive question…a question that more people should be asking.
If adult stem cells are more effective than embryonic in finding real treatments for illness and disease, why are people pushing so hard to fund embryonic stem cell research? He began to answer his own question with what I believe is one of the two primary reasons this is happening. One is that it’s just another way to devalue life, and it advances other anti-life agendas, as they try to desensitize our culture to the preciousness of life at all stages.
Secondly, there’s money to be made. Big biotechnology companies see dollar signs in potential treatments derived from ESCs.
But as we’ve noted, the battle over life issues is not restricted to the beginning stages of life. Our culture has become utilitarian in its approach. Another thing that came out of our elders’ discussion this past week was the comparison to Nazi Germany. This evil regime devalued certain kinds of human life, and found justification for the holocaust in this devaluing of life, and for medical experimentation on living people.
We live in a culture that is asking the question, "whose life is worth living?" And they’re coming up with some scary answers.
Oregon passed an assisted suicide law, and just this past week the Supreme Court upheld the validity of that law. Our senator from Oklahoma, Dr. Tom Coburn, commented on this:
"Nowhere does our Constitution give doctors the right to take the lives of their patients. Deliberately causing death is never a legitimate medical purpose. By creating another class of human beings whose lives have no value, the Supreme Court has put all vulnerable persons at risk."
He hit on something very important here. Our culture is defining various classes of people whose lives have no value. The unborn. The sick. The elderly. The mentally ill. The disabled.
Anyone here getting older? Anyone here struggle to get around? Anyone here with a debilitating illness?
You’d better watch your back. You’d better hope your children, or your children’s children, or your family, or anyone else who might be in charge of caring for you, don’t absorb this new thinking on the value of life. They may decide to pull the plug on you.
Albert Mohler writes about the challenge represented by our aging population:
He tells about an article written by Leon Kass, who was formerly the chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics. In this article, he warns we’re heading toward what he calls a “mass geriatric society.”
"Recognizing that, many Americans argue that there must be some better way to confront these challenges, and all too many appear willing to redefine human dignity in terms of quality of life, autonomous choice, and the competing interests of generations.
Indeed, some are ready to argue for a "duty to die" that assumes a responsibility for the elderly to get out of the way. Far more are ready to assume that the death of the elderly is at least preferable to long-term debility and decline. Both of these assumptions run into direct conflict with the Christian worldview and the Bible’s teachings regarding reverence for life and respect for the aged. Confronting these assumptions will require Christian courage as well as keen Christian thinking. This challenge will not wait."
The reference in the title of this article is Psalm 71:9, which says: Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone.
The Psalmist was old enough to write that. The unborn are not, but they might make the same appeal. Do not cast me away when I’m too young to care for myself.
So, there’s good news and bad news in the battle for life today. The good news is science and technology are giving us new ways to see life. The bad news is that science and technology are also pushing the boundaries in ways that bring new and even more difficult challenges to our thinking that life is precious, from the womb to the grave.
So what’s a pro-life Christian to do?
1. be informed
Hopefully this morning’s a start – but it’s not enough. There are a wealth of resources available…Good books, magazines, websites, videos and more, to keep us fully up to speed on these issues. I can recommend many of them to you. Any local pregnancy resource center can, too. There’s no excuse for not understanding the issues.
2. be willing to speak up and be there for friends or family
As important as political activism, judges and other such things are, the battle will be won or lost at the hearts and minds stage. And that’s where your friends and family come in. A few years ago, a young woman in this congregation came to me asking for help in responding to a friend of hers who was pregnant and considering abortion. She was much more strategically placed by God than I was. I gave her some resources, but she was the one on the front lines, ministering and speaking the truth in a very practical setting.
Be available to friends or family. You can make a difference. If you have a friend who’s sexually active, if you have a friend who’s pregnant, you can be the difference between life and death for that unborn child.
Standing by a friend who’s pregnant is not condoning the sin that got her there....it’s showing the compassion of Christ for a sinner, a sinner like us....and standing in a real way for life...encouraging this sinner, just like us, not to compound one sin with another, even more devastating sin, taking the life of your own child.
There may be women here who’ve had abortions. I could stand here this morning and tell you it’s OK, but it’s not, and deep inside, you know it...
However, I can also stand here this morning and tell you that there’s forgiveness, there’s healing, there’s restoration, at the foot of the cross. Let’s be the kind of congregation that’s truly pro-life. One that stands for life, one that shows compassion for the sinner, one that makes a difference in this national holocaust, one life at a time.
3. consider adoption
What a wonderful way to put walk to our talk about being pro-life. Imagine our church family without Anne Marie Burgard, Anna Clutter, Adrienne Burgard
Caleb Clutter, Lydia Clutter.
I can’t imagine not having these wonderful children as part of TCF. I’ve had Anne Marie in Bible Bowl, and I have the three youngest Clutter kids and Adrienne in Bible Bowl now.
They would not be here if we didn’t have families here in church who were willing to put walk to their pro-life talk by adopting.
4. get involved in pro-life ministry
There are many ways you can do this…
a. Pray – if you’re a pray-er, contact me and I can put you on a list of people who pray regularly for Mend
b. Give – this morning, we have an opportunity to do just that, I’ll explain in a minute
c. Work – God doesn’t call all of us to any of these practical ways to be involved, but if He does, I encourage you to respond to His voice.
Present Mend Pregnancy Center baby bottles fundraiser…
There are other centers in town, all of them do outstanding work in this arena. Even though the pro-aborts try to undermine the work of pregnancy centers like Mend, but let’s face it – it’s a hard sell to most people to say that these centers are doing anything other than helping women and their babies.
So there’s all kinds of practical work you can do, but I really believe the most effective, the most fruitful pro-life work you can do is with pregnancy centers like Mend.
How would God have you respond this morning?
pray
