Life: Biblical Foundations

Genesis 1-3 “Life: Biblical Foundations”

It is my purpose this week is to give a biblical foundation for the sanctity of human life (the dignity, value, sacredness). Next week, my plan is to present the biblical basis to protect the lives of innocent lives around us, and how to minister hope those affected by abortion.

We must remember that the sanctity of human life has been under attack in other countries and in other times. It did not start with Roe vs Wade in 1973 when elective abortion was legalized in the USA. The devaluing of human life has its roots in human sinfulness, and you are apt to find it wherever you find humans. Humans, in their sinfulness, have always wanted to play God. They have wanted to take life at their pleasure, instead of submitting themselves to God’s plan and will. The ancient Greeks and Romans would let their unwanted babies die by leaving them outside. The slave trade in the British Empire and in America devalued the lives of Africans and treated them as less than human. During the Nazi Holocaust Jews were stripped of their humanity and slaughtered by the millions. We could also mention the other genocides in the history of humanity, where innocent lives are taken because they are merely a different race.

While racism is still alive in our country, it can also be your location and your size that puts you in jeopardy. The womb is a very unsafe place to be these days. But also, at the other end of life, euthanasia and assisted suicide endanger the lives of the elderly and the terminally ill. Assisted suicide is legal in Washington, Oregon, Vermont, and Montana. It is also getting popular support in other states as well. On Friday, the California state legislature passed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide. It has yet to be signed by the governor. There is not much of a line between the right to die and the duty to die, because you are told you are taking up many valuable resources.

You don’t need to be a Christian to stand for the value and dignity of every human life, whether it is in the womb or the nursing home. God has written his law on every human heart, so unbelievers can acknowledge that human lives are precious. But Christians should especially understand what is at stake, and protect their innocent neighbors, because they have God’s truth. There are good scientific and philosophical arguments for the protection of each human life. But I want to focus on what God says in his Word about humans. He created us, so he gets the right so say who we are.

I would like to look at Genesis 1-3, where God creates the world and humans to live in it. They are his special creation, the pinnacle of his work in the universe. Often, when people come to the beginning of Genesis, they think of evolution versus creation. While Genesis does speak to that, that is not the main point. The point is God forming and filling the world, and making it fit for humans—his special creation—to live in it.

Chapter 1 is the view of creation from heaven. Chapter 2 is the view of creation from the earth. Chapter 3 presents the fall of humans and creation into sin.

Read Genesis 2

Genesis 1 begins with the ultimate reality in the universe: God. He was before the universe and created the universe by his very words. In verse 2, we have a problem: the earth was formless and void. In the next six days, God fixes this problem. It was without form, and he gives it form. It is not filled, and he fills it. Days 1-3 focus on God forming the earth, and days 4-6 focus on God filling the earth with animals and then humans. Every day, God’s creation is called good, except for the second day. That’s when God separates the waters, so that there was a layer of water above the earth and a layer on the earth. That top layer came crashing down during the flood (bad news!).

God makes man in his image and gives him the task of ruling over the earth (which we will speak of later). God then rests on the seventh day, showing that his work was done.

Starting in verse 4 of chapter 2, God builds man from the dust of the earth and gives him breath. He plants a beautiful garden for man to take care of. God shows that man has dominion or ruler-ship over the earth by bringing the animals to him to name. Among the animals there was not a helper for Adam that was suitable for him. So God took a rib from Adam and created a woman for him. We then hear of the institution of marriage at the end of chapter 2.

I would like to give us 5 descriptions of humanity in Genesis 1-2, then we will look at the fall of humanity in chapter 3. When I say “man,” I am using the name that God have to humans. The term for humanity is “adam,” which is also the name of the first human. In verse 27 of chapter 1, man is created male and female. I will use humans, humanity, and man(kind) interchangeably.

1. Humans are creatures (not self-made, evolved)
The way some people talk, it seems they think that they created themselves. They act like they were there when they were conceived, they pulled themselves out of the womb, changed their own diapers, and fed themselves. They act like they were once a monkey howling in the jungle, then they decided to start walking upright and built themselves a house then invented electricity. Especially in America, we have the myth of the self-made man. The one who pulls himself up by his own bootstraps. And it is a myth.

The Bible is very clear: we are creatures, made by a God much bigger and more powerful than we are. We are dependent on him from our conception to death, whether we acknowledge it or not. We did not make ourselves. We did not evolve from a lower life form. We were created by a powerful and personal God. Since we are not God, we don’t get to play God either in the taking of life. Nor do we own our bodies. God does. He gets to determine how we are use our bodies. He is the creator…he gets to choose that.

2. Humans are the pinnacle of God’s creation (not animals)
Humans have value, not because of the value we give ourselves, but because of the value that God gives us. Humans were the apex of God’s creation.
They are not like the animals or the plants. The Christian worldview is very clear in distinguishing between humans and animals. We are to rule over the animals. In modern understanding, humans are nothing more than an over-achieving animal. Animals and humans alike, are a bunch of cells that will rot when they die. We can see this clearly in the case of Cecil the lion. Give a lion a name, and it becomes more valuable than a human. Compare the outrage over Planned Parenthood selling baby parts and Cecil the lion who is killed by a dentist. Now, I know going to the dentist is not fun, but the outrage is not over the dentist, but over the killing of an animal. We have clearly strayed from the biblical view when out of the same mouth comes: save the trees and kill the babies.

Why, then, are humans more valuable than animals?

3. Humans are made in God’s image (not a biological accident)
Look at 1:26-27. God made humans in his image and likeness. What does it mean to be made in the image of God? Obviously, theologians will debate this until they are blue in the face. Is the image of God in our soul or in our body or both? What does it consist of? The best way to understand being made in the image of God is to put it this way: we reflect God. We reflect God in our body and soul, and in our commission that he has given us. We are meant to show a bit of God here on earth by who were are and how we act. Every human is valuable because they bear the divine stamp on their lives. One very important thing that distinguishes us from animals is that we have a soul that will live forever. That is a vital part of being made in God’s image.

Part of being made in God’s image is being made male and female. The different and complementary genders of male and female somehow reflect the image of God. Perhaps it shows that God is a relational God. Gender is not something we get to determine or mess with. It is given to us to reflect the image God in this world.

4. Humans are little kings (not visitors or parasites)
Part of being made in God’s image is ruling over the world he made for us. Look at 1:28-29. Humans are not merely visitors here on this earth. They are not parasites destroying the earth either. We are given a task, a responsibility for filling the earth with people and for ruling over it wisely. Perhaps you’ve seen the bumper sticker: “Earth first, we’ll strip mine the other planets later.” On the other end of the spectrum are those who would have us give up civilization and live in the wilderness eating nuts and berries, or others who say that humans deserve to go extinct because of the mess we have made of this planet.

Because of sin, humans have not properly ruled over the world that God has given us. Somewhere between slash and burn everything and rabid tree-huggers is the biblical responsibility to care for the earth. God calls us to a wise stewardship of this planet for His glory. He has given everything here for our enjoyment and benefit.

5. Humans are dependent on God’s Word (not independent)
Even before sin entered the world, God gave his Word to his people. Adam and Eve had a commission: “be fruitful and multiply.” They had God’s command: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Part of being the creation of God is being dependent on the Word of God. We cannot live without God. We need His Word to guide us, to direct us, and to keep us from harm. Along with Satan, sinful humanity says, “Did God really say?” Humans were made to be dependent on God’s Word to them. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

Humans are:
-Creatures (not self-made)
-The pinnacle of God’s creation (not animals)
-Made in God’s image (not a biological accident)
-Little kings, given dominion over the earth (not parasites)
-Dependent on God’s Word (not independent)

6. Humans are sinners (not naturally good)
-Read chapter 3

The reason we have wars, sickness, suffering, death, famine, abortion, euthanasia, and myriad of other evils in our world is because of sin. God gave his good word to Adam and Eve, and they rejected it and believed the serpent instead. God’s Word was twisted and despised, and then sin entered the world. We now are sinners, and feel the curse of sin in our bodies, lives, and in our world. Humans, who were made to know God and walk with him, are now estranged from him. Work, which was once a God-given pleasure, is painful and hard. Human relationships and child bearing all now bear the imprint of sin. Mankind now knew good and evil, and instead of being more like God they were less like God. Humans were made to be mirrors of God, and now through sin, the mirrors are distorted like a carnival mirror.

Humans are not naturally good. Humans are now naturally evil. Sin is the only logical answer to what is wrong in this world. The Genesis account of creation, humans, and sin is the only way to adequately deal with the deep questions of: who are we? Why are we here? Why are we such a mess? This biblical view of the world must ground us as Christians as we seek to understand the world and live in it.

The Biblical Basis for Life

The Genesis account also gives us a biblical basis to understand life, even life in the womb. All human lives are precious, because they are made in the image of God. We are not a biological accident, a well-developed animal, or a mass of cells.
We bear the stamp of God and reflect him. Whether an embryo, a newborn, an infant, a toddler, a child, a teenager, an adult, a physically and mentally-handicapped young man, or an aging grandma with dementia, we are all equally valuable because God says so.

The fight for life comes to this: is a baby in the womb a human? Are they are member of the human community? If they are, then they deserve the rights and protections that the rest of us do. Babies in the womb are fully human, even though they differ in these ways.
Size
Level of development
Environment
Dependency

Yes, babies in the womb are smaller than adults, but so are two-year olds. Babies in the womb are not as developed as adults, but neither are two-year olds or teenagers, for that matter. The major difference between a baby in the womb and a new born infant is their environment, One’s inside the womb, and the other outside. Yes, a baby in the womb is completely dependent on its mother, but a newborn or two-year old is also dependent.

Don’t let people assume that babies in the womb are in a different class than the rest of humanity. Don’t let people assume that the elderly person who can’t remember their name or the severely-disabled child are in a different class than the rest of us. We are all made by God and are equally valuable.

For all the important truth in Genesis 1-3, we are grateful that the Bible does not end there. God doesn’t leave humanity wallowing in their sin. He doesn’t leave his creation to rot away to nothing. No, he had a plan from the beginning of time. He had a plan to rescue us from our sin and to restore creation to better than the original. All through the OT, we hear hints of a coming Messiah who would conquer sin and the rule over this broken world. That Messiah is Jesus. He took away sin, not through a military victory, but through his own death on a cross. His resurrection from the dead guarantees that one day, he will make all things new. And everyone who belongs to him, will have their sin forgiven, and be able to enjoy the new heavens and new earth forever.

This Jesus was the real image of God. He was the exact imprint of God’s nature. Humans are made in the image of God, and messed that up royally. Jesus is the exact image of God. He takes us broken sinners, and makes us into his image. Jesus is in the process of making us better than the original, so that we will reflect God forever.

Abortion is a horrible, evil blight in our country. But we have the truth. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ, the will truly change peoples’ lives. The gospel of Jesus Christ offers freedoms for sin, cleansing from guilt, for all sinners. Yes, for those who have had abortions and performed abortions. Freedom. Forgiveness. We have the hope of the future, when God will make all wrongs right. He will perfectly restore creation to better than the original. We live in the best of times, we live in the worst of times.