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Introduction: Alexander the Great

In the ancient world, there was a man by the name of Alexander. He was so great, they called him Alexander the Great. He was from Macedonia, which was perceived to be one of the weaker Greek city-states or Greek regions. From Macedonia, Alexander would rise and take over all of the Greek world, and then would set his sights outside of the Greek world. Eventually, conquering much of what is modern Eastern Europe and all of what we would look at as the Middle East region today. As well as Palestinian-Israeli regions, and all of or much of Northern Africa. He was one of the greatest conquerors in human history, this man, Alexander the Great.

He loved himself and his own name so much that he would go into a new region, his armies would take over, and they would rename the cities Alexandria. By the time Alexander died, there were at least 14 cities across his empire known as Alexandria. The largest still exists today in Egypt. Alexander’s armies would roll into town to take over a particular region and would stay there for a while before moving on to the next region. Alexander would leave a few of his military forces in each region, in each city, and he would erect a statue of himself in the town square. It was a viceroy statue because he wanted everyone in the community to remember who was in charge of this region.

Alexander would be gone, but he wanted the people to see an image of who ran the show. If they ever forgot, he would come back to remind them. Which he had to do multiple times. In some parts of the empire, there would be uprisings or people attacking Alexander. There was pushback on Alexander as well as protests. One of the common ways to protest was to attack the viceroy statues in the town square. So Alexander eventually gave an edict that it would be punishable by death to attack a statue of Alexander. He said, Attacking my image is like attacking me.

That gives us a brief insight or snippet into this idea of the image of God in human beings. God created the world, the cosmos, the universe, and all that is within. He creates the earth, he fashions it, and he creates the beasts, the animals, and then he creates human beings, and he puts us right in the middle. In Genesis, chapter 1, it says that God made us in his own image. We, in some ways, resemble God, so that the rest of creation would look at us and remember who’s in charge.

God’s image is imprinted on these humans. We are like the statue of Alexander. People are to look to us to see the likeness or resemblance of God. That way, it would remind them who is really in charge. The God of our universe created everything. The galaxy in which we live, the solar system, the planets, and the stars. He created the natural order of all things. He created the laws of physics, gravity, and the forces of creation. He created the animals of the land, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and the big fish of the deep. He creates everything, and he says it is good.

But then, toward the end of creation, God does something unique. His masterpiece, humanity. He takes human beings, and he doesn’t create us ‘ex nihilo’, meaning from nothing. That’s how he creates the cosmos and the beasts. But he doesn’t create us that way. He takes pre-existing materials, he puts them together, and then he breathes his own life, the essence of God, into humanity. He doesn’t do this with any other beasts, any other creatures, any other things he makes. We are unique in that way.

When God was creating the beasts, the animals, he was showing off his creativity. Look what I can do. A kangaroo, a dolphin, a platypus. God was saying, Look what I can do. But when he creates human beings, he’s not saying, look what I can do. He is saying, Look who I am. We as human beings are made in the image of God to reflect him to one another and the rest of creation. We’re going to look at a couple of verses here in Genesis chapter 1 together. But let’s pray again and ask the Lord for help.

God, we ask you, as we look at a few verses here in Genesis and elsewhere, help us to understand your word. Help give us a vision for the image of God in humanity and help us to understand why that leads to an understanding of the sanctity of human life. I pray in Christ’s name, Amen.

 

Made In The Image Of God

If you have your Bibles, look again at Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. Moses is writing Genesis, and he gets to Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26. This is a conversation amongst the Godhead. The members of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, are having a conversation. Here’s what they say amongst themselves. Verse 26:

“Then God said, let us make man in our image.”

Let us make man in our image. We are not just another species. I know the general biological taxonomy is that humans are in the primate category. We are alongside chimpanzees, gorillas, or other types of primates. But I would push back. I would urge you to resist identifying as a primate. From a secular, progressive worldview, it makes sense to say, we’re just another animal. We’re just a better-evolved animal than the rest. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible talks about animals as beasts, and talks about us as having the image of God.

For those of you who were with us back in November, we were looking at Hebrews. We see a pecking order. We see God, we see the angels, we see humans, and then we see the beast. We’re above the beast. We’re currently lower than the angels. But there’s going to come a moment, Hebrews tells us, that we’re going to catapult ahead of the angels. We will outrank them. The beast will never rise above the bottom ranking.

You are not just a beast. You’re not just another species. We are made specially in the image of God. Dogs don’t have this. Zebras don’t have this. Crocodiles don’t have this. They are not made in the image of God. This is a uniquely human thing. Later in Genesis, chapter 1, verse 28, Moses writes this for us:

“And God blessed them. And then God said, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion.”

Theologians refer to this as the Creation Mandate. This is the first command that God gives humanity. He says, Man and woman, go have a lot of babies. Having lots of babies is a good thing. Go fill the earth with a bunch of little images of Me. I want no place on earth to be a place where anyone could go and not see the image of God.

Then he says, Have dominion. Take control of everything. Take ownership of this world. You be the boss of this world and take control. Be a good steward of the creation that I have made. So clearly we are very different than the beast. What does this mean, to be made in the image of God? Throughout church history, there have been various opinions and interpretations. There’s not one passage of scripture that explicitly defines the image of God for us. But throughout the centuries, there’s one prominent view that most quality theologians and pastors over the last 2,000 years, held the one major view.

There are some other views, but there has been one major view throughout church history that the Bible teaches. We’re gonna lean into that this morning. What does it mean to be made in the image of God? That when God created humans, he took a portion of himself and put it in human beings. He didn’t do this with any other animal, any other creature. God endows humanity with his own divine attributes, his own divine essence.

Dolphins don’t have this. Whales don’t have this. Horses, kangaroos, and bacteria. None of these creatures is made in the image of God. When you examine the rest of the cosmos and the rest of creation, you see how creative God is. But when you look at humans, you see His essence, His character, His nature. He’s put it inside of us. When God creates the cosmos, he’s showing off what he can do. When he creates humans, he’s showing off who he is. Each one of us possesses divine attributes endowed in us by God.

Now, there are different attributes accentuated in different people. Not every person is the same. It seems that every single person is unique in some way. Every single person seems to have a unique combination of the divine attributes of God. There’s also an element that we see here with the sexes, with gender.

There are some divine attributes that God has put in men and he’s accentuated in men, but is muted in women. Men have this more than women do, and vice versa. There are some divine attributes that God has put in women and accentuated or amplified in women that he has muted in men. So that where men are strong, women are weak, and where women are strong, men are weak. and that we complement one another in that way.

God distributes his divine attributes into humanity as he sees fit for his glory. Again, it appears that each one of us has a unique combination. No two people are exactly endowed with God’s attributes in the same way. We work together to display the fullness, the full tapestry of the goodness and beauty of God. When we work together in harmony, we see divine attributes in one another.

The last few weeks, our kiddos have been pretty sick. Josiah, our one-year-old son, has had some gross runny noses of all sorts of various colors. My wife has been so good at taking care of them. I mean, I get the paper towel and I wipe his nose and I rip his nose open. I’m not very gentle with them. My wife is so nurturing and seems to know what he needs at the exact time. I see in my wife that ability to nurture so well, that’s an attribute of God.

I look at my wife and think, that’s what God must be like. Now, the reality is that in God it is amplified. It’s far greater. In each other, we just get a taste. Look how good it is in one another. It must be so much greater in God. A few nights ago, Malaina and I had the privilege of invading the Murphy home for dinner. Jerry and Bridget had us over, and Bridget cooked us a wonderful meal.

So we’re going home and we’re talking about it, about how it was so good. I thought to myself, that’s a divine attribute of God in Bridget. The ability to take ingredients and then put them together and create a masterpiece. That creative power is an attribute of God on display in Bridget. We praise God for that.

These good and beautiful things in humanity are designed for us to see them, and go, that’s what God must be like. When I walk in here on Sunday mornings, between 7:30 and 8 am, some guys and ladies show up to help set things up and get things ready. Sacrificial, selfless people are showing up regularly. Much of this room is here early. I think to myself, the sacrificial nature of this group of people, that’s what God must be like. Man, I see him in you. I praise God for that. This is the reason why God says that human life is sacred.

We are not merely the product of a divine mind. We are the possessors of divine essence. We possess rationality and mental faculties and goodness, and beauty that no other creature has. That’s why God values us above the beasts. Which is why God has set on us a trajectory to outrank even the angels, because the angels are not made in the image of God. The very best of God is in us.

 

Every Person Is Worthy Of Respect

So often, when we think of humanity, we think of mistakes. People say this regularly. People make a mistakes, well, you’re only human. Because to be human is to err. To be human is to make a mistake. I think sometimes we have a low view of humanity. I love going into big cities. I love seeing new stuff. When I first moved here in 2013, most of Claremont was nothing, and whole chunks of Winter Garden were nothing. Everything south of here was nothing.

Then I came back, I moved away for six years, and I moved back, and Horizon West went from 2,000 people to 65,000 people, and these new houses and new developments. Look what humans have done. We shouldn’t be surprised that humans can pull off great stuff because we are endowed with the image of God. It’s one of the reasons why I love Disney World. I love going to Disney. I love seeing the stuff that Disney pulls off. The buildings, the new rides. People, humans, pulled that off.

You shouldn’t be surprised, because you’re only human. Of course, you’re gonna pull off good stuff. God sees humanity as valuable, so valuable that he became a human to rescue us from our own sin. God thinks human beings are really valuable. Therefore, we should think human beings are really valuable too.

This is why God takes it personally when human beings are attacked. When you attack another human being, you are not just attacking a human being, you are attacking God himself. That’s how God views it. Now, some have asked, Doesn’t sin ruin the image of God? Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. They’re perfect. But then they sin. They disconnect from God. Their souls are corrupted because of this. Sin does impact the image of God. The image of God is greatly impaired now. Tarnished, blemished, corrupted, poisoned, but not eradicated.

It is still there. Very clearly, multiple times in the New Testament, post-fall and post-sin, humans are still talked about as being sacred because we’re made in the image of God. This is most clear in Genesis, chapter 9, and James chapter 3. When we look at those passages, we see that whenever you attack humans, God sees it as an affront to himself. So while the image of God is tarnished and blemished, now we look at one another, and we don’t always see God.

Sometimes, what we see are attributes that have been corrupted. We see sin or wickedness. But the beauty of God has not been stripped away from us. It hasn’t been taken from us. It may be blurry, but it’s still there. What are the implications of this, the idea that we are made in the image of God? Theologians sometimes refer to this as the Imago Dei, which is Latin for image of God.

What are the implications of this Imago Dei, this image of God implanted in him? The fact that God has taken himself and put himself in us. Well, this should greatly impact how we treat other people, fellow image bearers, and how we talk about other people. I’ve been guilty of this. Every time we gossip about someone, God takes it personally. In James, chapter three, verse nine, the little brother of Jesus is writing. He says this:

“With our tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with our tongue we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.”

He’s calling out the hypocrisy. Sometimes we use our mouth to praise God, and the next instant we use our mouth to start to damage people. That is wrong because they’re made in the likeness of God. Why is it wrong to speak ill of someone, to gossip about someone, to speak judgmentally to someone, to speak harshly unnecessarily, to say mean or rude things to your spouse or your family members? Why is it wrong to be unnecessarily critical? The reason why these things are wrong is that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. God takes it personally.

I would caution us to be careful. Sometimes you may see something in someone and you don’t like it, you may think it’s a flaw, but it might be an attribute of God that you’re missing. It’s possible that you see someone, you don’t like them, and you’re taking a shot at them, you’re making fun of them, and what you’re doing is taking a shot at God.

He doesn’t take that lightly. We must be very careful that we don’t gossip, make fun of people, or be rude to people, rob people of dignity with our mouths, the way we talk about them, or talk to them. Because every person possesses the image of God. Every single person is endowed with divine attributes. I’m not saying that there’s never a time to talk tough to people. There are absolutely moments where that’s appropriate.

There are moments when someone is sinning, and we need to call them out on their sin. Most American Christians don’t do that nearly enough. But we want to be careful that we attack behaviors, not the person. Behaviors, not their ontology, not their essence. We want to be careful. Even when we are expressing frustration or anger, when we’re rebuking someone, even if we are right, we still want to be very careful, to be gracious, to be kind, because there’s a thin line that we might unintentionally cross from righteously rebuking someone to unintentionally now attacking the image of God in that person.

Every person is worthy of respect and dignity. There is no sin that a person can commit that would cause them to no longer be worthy of respect and dignity. Even when they have not treated others with respect and dignity. So if someone were to murder, we put that person on death row to face the death penalty. Even while they are facing the death penalty, we want to treat them with respect and dignity.

I think in the United States, by and large, we do that well. We give people ample opportunity for appeal, maybe too much opportunity in some ways. We give lots of privileges to those on death row. We give them a final meal. We make sure that when they are executed, it’s done humanely. So while it would be appropriate, as Scripture tells us, to execute someone who commits murder, even in the process of executing them, we still treat them with respect and dignity. That’s what the Bible commands of us.

Many theologians have written about this concept of Just War Theory. Augustine wrote significantly in the 400s about this. Thomas Aquinas wrote a lot about this in the High Middle Ages. They wrote a lot about the fact that even when you are in war, there are still lines that you should not cross. There’s still a just way, a righteous way to fight war. Even if you’re going to kill soldiers in battle, those soldiers you’re about to kill are still worthy of some level of respect and dignity.

Therefore, the way you wage war must be respectful and dignified. We must treat each other with respect and dignity. Every person is a fellow Image bearer. The person who cuts you off at work, the boss who treats you meanly, the person who is unkind to you, the person who says something stupid on Twitter. Every single one of them is worthy of respect and dignity.

 

Defiling The Image Of God

I think there are some ways in American society in which we esteem the image of God well. Where the sanctity of human life is esteemed and valued in our culture, I’m thankful for that, we should praise God for that. In ways where human beings are treated well and are esteemed, we should praise God for that. But of course, in American culture, there are ways in which we do not esteem the image of God, where we do not appreciate or esteem the sanctity, the sacredness of human life.

In the early days of our nation, as well as the years immediately after the American Revolution, the way in which we violated, defiled the image of God was through race-based chattel slavery. There have been a lot of different types of slavery in human history. Chattel slavery was the form of slavery that existed here. It was based on skin color or continental descent. Those who were from Africa, black people, were treated as if they were property. This was a disgusting violation of the image of God. It’s just one historic example.

If we went around the room, we probably could come up with a pretty long list of examples in American history and ways in which American society, American government, and American citizens have defiled the image of God in humans. In my opinion, in our contemporary context, the greatest and most egregious way in which we defile the image of God in our country is through the allowance of what we call abortion on demand. It is the most disgusting way we defile the image of God every day.

I’m not sure there’s a close second at this current time in our culture. Since the pandemic, the average number of abortions in America has been close to 1.1 million babies every year. In the time that we’ve been here, from the time of the welcome to this moment right now, in our country, approximately 130 babies have been killed in the womb.

In most cases, this is sanctioned and in some cases even funded by the American government. We should be heartbroken by this. This should make us sad, and it should inspire us to pray. We should pray every day that God would stop the horror that we call abortion on demand, elective abortions in this country. It should make you angry. If it doesn’t make you angry, you’re not responding appropriately because it makes God angry. We should respond the way God responds. God is angry when 130 babies are slaughtered every hour in our country.

Now, in a room this size, statistically speaking, there’s probably one or two people in this room who have either had an abortion or fathered a child that was aborted. If that’s you, I want to just speak to you for a moment. If there’s anyone in this room who falls in that category, I want you to know this: that while you desecrated the image of God in human life, there is forgiveness, there is grace, that God is merciful and kind.

There are people in the Bible who took human life. Moses killed a man, but still found God’s grace and mercy. The apostle Paul killed many people and found God’s grace and mercy. King David conspired to have a man killed and found God’s kindness and mercy. There are these stories in scripture that are evidence of God’s grace and mercy to you. If that’s you this morning, I want you to know that God’s grace and mercy are available to you. He can wipe clean the stain of sin, and you can experience his grace and kindness.

Earlier, we sang a song with the lyrics, magnificent, marvelous, matchless love. That’s the kind of love that God has for us. It’s magnificent, it’s marvelous, and it is unmatched. It’s extended to you this morning. Church, your sin is great. Your Savior is greater. Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more.

 

What The Bible Says About An Unborn Person

Now, I’ve been asked multiple times how we know that people in the womb should be treated like people. Obviously, we shouldn’t kill someone who’s outside of the womb. But are we sure the unborn are in the same category? I think it’s a fair question, and I want to give you what the Bible says. I could give you the biological data that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the unborn baby meets the requirements of a human life. Or I could give you the philosophical and logical arguments that show that every unborn baby meets the requirements of personhood.

I could give you the legal arguments. I could quote the Declaration of Independence, the 14th Amendment, the Federalist Papers, and American case law. I could give you strong legal arguments as to why unborn babies should be considered citizens of the United States. Considered full persons and should have their lives and civil rights protected. I could make legal arguments this morning.

However, I would prefer this morning to give you what God says. If you want to hear those other arguments, I would love to do that. I was a professor for six years. Five of those years, I taught ethics. I would sit down over lunch with students and have these conversations regularly. I would welcome and love that conversation if you would like to have the biological, philosophical, or legal arguments. But this morning, I want to give you the biblical data. What does the Bible say?

How do we know that God counts the unborn person as a person? I’m going to give you several passages of scripture. The first is Exodus 21. God is giving case law to the Jews. So he’s saying, if this situation happens, here’s how you apply my law, my wisdom. In Exodus 21, he talks about the situation. If two men are fighting and one of them accidentally strikes or hits a pregnant woman. This is what God says. Exodus 21:22 to 23. God says this:

“If there is no harm to the baby in the womb, the man who hit her shall be fined.”

He’s supposed to go to a judge, and the judge will determine what the fine will be. That man then pays it to the husband of the wife. So if a man hits a pregnant woman and the baby is unharmed, he’s fined. But verse 23 tells us:

“If there is harm to the baby, the unborn child, then he shall pay life for life.”

God says, if you strike a pregnant woman and the life inside of her dies, we should execute you, because that is a life, and therefore life must be paid for with life. God very clearly doesn’t equivocate here. The unborn child in the pregnant mother’s womb is a life. If that life is killed, the person who did the killing, God says that person should be executed.

In Proverbs, chapter 6, God is telling us there are seven things that he says are abominable. Things that he finds are an abomination. These are things that God hates, that God finds repulsive. Metaphorically speaking, these seven things make God want to throw up. That’s what he says in Proverbs 6. Amongst those seven things in Proverbs 6 is this:

“Hands that shed innocent blood.”

Anyone who kills an innocent person sheds innocent blood. Makes God want to throw up.
That’s harsh language from the God who loves us. But I think it’s appropriate. I’m going to quickly go through some other passages of scripture. I want you to hear how the Bible talks about unborn persons in the womb. We should talk about them this way. Jeremiah, chapter 1, verse 5. This is God speaking to the prophet Jeremiah. God says this to him:

“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations before you were even born.”

Jeremiah, I knew you, I was intimate with you, I loved you. I was already determining which combination of divine attributes was going to be indwelled in you, Jeremiah. The prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 44, verse 2, speaking to God’s people, says this:

“The Lord made you. He formed you from the womb and he will help you.”

God made us while we were in the womb. Later, Isaiah 49, verse 1 says this, this is Isaiah speaking of himself:

“The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother. He named me my name.”

In Job 31, Job says this:

“God made me in the womb. He fashions us in the womb.”

The last verse I’ll read is Psalm 139. This is King David speaking. Very famous verse. Psalm 139, verses 13 and 14. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He says this, speaking to God:

“For you formed me in my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Friends, the little people in the womb, like that little person growing in my wife’s womb right now, that little person is fearfully and wonderfully made. Not being knit together by accidents, as the reaction of chemicals bumping together. Not the result of random evolutionary processes. No, God is knitting together that child in my wife’s womb. Every little person in the womb is fearfully and wonderfully made.

See how the Bible talks about the unborn. The Bible doesn’t say things like it’s just a clump of cells. Church, we must oppose abortion on demand because it is an affront to God. It is a violation of the image of God endowed in man. Opposing and stopping abortion is a cause worthy of our time, prayer, energy, money, and resources.

There’s an organization locally here, Choices Women’s Clinics. It’s one of the more well-known women’s clinics around the country. They’ve got three locations in the Orlando area. They come alongside women who are in jeopardy or currently in a high-risk category and likely to have abortions. So we’ve committed a portion of our budget every year, which goes right to the Choices Women’s Clinic.

This year, we plan to do some service days with them. They’ve got lots of opportunities for work teams to show up on a Saturday to help them do stuff. I’ve already communicated with Choices and said, Horizon City is in. How do we help you? This year we’re going to be a part of that. I would challenge you to make that a priority when that comes on the calendar to say, yes, we’re going to help Choices because they are helping to fight this atrocity called abortion in our community.

 

Advocating For The Unborn

Now, typically, whenever the conversation of abortion comes up, immediately, people want to ask about the unique cases, the unique situations. What about women who have been violated or assaulted and become impregnated? What about the situations where the woman’s life is in danger? What do we do in those situations? I think that is a fair question and is well worthy of discussion.

We don’t have enough time this morning to tackle all of those. It is a thorough, nuanced conversation, which I am glad to have at a later time. I will simply say, there is no situation in which the baby loses its image of God. None. So even if the baby is the product of an assault of a woman who’s been violently violated, that is a horrendous, horrific situation. We should do all that we can for those perpetrators to have the full wrath of the law come down on them. That baby is still made in the image of God, deserving of respect and dignity. And the situation doesn’t undo that.

Here’s what people in our country want you to do. They want you to go, there are these rare situations, and therefore we need to have abortion, totally legal, to make sure this situation can be taken care of. Like the woman in New York who has been violated and is now pregnant and is dealing with this horrific situation, and her family is trying to figure that out. Because that exists, that means that tens of millions of pregnant women across the country should have the right to end the life of their unborn children. On face value, that’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s evil and wicked.

Like the woman in Minnesota who’s pregnant and her pregnancy is putting her life at risk. That means that every woman in California should be allowed to kill her child. On its face, it’s absolutely absurd. You should call it out when you hear it. In those situations, when there’s real danger to a woman’s life or there’s some other unique situation. There may be some nuanced approach, but it’s important to note that the highest estimate of all the abortions in America, of the 1.1 million abortions that happen every year over the last few years, less than 2% of them fall into any of those categories.

Less than 2%, that’s the highest estimation. Some estimations say it’s less than 1%, which means 98 to 99% of all the abortions in America are just someone doesn’t want to have the kid, and they want to use the 1% as an excuse to kill their kid. Sometimes women have abortions because they’re evil. We’ve seen online the shout your abortion movement. Disgusting, vile, wicked. Other times, women have abortions because they feel like they have no other options. They feel trapped.

They’re impoverished, they live in a poor community or high crime, or they’re a single mom and they feel love and they’re sad, they’re heartbroken, and they don’t want to do it. But they feel like they have no options. So we don’t want to assume why a woman would have an abortion. That would be unhelpful. But we want to be kind. We should treat every person with respect and dignity.

For the women who feel like they have no options, that’s why Choices exist. That’s why we want to help organizations like Choices. We want to come alongside those women and say, No, you do have an option. I remember being a professor in class teaching on the sanctity of life. I remember telling the students every semester, if you ever find yourself in a situation, if you’re pregnant and you’re considering abortion, or you’re a young man, you fathered a child, you got a girl pregnant. Do not abort that child.

This goes for the women in this room as well. Malaina and I will adopt your child. We will cover the cost. I made that offer every semester for five years when I was a professor. Maybe one day someone will take me up on it, and I’ll have to put my money where my mouth is. I make that offer today. If you are in this room or if you’re reading this. If you are in a situation where you are considering abortion, Malaina and I will cover the cost, and we will adopt and take care of your child.

Lord willing, in the weeks and months to come, we want to have some equipping classes and Sunday school classes where we dive into deeper topics. I think they are helpful conversations to have. We want to give opportunities for us to connect with things like the Choices Women’s clinic. Friends, human life is valuable, sacred. So we’re dealing with things like IVF or embryonic stem cell research or genetic splicing, or whatever new robotic thing Elon Musk comes out with next month.

We must remember that human beings are sacred, made in the image of God. God takes it personally when we attack. God says he takes it personally when we speak badly about someone. What do you think he feels when we slaughter 1.1 million babies across our country every year?

 

Conclusion: Valuable And Made In The Image Of God

Last thought for this morning is this: I mentioned that chattel slavery was the original gross defiling of the image of God in our country. Today, it’s abortion on demand. These are, in my opinion, these are the two most egregious examples in American history of the violation, the defiling of the image of God in humanity in our country, sanctioned and funded by the American government. You know what the crazy thing is?

The idea at the heart of the ideology defending these two egregious things is actually identical. Think about it. In the 19th century, white slave owners were looking at black people, saying, black man, you don’t count as a real person, so I can do whatever I want to you. The pro abortion person today is saying to the babies, Hey, unborn, you don’t count as a real person, so I can do whatever I want to you.

Pro abortion people today are literally making the exact same arguments that slave owners made in the 1800s. To be pro-abortion today is to be equivalent to being a slave owner in the 1800s. People will be very offended if you say that in public, but it is true. It’s the exact same argument. Black person, I can do whatever I want to you because you’re not a real person. Unborn baby, I can do whatever I want to you because you’re not a real person.

At the core of these two grotesque institutions is a devaluation of personhood. You know what’s crazy, you know what’s wild in a good way? It’s the exact opposite of the gospel. The white slave owners say to the black person, You don’t count as a real person, so I can exploit you, I can abuse you. Jesus says, You do count as a real person, made in my Father’s image. So I’m going to allow you to exploit and abuse me for your good.

The pro abortion advocates will say to the unborn babies, You don’t count as a real person, so I can kill you so I can have freedom. Jesus says, You do count as a real person, so I will let you kill me so that you can experience freedom. Jesus says, you count as a real person. You are valuable, you are made in the image of God. So I will allow you to inconvenience me, to abuse me, to exploit me, so that you can experience the love and goodness of our Father in heaven.

The ideology at the heart of slavery and the ideology at the heart of abortion on the man is identical, and it is the opposite of what Christ did for us. Christ intervened in the human story.
The Son of God became a man, took on humanity, and died in our place. He died a brutal death at the hands of humans. It is through his death that we overcome death, sin, and the grave. He laid down his life so that we could experience true freedom. As he reconnects us to the love of God, he transforms us and begins to repair the image of God that has been tarnished, that has been blemished, slowly becoming cleaner and stronger and more vibrant.

In fact, in Romans chapter 8, the apostle Paul tells us that’s our predetermined destination. The final destination for people who love Jesus is to be molded into the image of his son. The image of God that was tarnished because of sin was repaired through Christ. Unblemished, being molded because of what he has done for us. He is cleansing us, healing us, repairing us, and allowing us to slowly become more and more like the good, beautiful humans that we were created to be. All of this is possible because of the work of Christ. What Christ did at the cross, what he did on our behalf.

 

Communion

That’s why we take communion every single week. Every single week, we take communion to pause and to remember what Christ did on our behalf. To remember that Christ laid down his life, that he did the opposite of what evil people in our society are doing. He welcomes us, he beckons us, and he says, In me you will find your rest. In just a moment, we’re going to pass the baskets.

Those of you who’ve never worshipped with us, we have two options. One cup is grape juice and gluten-free bread. Then there’s a little mini chalice with a W on it. When the basket comes, grab whichever one is your preference. Hold on to it. I’ll come back and I’ll lead us, and together we’ll remember who Christ is and what he has done on our behalf.