The Sanctity of Life

by Marlene Panell

All life is precious to the Lord!

From the very beginning, God has declared that He created man, and that what He created was good. Adam was made in God’s image. Ever since then, every child who is placed inside of a womb, has been created in God’s image.

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:26-31)

Before God created man, He knew each person who was going to be born, what they were going to do with their life, how they would live, and what they would do with His Son, Jesus. “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth.” (Proverbs 8:22, 23)

Just as God formed Adam, so He forms each and every person who has or will ever be born. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)

He also carefully made Eve. “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:21, 22)

In the same way, God has made each person who has ever been conceived!! “Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you…” (Isaiah 44:2a)

“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;” (Isaiah 44:24)

“Your hands have made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.” (Psalm 119:73)

“Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity; Yet You would destroy me.” (Job 10:8)

“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. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” (Psalm 139 13 – 16)

God has a plan for each life He has created. Since He is the Creator, it is His right to also determine what we should do with our lives!

“Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me?” Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?” (Isaiah 19:16)

“Then the word of the Lord came to me (Jeremiah), saying: ‘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.'” (Jeremiah 1: 5, 6)

“Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” (Romans 9:21)

Can you imagine a woman who is knitting a sweater, and the yarn all of a sudden says to her, “But I don’t want to be a sweater, I want to be a blanket!” Or what if a carpenter were making a desk, and the wood declared, “I don’t want to be a desk, I want to be a chair.” Would we not think this a little strange? How much more strange must we sometimes appear to God when we tell Him what we will be or do!!

God is our Creator, and He is the One who plans our life. Paul speaking says, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood…” (Galatians 1:15, 16)

“And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

“Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord.”Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!” (Jeremiah 18:4 – 6)

“As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything.” (Ecclesiastes 11:5)

We do not have the right to take a life. Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) ordered the Egyptian midwives to kill (perform partial-birth abortions) the male children born to the Jews. These ladies refused to follow Pharaoh’s command. God blessed them as a result.

“Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; and he said, ‘When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.’

“But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, ‘Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?’

“And the midwives said to Pharaoh, ‘Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.’

“Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.” (Exodus 1:15 – 21)

David was in a position to kill King Saul, who was seeking his life, but David would not kill him, nor would he allow anyone else to kill him. “But David said to Abishai, ‘Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless?’ (1 Samuel 26:9)

God knows when we will be born, and when we will die. I remember when I suspected I was expecting our third child. I went to see the Doctor. His first question to me, after it was confirmed that I was pregnant was, “Do you want to keep it?” I was so shocked! This was over 30 years ago when abortions were not so prevalent. I told the Doctor that of course I was going to keep the baby. God is the One who placed that child within me, and God was the only One Who had the right to remove that child. I went out and promptly found a different Doctor.

There has never been a minute when I regretted my decision to keep the baby God had given to me, nor switching Doctors! It was our daughter, that third child who wrote the poem on the website called, God’s Creation. Not only has she been a blessing to us, but she also has given us two of our six wonderful granddaughters!

“Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.

“Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them. And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.” (Psalm 39: 4 – 7)

“A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)

God knows everything about us. When we sin, we may think we have gotten away with it, if no one catches us, but God sees everything we do. We cannot hide from Him!

“O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.

“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

“If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

“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. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139: 1 – 17)

God loves us and wants to forgive us. Before God created Adam and Eve, He knew that they were going to sin. He knew this sin nature would be passed onto each person, beginning with conception.

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) Some people mistakenly think this verse is saying that the act of sex is a sin. God’s Word is clear that sex between a married couple is not sin. What this verse is talking about is the sin nature (inherited from Adam and Eve) that is passed down to every child at the moment of conception.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

“They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.” (Psalm 14:3)

God is Holy, and sin cannot be in His presence. “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14)

God knew that the only way to forgive sin was through the shedding of blood. “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22)

He loved us so much that before the world began, He planned that His only Son would come and die for our sins. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16, 17)

We deserve to suffer eternally for our sin, but God wants to give us LIFE! “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

There is nothing we can do to earn this life, we will never be good enough! “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:6)

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8, 9)

All you need to do to get a gift someone has offered you, is to receive it. What you feel like if you went to someone’s birthday party or wedding with a gift in your hands, and when you tried to give it to the person, they tried to think of different ways they could earn the gift?

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12)

All you need to do is to admit to God that you are a sinner, recognize that God’s Son, Jesus died for your sin, ask Him to take away your sin, and then thank Him for His forgiveness! Sounds easy, but Satan will fight you all the way! He does not want you to become a child of God.

Satan will try to keep you from living for God. That’s why you need to find a good Bible believing church to attend regularly, read your Bible daily, and constantly be in prayer to God. Your closest friends need to be people who will draw you to God and not away from Him.

by Marlene Panell

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