The Sacredness of Life

Planned by infinite intelligence, fashioned with unequalled creative skill, and marked by the Almighty’s personal touch, man came into existence – the most perfect and the most loved creature in all the expansive physical universe. Fragile as he was in the dust of his constitution, he was endued with an immortal soul, for it was with His own divine breath that the Creator animated that common clay. And it was a part of Himself whom God called Adam and placed into the world to rule over it and to keep it. No wonder God was not content to create man with a word, but invested the personal time to form and shape him with His fingers. Adam was no mere animal, creature though he was. He ruled the animals. He walked and talked with God.

How different is this story from the narrative false science would have us to believe! They teach us that we came about by chance. They say we were an accident. Some molecules happened upon each other in a muddy sort of bog, and with no planning at all and no method at all, they managed to ooze into life. Without any rhyme or reason, that life reproduced; and it amazed itself over time by taking on complex forms. Arms and legs and tails appeared and disappeared; until at last that accident, which we call man, emerged. How or why or to what purpose no one can tell.

That such an evolutionary and humanistic philosophy behind the existence of man would produce far-reaching and chaotic results is little wonder. Racism, abortion, and suicide are a few examples of the self-destructive and abusive behaviours that permeate a society who has lost sight of the fact that we were created in God’s image. If a man believes that his great-grandparent was a molecule of slime, he loses respect for himself, fears no accountability for his behaviour, and has no reason for not destroying himself. He loses respect for humanity and sees no cruelty in marginalizing, brutalizing, or even killing his fellow slime. If, on the other hand, a man recognizes the divine fingerprints that mark him a son and a creation of God, he is forced to behave with dignity both to himself and to his fellow humans.

Life, we know, is sacred. As the creation of God, each human is a being of inestimable worth. Long before a child is born, he has been designed and valued by God. The miracle of development that happens within his mother’s womb is a complex, far-from-random process. Within about three weeks after conception, a child’s heart is ready to begin its rhythmic beating. The complex organs of the brain, the lungs, and the liver form and begin to function within a matter of weeks. Taste buds are fully formed around three months after conception. Long before he enters the world, a baby can hear sounds and feel pain. He is not a mere part of his mother’s body; he is God’s property. He has within him a living soul, given by God Himself. To harm him is a crime against God.

After God Almighty has so lovingly and purposefully designed each person who enters the world, what distorted thinking could possess another human being to take upon himself the opinion that this one or that one is not fit to live? Who gets to judge what is fit and what is not fit? Who gets to decide who is a benefit and who is an inconvenience to society? Whose word determines what “race” or what set of features ought to be propagated and what ought to be suppressed? What must I do to qualify as not too weak or too handicapped to be allowed a chance at life? It is sobering to live in a society that feels it has a right to evaluate you as either beneficial or not beneficial to the world, and to eliminate you or your offspring on the basis of its own criteria.

By the same reasoning, we see the wickedness of suicide and euthanasia. Whether a person lives or dies is God’s prerogative, not man’s choice. To cut a life short is to rob God of the glory He wanted to get through that life. It attempts to take the place of God in being the judge of what that life is worth. People forget that we are different from dogs or cats which cease conscious existence at death. Instead, we have an immortal soul which will live on somewhere else – and tragically for the sinner, not somewhere better. It is Satan who drives precious men and women to devalue their lives to the point where they seek to escape human existence. Could they but realize, through their pain, God’s infinite love toward them personally and His power to bring beauty to any life surrendered to Him, no matter how broken or destroyed; they could not turn to self-destruction.

As we face a troubled world that has largely lost touch with its Creator, may God help us with His love to pierce through this climate of coldness and abuse. No human exists who is not supremely valued. Each life was planned. Each person exhibits the handiwork of an infinitely loving, and at the same time, never-mistaken, Engineer.

Life is sacred – only God can give it, and only God has the right to take it away.