Happy New Year / #Life!

Posted on January 1, 2021 Updated on January 1, 2021

I am busily reading R.C. Sproul’s, Truths We Confess, his exposition on the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646). This book lays out a large amount of orthodox Christian theology and really is a great theology lesson wrapped up in one book. I am not a Presbyterian per se (which is the most common adoption of the WCF in the reformed family), but I am enjoying this reading a lot and learning so much.

In Chapter 19 on the Law of God, there is a powerful declaration on the sanctity if life. It reads like this:

“The sanctity of life is not a Christian issue; it is a human issue. It is rooted and grounded not in the law of the New Testament or in the law of Mount Sinai but in creation, in the creation ordinances” (page 414).

As the year has ended and the new one has started, we asses the old, think about time, and maybe make some plans for the new. These plans do not have to be ‘resolutions.’ Of course not. But these markers in time encourage us to evaluate and ‘number our days.’ (Psalm 90:12). Our lives are fleeting – and yet we know that life is precious. We know this inherently. Life is precious because of the very fact that we have been created by God.

“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).

This simple statement in the Scriptures gives us the reason for the sanctity of life. This statement also reveals the creation order in that there are males and females and that, by implication (Mark 10:7), life is propagated by the very union only possible when males and females unite (which should be in marriage, but is all too often not). God is a God of life and God’s law is a law that facilitates life. Needless to say, this verse also declares that all humans are male or female, there is no other category. And if each human is created in the image of God (Imago Dei), we can also be comfortable in saying that abortion is wrong. With that verse, we can actually justify WHY there is sanctity to life.

I pray that despite whatever struggles and challenges we find ourselves in in 2021, that we come to fully realize that life is precious and that in order to fully accept that, we must first honor the Creator from our hearts!

References:

New American Standard Bible (NASB) 1995 Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.

Sproul, R.C. 2019. Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith. Revised Edition. Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, a division of Ligonier Ministries.