1. Title: The Appraisal of Human Life
2. Text: Genesis 1:26-28; 2:7-9; 9:5-6
3. Audience: Villa Heights Christian Church, AM worship crowd, January 15, 2006, first of 8 in the series “A Clear and Present Danger”
4. Type: topical
5. Objectives:
For the people to understand the intrinsic value of human life and how that should direct our thinking in multiple life issues
For the people to feel more authoritative when it comes to human life issues and to feel the need to value and protect all human life
For the people to allow biblical understanding to guide their attitudes, conversations, and actions in regards to human life related issues
6. Dominant Thought: Understanding the distinctiveness of human life provides a right and useful approach to issues involving the value of human life
7. When I’m finished with my sermon, I want my audience to take a biblical worldview into their thinking about human life issues, particularly into the “quality of life” subjects that are all too commonly brought up in the context of the “pro-choice” arguments
8. Outline:
Intro: There’s a movie based on Tom Clancey’s book, Clear and Present Danger. In one early scene, the President of the US is wrestling with a choice of what to do about an attack against so US citizens on the sea. He confers with one of his cabinet members about his options. It’s nothing he can start a war over, but can he do something? So he asks rather directly, “Do these drug dealers present a clear and present danger to the security of the US?”
The phrase is an important one. For the President, it means the difference between the legal and moral right to take action and not being able to. He has to have a defensible reason for sending deadly force against an enemy. The criteria? Does this person or group pose a clear and present danger to the security of the US? Is there a threat, and can it be proven to exist? Is it present; is it clear?
Right now, our country is engaged in a war against terror. There’s a lot of chatter over this issue. It makes me want to apply this criteria: Is there a danger present? September 11, 2001 pretty well settled that issue. Maybe it’s just not clear…
Since that day, the leaders of al-Qaeda have become the most wanted of international criminals. Their stated goal is to destroy us and our way of life. They are willing to kill themselves to help the cause. They are present, and though it may not be clear where, they’re a real danger, and we need to take them seriously.
There’s another whole set of dangers, very present, not always so clear, that are threatening us and our way of life, and we need to take them seriously. I believe part of what makes them so dangerous is that their presence isn’t so clear. So, what I want to do for the next 9 weeks is pull back the cover on several of these very real dangers that are threatening our generation. God has a lot to show us about these threats, and for us to be ready for their attack, we need to understand their presence is real.
Today is being recognized as Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. To fit in with that important day, I want to speak this morning about one of the great threats in our day – that’s the valuation of human life.
I have heard the term “quality of life” tossed around a lot in the past couple of years. Think about that for a minute…”quality of life.”
Usually, that’s a code phrase for “life worth living,” or another way of saying “we may need to decide when you die.”
Whenever you go to make a major home loan, or maybe when you want to refinance a mortgage, you’ll need to have your house appraised. That means, an appraiser comes and looks at it, takes measurements, looks around, applies some standards, and then decides what your house is worth. An appraisal. If your home is worth enough, we’ll finance your loan. If your home is worth enough, the amount you already own is enough for you to borrow more money, or to qualify for a better interest rate. So, an appraiser is someone who applies some standards, looks over your home’s condition, and decides if you deserve a good loan or not. When that same approach is applied to the value of human life, it’s a threat – a clear and present danger.
Hitler wrote in his book Mein Kempf: “Those who are physically and mentally unhealthy and unworthy must not perpetuate their suffering in the body of their children." Once he got it put into law early on, several groups of German citizens were slated to be sterilized.
By August, 1938, Hitler’s chancellory issues a statement saying children up to age 3 who are retarded or deformed must be registered by midwives or physicians. 3 physicians decide the life or death of the child without examining them. At over 30 special clinics, selected children are killed by injection and starvation. Later, the age is extended to 17. Then, it’s applied to the elderly and to all mental patients and criminals. The plunge down the slippery slope is what will become known as the Holocaust – the death of somewhere over 12 million people in the name of eugenics, creating the super race. Their life, when appraised, just wasn’t of “a high enough quality.”
God gives a different standard about the quality of life that doesn’t depend on physical wholeness, in fact Jesus said,
Matthew 5:29-30
If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
The standard with which God measures the quality of life is a different standard than what we’re hearing about today. So, with what standard are we to “appraise” human life? I want to argue that human life isn’t supposed to be appraised at all by human standards. The danger is that the appraisal of human life is going on all around us.
From the very beginning, God has told us enough about human life that we can know it’s worth is beyond appraisal. We’ll go back to its very beginning to see why that’s true…
1. Human Life is Distinct
I love biology and I love to see shows about nature. Science is simply the discipline of discovering what God has created, and one thing’s for sure: this planet is full of life. Inside the mattress of a typical bed are somewhere from 100,000 to 10 mil. of little creatures that look like this: (dust mites). Sleep well tonight.
Then, there’s there are these tiny little plants, at the bottom of the food chain, called Phytoplankton. They have chlorophyll, and they affect the carbon cycle in the ocean. Although they’re microscopic, scientists can actually measure the presence of phytoplankton by satellite. Think about it, a mass of microscopic creatures so huge in number that they show up from outer space! This earth is full of life. There are somewhere around 5 mil species of insects on the earth. Most of them aren’t discovered and named yet. And here we humans are, just another species in that big mix. Why spotlight human life?
Because, from the beginning, it’s clear that human life is distinct.
1. The image and likeness of God
It’s after everything else is made that God says, “Let’s make something different. Let’s make something after our image and likeness.”
Genesis 1:26-27
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…" So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Does this mean that God has 2 hands and a nose? Does this mean God has ears, and that when He gets older, hair starts to grow out of them?
I don’t think so. Otherwise, you might say that chimpanzees are also made in the image of God. God is spirit. We’re making a mistake when we try to define God in terms of human image. We shadow Him. We’re following a pattern that begins with Him, not the other way around. We’re unlike the rest of creation because we have volition – we’re able to approach decisions with a realization of right and wrong. God has placed “eternity in the hearts of men,” not animals.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men…
God doesn’t speak about the souls of animals. I know, I may get into some trouble with some pet lovers out there, but it was for the souls of people that Jesus came to earth, not animals. Paul tells the Thessalonians,
1 Thessalonians 5:23b …May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, when a cheetah hunts down a gazelle on the Serengeti, we videotape it and make a documentary out of it. That kind of thing happens every day billions of times in creation. But when someone dies in a car bombing overseas, we at least pause and care. Even though it may be happening every day, it matters much more. We’re not just another animal in the mix of it all. Man is distinct because we’re made in the image of God.
2. A limited edition
If you have a work of art that’s a reprint, it may have a number on it, like #200 of 1,000. That’s because it’s a limited edition – only so many prints are made. Limited editions are worth more. If everyone has one, they’re not as valuable. But if there aren’t many, that changes things.
There were only 51 Tuckers ever built. That’s a large part of what makes them valuable. There were only around 150-200 Gutenburg Bibles printed on the world’s first moveable type printing press. If you have a Gutenburg Bible, you might want to hang on to it.
I notice, as God is creating the animals and plants, He makes a lot of them. The waters “teem” with living creatures. But when He makes man, there’s only one. When He makes Eve, there’s only one. And Adam truly could sing, “You’re Every Woman In The World To Me”!
It’s OK that a plankton eats a phytoplankton. There’s a lot of them. It’s OK that krill eat a bunch of plankton. There’s lots of them. And it’s OK that a whale scoops up a huge mouthful of krill – there’s a lot of them. But when it comes to mankind, he’s a limited edition. Just that should tell us something about the value of human life. You and I have an ancestry that goes back one man named Adam. When scientists mapped the human genome recently, they were mapping the outcome of generations that descended from one man and one woman.
3. The breath of God
Picture the scene at creation. God takes the dust of the earth. It’s the first account of play dough in the Bible. And God forms man out of it. He looks so real! Only, there’s something missing. So far he’s just well-shaped dirt. Maybe a bath or shower would help. It’s not until…
Genesis 2:7
the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
God saved His very breath for man. We’re not told He did that with the rest of creation. Only man.
Human life is distinct. Do you hear that? We’re not just another species. It’s sad when animal life is pointlessly lost. But it’s another situation entirely when human life is lost. It’s one thing to treat animals unethically, but it’s an entirely different situation to treat human life casually. Regardless of what PETA keeps telling you, the way chickens and pigs are treated now does not bear comparing to the Holocaust. We’re more important than chickens. We’re of greater importance than endangered apes or owls or shellfish. If we’re going to appraise human life, it’s going to come out much higher than animal life.
2. Human Life Has Direction
There are certain parts of creation whose only purpose seems to be eaten by something else. That doesn’t seem like a very meaningful existence. When God set man in the Garden of Eden, it was with a sense of purpose – a high purpose.
Genesis 1:28
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Now, let’s take those directions – God’s first orders to mankind – and let’s see if they say anything about the value of human life in creation.
1. Multiply
Now, this isn’t unique to man. God told the fish to do the same thing. Fill the earth. This may not distinguish us from the animals much. It is interesting though, how we seem to fight it. We worry about overpopulation. God doesn’t ever mention that as an issue. He just gives His first directive to man: be fruitful. I guess God does care about numbers after all.
2. Subdue and Rule the Earth
If you look at 2:19-20, you’ll find Adam working at his first job as a man. So here’s the oldest profession in history: taxonomy. God brings him the animals to name them. That’s usually an indicator of who’s supposed to be in charge of whom. Parents name their children. Owners name their businesses. Authors name their books. And God gave to Adam the privilege of naming the animals. It tells us something about God’s plans for man. He planned for man to be something more than the animals. He planned for man to rule over the animals.
The second job was gardening.
Genesis 2:15
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
I don’t find God giving a job to any of the rest of creation. When the beavers got up in the morning, they couldn’t look at each other and say, “We ought to build a dam. That’s what we’re supposed to do. It’s our job.” But to the man, God gave purpose, a job, a directive.
As history unfolds, we find that the purpose for man is even much greater than keeping a garden. We read that God has prepared good works for us to walk in, and that He has created us to live forever with Him. To which of the animals did God ever say, “I’m counting on You to work for Me, and one day you’ll live with me forever.”? Human life has direction that’s not found in the rest of creation.
3. Human Life is Divinely Administered
Genesis 9:5-6
And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.
1. Conception is co-creation with God
There are a lot of ways we “play God” in this world. The conception of human life is one of them. In so many ways we act like we’re in charge of that realm. We’re not. No wonder there’s so much controversy over the subject of cloning and genetic manipulation. At some point, we need to stop trying to replace God in all this. It may be that the physical union is human-caused, but it’s always God Who creates the soul. When women of the Bible were enabled to conceive, the credit was given to God. When children were born to parents, as early as Eve, they would say, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." The moment we begin to treat birth and the creation of new human souls like just another branch of biology or medicine, we’ve forgotten that human life is divinely administered, not humanly engineered.
Now, let’s go another step with this fact:
2. Taking human life is in God’s hands too
How can the people who are so pro-life also be so in favor of capital punishment? Those just don’t sound compatible. I want to tell you, that the reason we have for protecting innocent, unborn children, and old, failing seniors, and homeless people on the street in Florida is the same reason we have for supporting the death penalty for those who kill innocent human life: a high regard for human life and the One Who owns it. Human life belongs to God. It’s created by Him and in His image and for Him. If we could just get this fact straight – that human life belongs to God – it would answer all sorts of questions that we’re hearing every day being wrangled about in the news. He’s the One Who has declared that it’s valuable. And He is the One Who has the right to declare when it begins or ends.
Conclusion:
This is a big subject. There’s no way we can cover enough of it in such a short time, but I do want to draw some important conclusions before we’re out of here…
1. If you’re human, you’re valuable. Always.
Before we start saying anything about “quality of life,” we need to go back to this fact. There’s no need to start appraising someone’s life. God has already declared it to be more valuable than the rest of creation. God gave His Son for anyone who will accept Him as Lord. That makes you valuable.
2. Co-creation of human life is a sacred privilege.
We stain it. We misuse it. So we end up treating it like it’s the thing we need to avoid. Our country legalizes an industry that destroys it. We forget what an incredible privilege it is to be involved with God in the creation of eternal souls. We need to teach and live the fact that it’s a sacred privilege.
3. Crimes against human life are among the very worst and deserve death.
Just as soon as man is no longer the part of creation created in the image of God, then we can start to say that the death penalty shouldn’t be applied in the justice system. Otherwise, I’ll keep looking back at Gen. 9:5-6 - “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.”
Sure, I want for everyone to leave here this morning with a more biblical approach to human life issues. I want for you to be a voice of wisdom in the middle of conversations in the classroom and the locker room and the hair salon and the coffee shop. But more importantly, I want for every person who leaves here to understand that God values you more than any other part of creation – enough to buy you back, even though you ran away from Him…
