What Makes Abortion Plausible? What Makes Abortion Unthinkable? Part Six
The following is an edited transcript of a message preached by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. for "Sanctity of Human Life Sunday" on January 18, 2009. Today's installment is the sixth and final part in the six-part series.
The Gospel tells us that we are sinners beyond even our own imagination to understand our sin. But even though we rob God of His glory, even though we do everything we can and everything within our power to do new ways of doing evil, even though - "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" - God loved us so much! It was His purpose in the very beginning before we ever existed. He knew us and He loved us. Before we were formed in the world He had a plan for us, and He sent His Son to die on the Cross, to shed His blood, to pay the penalty for our sin, to pay a price that we could not pay, to die in our place, and yes, by that one death, to accomplish salvation for sinners.
And there comes the promise that if we trust Jesus, if we come to know Christ as Lord and Savior, if we believe in Him, then we are justified by faith. Indeed, we are made new creatures in Christ, the old things are passed away and behold all things are become new. The dead have become the living.
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You see, it would be absolutely unchristian to talk about abortion as if the last word is death. We can talk about abortion because we are the people who know that the last word is life. We are the people who know that in the great story of what God is doing, there is a reckoning that is coming. There is no safety for anyone - abortionists, a woman who has an abortion, a doctor who participates in abortion, murderers, adulterers, liars, robbers, children who are disobedient to parents - you know the Bible's catalog. We are all there, and we are all nailed.
But that isn't the last word. The last word is that that sin was nailed to a Cross. And the last word is life because we know that history is hurtling towards an end, an end that includes a reckoning with no safety for those who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior. But for those who come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we experience the forgiveness of sins.
And in the forgiveness of sins, so far as God the Father is concerned, they are wiped away. Will we remember that we are sinners? Yes, because as we wait for the perfect which is yet to come - as we wait for God to bring all things to completion - we see the consequences of sin still in our lives. Will we remember things that we have done? Yes, we will. But, what should that memory lead us to do if we are believers in Christ? If we have come to know new life in Christ, and we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, then the memory of that sin leads us to love the Savior all the more.
Abortion is an issue that must sear the national conscience. Abortion is an issue that is so real and relevant that right now - right now - there are babies being terminated in wombs. Abortion is such a crucial issue for us, however, because as Christians we know that it is a Gospel issue. And we know that right now it is not just a baby that is being terminated, it is not just a pregnancy that is being ended - it is a life that is known by God before God made it in the womb. It is a life that is being destroyed.
And brothers and sisters, as much as that must motivate us to action, as much as that must simply sear our conscience into a state whereby we cannot be satisfied until this scourge is brought to an end - as much as it is all those things, it is also that which drives us back to the Cross, to the Gospel, and back to the realization that the only one who can bring life out of death is the one who is the author of life from the first.
Let us pray: Our Father, we are so thankful for Your Word, we are thankful for this word from Jeremiah as you spoke to Jeremiah, we are thankful for this Word from David as you spoke to David, we are thankful that as we come to this issue we come not as those who are groping for some kind of insight, but as those who have heard your Word.
Father, we pray that you will speak, through us, to a nation, and we pray this day to see the horrible atrocity of legalized abortion ended in this nation.
Father, we pray that you will strengthen all who are in this task, and bring all of us into this task.
Father, we pray especially that if there be anyone here this morning who does not know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, may they come to understand, that when we talk about the sanctity of human life, we are talking about a Gospel issue. And may they be drawn to the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and come to know what it means to be saved by the blood of the Lamb, to trust Christ as Savior and Lord, this day.
Father, may your people rejoice not because we know merely that every single human life has dignity, but because we understand that every single human life is sacred, because every single human life is yours.
And to You alone, in Christ's name we pray, Amen.
