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Key Scripture Passages Relating to the Sanctity of Human Life

  1. Creation: The Sanctity of Human Life Is Established
    1. God is the source and summary of life.
      1. As the living God, He is eternal life.
      2. His people are sustained by His life - Josh. 3:10; I Sam. 17:26, 36; 11 Kings 19:4,16.
    2. God is the Giver of life.
      1. God created sub-human life - Gen. 1:11­13, 20­25.
      2. God created human life in His image - Gen. 1:1, 26­28; 2:7; 5:1­3; 25:21;33:5;Job 10:8­12; 33:4; Ps. 127:3. This means we were created to know God and to resemble Him as our Heavenly Father. To this end we have been endowed with moral and spiritual capacities and creativity and aesthetic sensitivities. This image is not limited to some part of our being, but what we are in our totality, including our physical lives (I Cor. 6:19). As humans, our value or worth is not based on what we do, but on who we are before God.
  2. The Fall: The Sanctity of Human Life Denied
    1. Even before the giving of the Law, murder was considered the most heinous of crimes - Gen. 4:8­16; 9:4­6. Violence and evil provoke God's judgment as seen in the Flood - Gen. 6:11.
    2. God is the protector of life. The Law imposed a positive obligation on people to respect human life.
      1. Old Testament (Ex. 20:13). The Sixth Commandment ("Thou shalt not murder") is not merely a prohibition of murder, but is also a positive injunction to respect all of human life.
      2. New Testament (Matt. 5:21 ­26). This passage reveals that not only should we do no physical harm to our neighbors, but even violent thoughts and emotions are prohibited. The prohibition of murder is repeated and intensified in the New Testament - Matt. 15:19; 19:17­18; Rom. 1:29; Rev. 22:15. The NT conjoins the injunction to love our neighbor with the concept of life, so that love is the law of life, hatred the law of death (I John 3:14-15).
  3. Redemption: The Sanctity of Human Life Restored
    1. Jesus Christ is our Life - John 1:4; 5:26; 14:6; Acts 17:25.
    2. Jesus Christ reinstalls us as His children. The language of adoption is used. Thus, God's original purpose in creating us is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. John 1:12 -13; Rom. 8:14­17; Gal. 4:4­7.
    3. Jesus Christ recreates us in His image and we come to resemble God as our Father - Eph.. 4:24; Col. 3:10.
    4. The continued sanctity of human life is due to the grace of God. Human nature, though fallen, is sacred because it continues in God's image.
      1. That there is no direct prohibition of abortion in the Old Testament indicates that it was foreign to the Jewish mind.
      2. Fertility was regarded as the most wonderful of blessings and barrenness as a most dreadful curse, not because of a patriarchal or agrarian ethic, but because it was the means whereby God gathered His people - Gen. 21:1 f.; I Sam.1:1 ­20; Ps. 127:3­5.
      3. The death of an unborn child is explicitly identified as a curse (Hos.9: 14), and live birth as a blessing (Ex. 23:26).
      4. Accidental abortion was punishable under Mosaic Law - Ex. 21 :22f.
        1. One line of interpretation construes v.22 as referring to a miscarriage. For example, the New American Standard Version translates v.22: "And if men struggle with each other other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury..." Even this does not prove the unborn child is less than human since:
          1. The passage regards even accidental destruction of fetal life as a punishable offense.
          2. That the Law does not impose the death penalty for such destruction is not surprising since accidental manslaughter never merits such a punishment-Ex. 21:13f.
          3. No penalty was exacted for the unintentional killing of a slave (Ex. 20:20f). Just as this does not establish that God regards slaves as sub­human, so the fine imposed on the accidental killing of an unborn child does not make fetal life less than human.
        2. A second line of interpretation construes v.22 as referring to a live birth. For example, the New International Version renders v.22 "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely, but there is no serious injury..." Causing premature delivery would thus be punishable by a fine, while injury either to the child or to its mother would be dealt with according to lex talinonis (eye for eye, tooth for tooth). There are several arguments for this interpretation:
          1. The Hebrew word yeled always refers to a child, never to a miscarriage. It occurs 88 times in the Old Testament and is translated in the King James Version as "child", 72 times; "boy", twice; "young man", 7 times; "son", 3 times; and "fruit", once. The Hebrew word for "miscarriage", nefel (cf., Job 3:16; Ps. 58:8; Eccl. 6:3;), is not used in this passage.
          2. The text does not specify that "injury" refers only to injury to the woman. Thus, it would appear that injury to the woman, to the prematurely born child, or to both would be punishable according to the standards set forth in v. 23.
  4. The Sanctity of Unborn Human Life.
    1. God creates and fashions life in the womb - Gen. 29:31; Job 31:15; Is. 44:2,24;49:1,5; Jer. 1:5.
    2. Conception marks the beginning of an individual's life - I Sam. 11:5; I Chron. 7:23; Luke 1:36.
    3. The unborn are treated as persons in the womb - Ps. 51:5; 58:3; Luke I :41­44; Ps. 139: 13­16 teaches that David considered God to be at work with him personally by his constant use of "1", "me", and "my."
    4. God's purpose for each is operative before birth - Is. 49: 1, Jer. 1:5 - set apart for service; Lk. 1:15 - filled with the Holy Spirit; Gal. 1:15 - consecrated.
    5. The entity in the womb is considered a baby.
      1. Luke I :41­44; 2:5 - Pregnant woman are "with child".
      2. The Greek for babe is brephos and is used interchangeably in the New Testament for a baby in Lk. 2:12,16; an infant in Luke 18:15; and a child in II Tim. 3:15. In these passages there is no distinction made between born and unborn children.
    6. It is unnatural not to love the life in one's womb - Is.. 49:15.
    7. The Incarnation demonstrates God's total identification with us, from conception to death.
      1. Unique as He was, Jesus Christ was made like us in every way - Heb. 2:17; Lk. 1:31.
      2. Jesus was a person in the womb - John 1:1,14; Lk. 41­44; 2:21.
  5. God's Truth Is the Way of Life.
    1. Obedience to God brings life - Ps. 36:9; Prov. 3:1,2; 4:22­23; 6:23;12:28; 13:14; Ezek. 33: 14­ 15.
    2. Disobedience to God brings death - Deut. 30:19­20; Rom. 8:5,7;Eph.4:18.
    3. God judges those who shed innocent blood and is not complacent towards violence - Gen. 9:6; Ex. 20:13; Num. 35:33; Prov. 24:10,12.
  6. The Sanctity of Human Life and Related Issues.
    1. The abuse of children is an abomination to God - II Kings 17:16­20; Lev. 20:1 ­5; Jer. 32:35; Amos 1:13; Jer. 7:6; 22:3,17; Ex. 23:7; Prov. 6:16­17; Gen. 9:6; Ex.20: 13; Matt. 5:19,21; 18:10; 19:18; Rom. 1 :29; Rev. 21 :8;22:15.
    2. Since only God can destroy the soul, the presence or absence of a soul has no bearing on His commandment, "Thou shall not kill" - Matt. 10:28­31.
    3. We do not have an unqualified "right" to our own bodies - 1 Cor. 6:19-­20.
    4. God has a special concern for the unfortunate, the infirm, and the deformed - Is. 45:9,10; 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Cor. 12:7­9; Eph. 2:10; 5:20. 
    5. As in all sin, God forgives those who have been involved in an abortion - l John 1:9; Rom. 6:1­2; Gal. 6:1. 
    6. Jesus Christ expects His Church to walk as He walked. He was confronted by a plethora of desperate situations, yet not once did he solve the problem by eliminating the person, or by suggesting that s/he should not have been born - Matt. 5:14; 22:36­40; 25:37-40; John 8:31-32; 10:10; Rom. 12:2; I John 2:4-6. 
  7. God's concern extends to the unfortunate, the poor, and the disenfranchised, born and unborn -Ex. 22:22-24; Deut. 27:19; Ps. 10: 17-18; 41:1-2; 72: 1-4; 140: 12; Prov. 15:25; 17:5; 19:17; - Ex. 22:22-24; Deut. 27:19; Ps. 10: 17-18; 31:8-9; Eccles. 4: 1; Ezek. 16:48-50;Lk. 6:20-25; and many more.